Reading, writing, rambling...

Sunday 27 June 2010

May (1)

Where did May go? Some of it was spent tramping a section of Hadrian's Wall, from Sycamore Gap to Vindolanda via Housesteads - a selection that highlit the Romans' dogged persistence in heading in a straight line, up hill and down dale, sinister, dexter, sinister, dexter, and building milecastles at intervals of exactly a mile, no matter how inconvenient the site. Add a strong headwind and you have quite a taxing 9 miles or so, necessitating the odd refreshment and refuelling stop in a pub. I bet the Romans - hardly any of them from Rome, but well acquainted with Spain, Germany and Romania - needed the odd winter warmer themselves. Incidentally, Bellingham, our camper van's resting place, seemed to have cornered the British population of siskins - one morning I counted 30 around a bird-feeder.