The clouds are hanging heavy and there's a slight mist in the air (I refuse to believe it's started raining) as I sit beside Lake Vyrnwy in mid-Wales. I started my day about an hour further south but stumbled across a rather wonderful sounding between-WWOOF-hosts possibility: a country hotel and spa that took day guests. My kind of place. After my usual fun and games on little unexpected roads with my sat nav (much like my tablet PC, I feel my sat nav should have a name. I have yet to find its name, which is slightly frustrating, but I'm sure it'll come about soon. Maybe I'll call it Bert. Who knows) I arrived here a couple of hours ago and have thoroughly heated myself through and through. Brilliant.
The hotel has a brilliant position looking down the lake (I keep wanting to call it a loch...right island, wrong country) and, in fact, from the spa it's possible to walk directly out into the fresh October air and gaze at a rather beautiful tower about half way down the lake. This tower became the object of my adventuring as soon as I saw it so having got to the point of wanting to do some doing I popped my robe back in the locker and wandered down along the lake.
Now, as it turns out, the tower (as is possibly to be expected of a large reservoir-looking-lake) is part of the mechanics of this particular body of water, the "straining tower" apparently and is the sole dominion of a certain water company I used to work for. Ho hum. Would have made a brilliant "unusual holiday cottage" and perhaps one day still will. I am curious as to whether it actually has much in the way of machinery inside (it being a rather substantial tower) but suspect that's a curiosity that won't get resolved today.
I really do feel incredibly grateful to be able to take holidays like this. I get so much from WWOOFing - the time to reflect and challenge my ideas is wonderful, as well as trying out "other possibilities" in terms of ways of doing things. The clarity I'm getting from it is wonderfully constructive (and just wonderful in its own right) and, if its possible, I have even more ideas brewing than ever (having knocked some off the list along the way - it's not all "add, add, add".
The ponderance most at the forefront of my thoughts currently is most easily summarised by the idea of our "footprint" on the earth (carbon and otherwise) - and about making the change at home but being aware of the global impact and struggles that are going on. This is certainly a ponderance which has some way to go yet, and could be a lifetime's ponderance all in its own right, but as I try out different lifestyles (albeit for very short stretches of time) I challenge what I require, as well as what I'm most comfortable with. Yes, I can live in quite extreme conditions but actually, there are a whole range of creature comforts I'm rather fond of. Getting clear on those comforts before stripping them away irreversibly seems like an imminently valuable prospect!
So thank you pllanet - and all who've played a part in my life to date. I'm in a really good spot just now and looking forward to the adventures ahead.
(Unfortunately, as it turns out from the walk back, the hotel really isn't an addition to the aesthetics of the valley at all...)
No comments:
Post a Comment