Walking into Words
As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, intrepid Dialect x Waterland Writer in Residence Jacqui Stearn circumnavigates her way to Lake 32 from Shorncote, the first of our writers since January to able to visit the lake in person during their residency month.
I finally made it over to Waterland on Saturday once I'd sorted out my car's flat battery - it hadn't moved since Christmas. I decided to walk my way into words and began a circumnavigation of Lake 32 starting at Shorncote, where a fraying notice in the porch of All Saints' Church describes William Cobbett's (Rural Rides) experience of 'flocks of goldfinches rising as he passed. Sadly no goldfinches - a lack of field thistles for them to feed on - but Spring's abundance was very present; a wayfaring tree in bud, cowslips, eider duck, little egret, chaffinch and many robins.
The OS map took me through the abandoned Cotswold Community which evoked memories of London's edgelands in the growth of buddleia, willow and blackberry over and through the buildings. Across the Spine Road I walked between Lakes 30 and 35, turned west before the Thames Path with Lake 38 on my left, balancing along the county boundary, then north beside Lake 37.
A fisherman in waders approached dragging a trolley load of gear. He warned me of the depth of water up ahead, but I balanced my way across just fine then up and over the Spine Road once more at Macks Farm. Lake 32 and Waterland were in sight.No time to linger as the weather changed to threatening skies and hail fell. An overhang for shelter, a cup of tea to warm my hands and the joyous voices of kids sustained me for the last leg of the perambulation.
I headed north beside Lake 32 once more, and back to the orchard and meadows around Shorncote, echoes of habitats lost, scraped off as 'overburden'. A poem was growing.
Jacqui Stearn is the Dialect x Waterland writer in residence throughout April, August and December 2021.
You can find her on Twitter @StearnJacqui
