Hav!

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 That's it, I've managed to find a copy of Hav by Jan Morris. In fact it was in the Westgate library but in the store so someone fetched it for me.

I'm not sure if it's the two volumes together or just one, it's only called Last letters from Hav. 

I so cannot wait to read it. And yes I've not started it.

In fact I'm scared. What if, like a date you fantasize too much about, it's going to disappoint? 

So instead, on the bus home tonight I gazed at the Ridgeway. The view was beautiful today, it had just rained and there was an immense cloud, just opening, over one part of the Ridgeway.

"The Ridgeway" by Dave_S. is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The Ridgeway, for those who don't know (don't worry I was in that category before I moved to Wantage) is the oldest road in England. It is said, perhaps, that the whole land was covered by forest and that early human would walk there, as it was more secure, And perhaps a bit more dry? 

Apparently (thank you wikipedia!) people have been walking the Ridgeway for about 5000 years, not bad for an old road!

The Ridgeway is one of the 'old ways' that Mcfarlane speaks about in his book The Old Ways though weirdly enough I don't think he speaks about the Ridgeway. Shame really. Mcfarlane's book scare me to hell, big books with lots of words I do not understand, but they are also wonderful, and yes, in one of them books, there's a glossary. (Amazing to see the difference in terms for say, boundaries between fields... and then not so amazing when you think of France and my village, and its very specific term to describe its boundaries. The term is 'trace' not 'haie' to describe a hedge. Never heard it anywhere else though I have to admit I have not spent much time walking and talking in the French countryside. Maybe it is the same, as rich as Mcfarlane's glossary?)

There are so many books about the Ridgeway... I did start reading them but I'm now a slave to time (aren't we all?) and read more about Oxford these days... I will return one day to the Ridgeway, how can you not when you see it everytime to go to Wantage? And I've even walked parts of it a few times in my getting lost in nature around my flat!)

The Ridgeway used to be a rite of passage for young English men, and perhaps women in the seventies. You had to do the Ridgeway, and it's not too long, three days? There's some comments about that, and it is so funny as well this book, The wild rover by Mike Parker  I wished I had borrowed it as well but it's in the Wantage library and it's closed now. And any way, there's something called sod's law which means any book you fancy vaguely but not pick up, is then borrowed by someone else. 

Oh well... Hav is waiting for me, if I dare to open it!

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