Shadows and Reflections: the annual collection of postings where Caught by the River’s contributors and friends take a look back on the events that have shaped the past twelve months. Today it’s the turn of Maxim Griffin:
January 1st – On the Blackwater with Uncle Mark – Drambuie and ale in a shed full of cobwebs and car parts
January – Easter Monday – my brother and I made our nightly march to the nursing home where The Old Man had ended up – some kind of coda –
A couple of pints of stout and the same again tomorrow – Clocks change – Fade out
April – We buried him on the hill where he and I worked.
May – Striking out hard on foot for three days across The Wolds and camping on Hoe Hill and tracing a slack handful of neolithic paths and the scene of something terrible in 1643.
A rolling and tumbling kind of walk – senses tuned to the not quite there – my friend and I taking the woods like Robin Hood – hearty little camp fires and pockets full of unlikely flints.
May – September – Zooming here and there – Trans Pennine – much time spent on the coast looking for Doggerland – Donna Nook – Horseshoe Point – pillboxes and danger signs – Psychedelic Geology
October – November – Walked the length of the Lincolnshire shore in three days – Unexpected trip to the Blackwater for battlefields, causeways and geese – started a series of drawings of the woods – planning a winter adventure and one for the spring – I’d like to spend more time looking at the Wash and there’s a man made island out there I want to camp out – we’ll see what happens
Pack stuffed with good things to eat and boots laced tight – Proceed, with ghosts, wayfairers all.