Cry For Rain

Outdoors shop, Blacks, is closing stores in the UK. Profit drops warning as sales were quoted as 6% down at the end of 2006 [Source: BBC News] The majority of stores being closed will be those trading as Millets, reports The Scotsman. People are reporting sales in such stores. Maybe that was how I got the 50% discount on the Columbia jacket and trousers two Thursdays ago.

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BBC re-showing "The Trees That Made Britain". Then the excellent "Nation on Film". Channel 4 has a programme called "Greenwash" about the statistics and 'facts' being given out. IMHO: any reasonable project that cuts down our reliance on non-renewables is worth serious consideration.

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Wind's getting up.

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Added http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/myblog.htm to my blog-roll. I think the blog is mainly Sarah Svien's work, as there's no mention of Kirk. I first heard of Sarah's book on a PracticalBackpacking Podcast (episode 3) which I had on my mobile phone at Geldie Lodge in the Cairngorms NP.

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Alan Sloman's made it to Truro.

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Gulp - got a comment from Cameron McNeish! I feel like I should be kowtowing. Wow. Having perused the magazine, I'm back at the stage of reading articles in detail. I'm at the stage of fighting intuition. My intuition just wants to roll back onto the safety of the couch and watch re-runs of Star Trek. My intuition says, rain is cold and wet, the car is warm and dry.

I like the philosophical take, but I don't know enough beyond the pop culture. I have Rousseau's "Social Contract" at work but haven't read it; and Hobbes "Leviathan" is kicking around somewhere.

I still can't get into the 'spiritual' side of things, as Cameron is oft to write about and mentions on his recent podcast. I appreciate the majesty of the surroundings, and the aeons of a geological age, or that our forefathers and fifthmothers lived and worked in these surroundings instead of just surviving. But I fail to achieve the spiritual connection. My loss, perhaps, as I've never smelt lavender in rooms in castles, or had the prickly feeling of a ghostly encounter beyond that of my own lively imagination.

Appreciate: yes. Understand: hopefully. Empathise: ditto. Stare in wonderment at how ancestors achieved such beauty or feats of endurance without power tools or motor transport: heck, yes. But to connect on some esoteric, spiritual level: I'm afraid not. My loss.