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Yay to the waves, Luisa, and to keeping them on your right!

What I loved most about a walk last summer was that I couldn't get lost for exactly that reason (although in my case the sea was on the other side!). https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/15-just-keep-the-sea-on-your-left

Ooooh, fields of cows - to be honest I prefer to encounter farm animals on my walks than, say, dogs - but walking through a whole field of them can be daunting.

Enjoy the walk - the South West Coast Path is on my wish list for one day!

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I love the sound of a 'mindful stage'! I'm still only halfway along the SDW (which in its entirety is less than a sixth of the distance of the SWCP!) and I'm doing that in bits. The second half (I'm going west to east) is very easily commutable from home, so that means a series of day hikes with my own bed to sleep in each night.

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Your guilt is misplaced, Luisa! A day's walking - or even an hour, or less - counts as a standalone accomplishment in its own right!

YAY to Land's End!

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I did laugh!

Well written!

(PS: I've been known to take pics on my phone to navigate the way back...)

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I'm so glad you laughed, Prue, and thank you!

Good plan - I try to snap phone pics and sometimes drop a pin in my Google Maps app in the hope of finding my way back to where I've come from! I'm looking to write about some tech-based (rather than breadcrumbs and confetti!) methods of navigation in a future post.

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Ahh this is SUCH a good way to do it!

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Me too! Reminds me of when I'd take photos of parkings spots to remember where the car was

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I’ve done this!!

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GENIUS! 🙌

You've reminded me of when I lost my car in a multi-storey car park, and I went and found an attendant to tell him that it had been stolen. To cut a long story short, it was all VERY embarrassing...!

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Loved this Rebecca! And a wonderful image of you and a furrow for our imagination at the end to surprise and delight! The sound of the sea in your clip is mesmerising; that is a perfect addition to the essay. I had an inadvertent sound clip of the sea in one of my Instagram posts a couple of weeks ago, when I was capturing some sea birds racing up and down the waterline. But it was the sound of the sea that captured everyone’s delight. Looking forward to seeing if we can walk successfully to a destination and back together soon!

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Thank you so much, Sabrina! Your 'surprise and delight' is something that I read with some relief, because I'd been worried that I'd given away the punchline in that first paragraph...! I'm so glad it took you by surprise at the end. 😊

In fact I first recorded the waves crashing from inside our campervan (perched atop the cliff!) in the middle of the night - but because I couldn't swear to Jim's snoring being inaudible I figured I'd do a second take on the beach itself next day! 😉

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Not all who wander are lost.

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That's something I need to remember, Nancy. Wise words indeed - thank you! 😊

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Borrowed from an Oxford professor, but thank you! 😊

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😄

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Where did you get that picture of me, wandering a confused path? Because of the pandemic, I have had much opportunity to get lost, though they’re creeping up again. Last night I was driving to Halifax, a drive I do at least once a month. There’s only one exit off the highway to get onto the highway to Halifax. Aaaaannnndddd...I almost kept going to Cape Breton. Again. Had I kept going, I would have gotten to the exit where my aunt and uncle’s house is, and I could find my way there, but from their house into town and onto the highway to Halifax? Forget it.

Not that I would have minded going to Cape Breton - it’s been far too long! - but it was a headache barely averted!

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Mar 11, 2023·edited Mar 11, 2023Author

Alison, we're truly birds of a feather, aren't we?!

I loved reading about your drive to Halifax that was nearly a drive to Cape Breton! It's reminded me I need to finish the draft of a post I've been working on for ages, in which I'm trying to describe that the only way I could work out to get home from X was to drive from X to Y because I knew my way home from Y... I can't get my head around the map I need to draw to illustrate it, but I think I'll have another go! 🤣

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I DID do it once and got lost in the mighty metropolis of Truro, Nova Scotia (population 13k). It was night and I ended up pulling into a grocery store parking lot to fire up Google Maps. A few more wrong turns and I made back onto the highway.

I would love to read that post…if only because I have definitely done the same thing! My lack of direction was easier to hide when I didn’t drive…

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Oh my goodness, lost at night in Nova Scotia! Sounds jolly cold and jolly dark. Thank goodness for Google Maps (although my relationship with it warrants my ticking the 'it's complicated' box on that well-known internet forum....)!

I think when we're in that position (and I don't mean geographically) sometimes it IS the easiest thing - if only in theory! - to follow signs to somewhere you know your way home from. I mean, I can say that here, to you, without judgment, but there are people in my life who thirty years on are still laughing that I only know my way home from Lewes.... 🤣

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Lol this is the first time I’ve told this story! I never breathed a word to anyone in my life because I would be subject to “well surely you know the way, you’ve been that route before”

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🤣

I'm thrilled that you shared it here, Alison!

My husband has given up on the 'surely you know the way...?' script - these days it's a rhetorical, breezily-aired 'Every day is a new journey, isn't it?' as we drive the same route we drove... YESTERDAY!

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Another great story. I get lost easily too in buildings. Once, at a client's office after setting my stuff down in the meeting room I asked to be shown to the rest room. I could not find my way back to the meeting and showed up red-faced after the meeting had started.

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Thanks, Scott! And gosh, I know EXACTLY how that feels!

Modern office buildings and hotels are places I find really confusing because everywhere you look, things look the same - as if every part of the building has been made from identical Lego bricks. But then I find older buildings equally difficult, for different reasons - NOTHING looks the same, so my brain gets overloaded with too many things and I can't distill my route from an overabundance of information!

I too have been late for meetings for just the reason you've given - plus hospital appointments and dates - all sorts. The worst thing is when I can't find the restaurant table I've quickly left to nip to the loo.... It's embarrassing enough to have to ask the way to the Ladies, but then when I'm asking the same staff member the way back, well, that's just cringeworthy!

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Your mention of the South Downs reminds me (again) of the time, oh so long ago, when I was living with an artist in Amberley, writing short stories and dreaming a lot. There was a stile up on the South Downs way that I used to call my “star seat,” where I would go when I couldn’t sleep. My dreams kept me awake, I guess. So I’d sit up there and watch the stars spool about, and the moon wax and wane. Easy to find my way back home: I just walked downhill.

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Oh, that sounds beautiful, Peter! What a great practice to have: to walk to watch the stars when you can't sleep. Really lovely.

Your mention of your 'star seat' reminds me of a beautiful post by Kristin Link which I read just this morning - the words and illustrations are wonderful. Do have a look! https://weeklynaturejournal.substack.com/p/sketching-the-night-sky

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I hit the link. You’re right. Absolutely stunning and quiet depictions of the night sky (so much of it) hovering over Alaska!

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Mar 11, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

This reminds me of a book I loved as a child, _Henry the Explorer_ https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/2223386

Inspired by his little flags, my grandfather and I would go on walks in the forest behind his house in rural Pennsylvania and we'd plant little flags along the way so we could retrace our steps and get back home to grandma. If memory serves, I decorated the flags with pictures of my favorite animals cut from national geographic.

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Oh, how lovely, Jillian - thank you for the link! I've had a look - it looks like a delightful book! How wonderful that you and your grandfather used to Henry your way through your local landscape together. I need some flaaaaaags now.... 🤣

And YAY to National Geographic! My grandparents had shelves and shelves full of them going back years, and one of the things I loved most about our visits every summer was curling up on the armchair next to the bookshelves and getting lost in them. The articles I loved most were the ones about sharks and deadly creatures like venomous snakes and puffer fish - I must have had a thing for danger back then!

What was really clever about the magazine was the fact that the headlines for what lay within were constrained to just a single word on the spine, so: SHARKS - RUBBISH - AMAZON - PHARAOHS - ARCTIC - TREES, for example - I loved that I didn't quite know exactly what I'd actually find within the pages until I got there, only an inkling.

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Mar 11, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

Sharks are so enticing! I'd definitely pick up a National Geographic with "SHARKS" on the cover! Speaking of which, I'm realizing how long it's been since I've actually picked up a paper National Geographic! *Sigh*

Also: love that you turned Henry into a verb!

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I love sharks, and I'm a real sucker for scary fish movies - the worse, the better! And trust me, there are some absolute shockers out there... 🦈

And I'm going to be doing a lot of Henrying once I've read the book, I'm sure! 😊

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Mar 11, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

What a delightful read! I came here to say "not all who wander are lost" but Nancy beat me to it! So, I'll say, instead, that reading about your adventures in getting lost (or your letters to Terry, or the Art & Treasures offerings) brightens my Saturday and I'm grateful for what you share and how you share it. ❤️

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Awww, that's so lovely of you to say, Kerri - thank you!

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I was going to suggest those little round white stickers might help but that would only work if you're tracing your steps inside somewhere and even then isn't 100% reliable!

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Not a bad idea for inside, absolutely! But hang on, what if they stick to other people's feet and therefore disappear - or, even worse, end up plotting an entirely new route altogether? This getting lost lark is fraught with peril - will I ever find an answer? 🤔

At this rate I reckon I need reprogramming to factory settings... 🤣

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Mar 11, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

Oh dear, what have I done, certainly caused my daughter to have a furrowed brow. Any consolation, I still get lost in airports and often lose my boarding pass-ask Mum!

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🤣 #blametheparents

It's fine that you get lost in airports in your retirement - but it certainly makes me wonder how you ever managed to get through an airport to any of the planes you were FLYING for over thirty years...! 😲

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The plough idea was a very elegant solution, Rebecca, though rather unuseful in an urban environment, as I'm sure you'll agree. My own solution is that I take a wheelbarrow with me wherever I go. The wheelbarrow contains posts, pieces of hardboard shaped into arrows, a tin of nails and a box of thick felt tip pens. Whenever I come to a junction I quickly erect a signpost pointing back to the way I came from. Even Transport for London have seen the sense of the idea, which is why the tube map now contains a picture of a signpost pointing towards my house, as I mentioned in my recent letter to you (https://terryfreedman.substack.com/i/107393387/the-tube-map).

One of your commentors mentioned getting lost in a building. The worst example of these is the Olympia exhibition hall in London. It's actually TWO halls, which are identical. Many is the time I've been at an exhibition, wondering what happened to a particular stand, when I realised after fifteen minutes that I've been looking in the wrong hall. You must be aware that some science fiction writers, and now even some scientists, posit the idea that is at least one other universe that is parallel to our own, or is the mirror image of it. You don't need to try to imagine this: just go to Olympia.

Also, as getting lost seems to be your hobby, you will be pleased to learn that there is a hospital in London whose maps show various rectangles, sometimes of different colours, with an arrow announcing "You are here" -- with no indication of where "here" actually is. I can let you know where that is, but not publicly in case the cartographer involved decides to sue me over my depiction of it.

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INTERMISSION: Terry, I can't reply to this in any detail until I've wiped up the huge gulp of tea that I've just sprayed all over my desk. 🙄🤣😉

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sorry!

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Could’ve been worse. If I’d read it after 6pm it would’ve been merlot... 🍷

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Do you have a pneumatic drill and a ready supply of Postcrete as well, Terry? If you don't plant those posts robustly enough you'll have a lawsuit on your hands! (Don't forget public liability insurance!)

I know what you mean about exhibition halls. I ran our stand at shows for several years for my previous company, and I would get lost every time I went to the Ladies. At one show in Munich two colleagues operating in a pincer movement were sent on a rescue mission to retrieve me from the other end of the SAME HALL that I hadn't even left. #notjoking

I used to always say to people that I needed my own portable map with a 'You Are Here' arrow that moved automatically as I moved. I am NOT amused by the fact that although I HAVE this in the form of the OS Maps app, I am just as confused as ever - more so, as my navigational spaghetti shows!

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What's postcrete? I just plant the posts and run. But I always collect them again on the way back, so what's the problem?

Pincer movement? LOL

I thought the google maps app had a constantly moving arrow? I didn't know that OS maps had that as well. Amazing. Your GPD spaghetti record reminded me of a programme I saw about cats, where they'd fitted these cats with cameras and GPS. Same pattern. You're obviously a cat lady.

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'Tis a quick-drying (sets in 10 minutes) preparation specifically designed for securing fence posts. Thinking about it, it might be rather too secure for your purposes - although for the sake of your passing public I'm troubled by your lack of health and safety considerations. 🙄

Not a cat lady. In fact I've just been writing a letter to a friend of mine about how pleased I am that the local cats stopped using my vegetable bed for 'relief' when I started using my home-brew garden compost on it... Thinking about it, he's a cat person, so I hope he'll still be a friend once he's read it. 🤔

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How come you know so much about posts and fencing? I'm worried about you now. Lemon juice deters cats.

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Our fence needing replacing after some weather last autumn. A huge ouch to the wallet, but those posts aren't going ANYWHERE...

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We had that a few years ago. 😬

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I didn't know their was a record function on navigation apps. 😂 I would have some real tangled! I definitely need to make an art piece inspired by this. 📍🧶

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Ooooooh, I'd love to see that art piece in one of your posts, Sarah!

On the OS Maps app you can find it under 'Record Activity'. I have to say the novelty of using that function wore off quickly - because the last thing I need is PROOF of my inability to get from A to B without taking in G, L, Q and X on the way....

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Mar 11, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

"... even I can find my way along a beach and back. Outbound: sea on one side. Return journey: sea on the other..." Such a fine, simple plan! How I wish there were solutions this simple in other areas of my life! I sympathize, Rebecca. You have four unworkable solutions to marking a trail. I KNOW there is a feasible one -- we just haven't thought of yet. Wait for the flash - it will come peripherally. I will let you know if anything else springs to mind.

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Thank you so much, Sharron! I've been thinking about it for a while, and there are tonnes of not-getting-lost ways which I'm looking forward to exploring. Plot spoiler: there's no magic answer.

(YET!) 🤣

The other areas of life bit - gosh, absolutely - wouldn't that be great?!

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Thank you for the smile and laugh today Rebecca. I especially loved the sound of the sea...I closed my eyes and just listened. Thank you.

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I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Julie! Thank you! 🌊

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It was just what I needed today.

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Brilliant!

I must tell you - I've just finished Chapter 12 - you're IN BOSTON, two days from the race.... I'm having SUCH a great time with your book!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1737690756?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

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I'm thrilled, Rebecca! Thank you so much for sharing and I'm glad my story is a worthwhile read. Happy Sunday.

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This has helped me to see why I opt so much for the path along the shore and not the path into the forests! I love forests but I hate feeling lost and I am no good at navigating anything without tech! 🌳 🌊✨🪄😳🌍

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Having the sea beside me on a walk is such a comfort, Claire! Sadly for my close-to-home walks (rather than a drive away) I’m afforded plenty of opportunity to get lost in fields and forests…! 😂

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