29 July 2024 Scout Scar escarpment At Helsington Church the car park was busy, for a Monday morning. Cars were parked close by on the Brigsteer Road too. With the Brigsteer Bridge closed everyone must have taken a diversion to drive here. All looked deceptively normal. What you don't see is the disabled, all who cannot take to their cars and drive. Some are not able to afford a car, others, for a range of reasons, cannot drive or choose not to. So those who most need a daily walk from their doorstep are excluded. It's discriminatory.
Being on Scout Scar. In a week that sees riots in cities across the UK I am reminded of all that Scout Scar represents. Walking from home, one simply turns one's back on the town and walks into the countryside on one's doorstep to be far from the madding crowd, seeking peace. Being a Nature Writer, I study habitat and wildlife. Being focused on conservation, I am curious to know how everyone else sees this place, what everyone seeks. If we are to protect such places, to see them flourish, we need to recognise what they are and to find consensus in respecting them, in how we use them.
This morning, speaking with local people, I realise the depth of dismay and anger we feel when, suddenly, our daily lives are impacted in a way no-one anticipated. So many of us chose to live here because we're naturalists, walkers, runners and cyclists. We thrive on being outdoors, it's who we are.
This morning, speaking with local people, I realise the depth of dismay and anger we feel when, suddenly, our daily lives are impacted in a way no-one anticipated. So many of us chose to live here because we're naturalists, walkers, runners and cyclists. We thrive on being outdoors, it's who we are.
We sit in the sun by a favourite view of mine and the cloudscape is wonderful. One of my friends worked at the Met Office and he tells of Cirrus cloud. This is the view I chose to present on the front cover of my first book About Scout Scar, heather in full bloom and the escarpment face. I knew when the heather would be at its best and I went there daily hoping for a coincidence of flowering heather, good light and an interesting cloudscape. I have known and loved this place this Millennium, I know no place more intimately. It has been, it is, my study as a Nature Writer. And this includes a focus on how we all regard this lovely place on our doorstep, what we seek in coming here, what happens when suddenly it's out of reach.
It has happened before. 2001 Concerning the Foot and Mouth Epidemic, I wrote about it in About Scout Scar. We walked the Brigsteer Road and looked with longing toward the forbidden fells.
Early in 2020 came the first Covid lockdown when we could walk only a short distance from home, socially distanced. If I thought I knew Scout Scar well I learned it even better that spring and summer when I was there every day. A time of misery. Ironically, it was the loveliest spring. I've charted that time in Covid diaries, here on this blog. Our countryside was sanctuary. We relished the freedom of the outdoors and were eager to share wildlife finds and to realise what this place means to us. Out on Scout Scar you could hear the wail of ambulances in the distance.
Then came a long phase of disruption and disturbance along the Brigsteer Road as a quiet country road became access to a building site and the landscape transformed beyond recognition. That's on-going.
12 June 2024 and the Brigsteer Bridge is closed, indefinitely. To some, this is an inconvenience. To others, it impacts severely on livelihood, on our essential way of life.
Being on Scout Scar, simply being. Out there is who I am. I shrug-off the news, the mundanities of daily life. Walking from home, the moment I set out I turn my back on the town and put all that behind me Now, that's impossible. We refuse to be diverted, walking a long route into town through busy traffic when what we have on our doorstep is fresh air and peaceful countryside. To flourish ( the word is trending apparently) we need our safe, direct and familiar route to be restored. Urgently. This is a lost spring, a lost summer --- indefinitely.
Safe and direct access to Kendal Race Course, Scout Scar and the Lake District National Park is why we choose to live here. Let's keep on protesting until that is restored to us, as a matter of urgency.
Look up the OHCHR re human rights and disability. Wikipedia also makes clear that all should have 'equitable access.' (I intended a link but deleted it with a possible 'malware' alert).
It has happened before. 2001 Concerning the Foot and Mouth Epidemic, I wrote about it in About Scout Scar. We walked the Brigsteer Road and looked with longing toward the forbidden fells.
Early in 2020 came the first Covid lockdown when we could walk only a short distance from home, socially distanced. If I thought I knew Scout Scar well I learned it even better that spring and summer when I was there every day. A time of misery. Ironically, it was the loveliest spring. I've charted that time in Covid diaries, here on this blog. Our countryside was sanctuary. We relished the freedom of the outdoors and were eager to share wildlife finds and to realise what this place means to us. Out on Scout Scar you could hear the wail of ambulances in the distance.
Then came a long phase of disruption and disturbance along the Brigsteer Road as a quiet country road became access to a building site and the landscape transformed beyond recognition. That's on-going.
12 June 2024 and the Brigsteer Bridge is closed, indefinitely. To some, this is an inconvenience. To others, it impacts severely on livelihood, on our essential way of life.
Being on Scout Scar, simply being. Out there is who I am. I shrug-off the news, the mundanities of daily life. Walking from home, the moment I set out I turn my back on the town and put all that behind me Now, that's impossible. We refuse to be diverted, walking a long route into town through busy traffic when what we have on our doorstep is fresh air and peaceful countryside. To flourish ( the word is trending apparently) we need our safe, direct and familiar route to be restored. Urgently. This is a lost spring, a lost summer --- indefinitely.
Safe and direct access to Kendal Race Course, Scout Scar and the Lake District National Park is why we choose to live here. Let's keep on protesting until that is restored to us, as a matter of urgency.
Look up the OHCHR re human rights and disability. Wikipedia also makes clear that all should have 'equitable access.' (I intended a link but deleted it with a possible 'malware' alert).
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