November 11, 2020

Literary Hitchhiking - "Dulce et Decorum est"

November 11, 2020/ Pipsticks Walks

The Poetry is in the Pity

Walking is a great way to contemplate and remember and in November each year it is ‘sweet and fitting’ to take a Literary Hitchhike with a Remembrance theme. For this Remembrance walk in the south Oxfordshire Chilterns, we have chosen as our principal literary subject one of our most celebrated Great War Poets, Wilfred Owen. Owen witnessed firsthand the harsh reality and carnage of war - his ‘poetry of witness’ is uncompromising work, steeped in pity and fury, the pen exploding with purpose as it is pushed across the paper.

January 31, 2020

Snowdrop Walks

January 31, 2020/ Pipsticks Walks

Fair Maids of February

Late January into February is the time of year when tiny humble snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis or ‘Milkflower of the snow’), symbols of hope and purity, burst in clusters of white blooms from the frozen winter soil. Some of our favourite Snowdrops walks take us to the tiny Norman church of St Botolph, by the Ridgeway National Trail at Swyncombe and famed for its snowdrops and teas!

November 10, 2019

Art and Remembrance

November 10, 2019/ Blue Tin Produce/ Pipsticks Walks

A perfect walk for Remembrance weekend. Along the way we discovered mediaeval fresco paintings, an unfinished sculpture by the renowned war artist Eric Kennington, stunning glass windows by Laurence Whistler and John Hayward, and a haunting sculpture by John Buckley. There were also our usual nature notes and other discoveries along the way, and of course some yummy refreshment at the Blue Tin Farm Shop!

September 29, 2019

Literary Hitchhiking – ‘Up on the Downs’

September 29, 2019/ Pipsticks Walks

Nobody can’t stop ‘ee. It’s a footpath right enough - Edward Thomas

There are many literary connections with the North Wessex Downs - poets and writers all united by their deep love of nature and the English countryside. We often tread the same paths walking in their footsteps and our North Wessex Downs Walking Festival walk up on the Berkshire Downs around the historic village of Aldworth was no exception.

September 12, 2019

Octavia Hill: We All Need Space

September 12, 2019/ Pipsticks Walks

We all need space; unless we have it we cannot reach that sense of quiet in which whispers of better things come to us - Octavia Hill

Octavia Hill was a remarkable woman and has to be one of my heroines. Her final resting place is Crockham Hill, Kent where I spent my childhood and went to school. Here, I learnt about her work and to understand and appreciate the wonders of our open space and countryside.