A Rambling Man Review of 2020

December is traditionally the time we look back at the year gone. Reflect on what happens.

Most years I do that with a post looking back at my walking year. Relive the walks! Reflect on the mud! Shudder with the memories of the rain!

But yeah, 2020… I don’t think I’ll bother if it’s all the same with you.

Instead I thought I’d share a few of my favourite photographs from 2020.

First the face in the rocks, taken in March. Mothers Day to be exact. It’s from an old quarry near Coombes Edge, just at the edge of the Peak District. It was still there a few weeks ago. The hole is natural, and someone chalked the face on, in case you’re concerned about such things.

From May, in Marple Recreation Ground. Not far from my house.

Later that month, as restrictions were loosened slightly, we were flying kites on Cats Tor, near the Goyt Valley, in the Peak District. This was our first big family trip out since “the event”. Big being ten miles from our house. The Goyt Valley’s a cracking place, although can be busy, which is why I took an afternoon off work when we (correctly) hoped it would be quieter.

Our family summer holiday was supposed to be in France at the end of August. But feeling sceptical we postponed it to 2021 and instead spent a week in July in the Kielder Forest instead. This turned out to be a wise move as days before we would have been travelling out, holiday travel to France was banned.

The Kielder Forest offered no beaches, and next to no baguettes. But it did offer lots of wholesome bike rides and walks in a rather beautiful part of the countryside.

On the way home we popped by Hadrian’s Wall, and boy this section near Once Brewed looks a lot nicer on a nice summers day than it did when we did it on a far gloomier spring day many years earlier!

September saw me manage to get away for a whole six days climbing Wainwrights in the Lake District! There were some great photographs from that trip. But on reflection and consideration I had to pick this one of Surprise View. This snap of Derwent Water just makes me feel happy and think of good times.

Finally, not the best photograph but more a statement of intent for 2021. In November I found out I lived near Happy Valley.

Here’s hoping that Happy Valley is filled with Happy People next year.