Blog (Latest News, Info and Updates)
Journeying Poetry Competition 2022
Wednesday 14th September 2022
David Gleed
Welcome to the second Journeying Poetry Competition! This year's theme: Poems of any length are invited and should follow a theme of On Pilgrimage. Getting your entry in: Entries should be emailed to info@journeying.co.uk and arrive no later than midnight (GMT) on Saturday 22nd October 2022. The winning entry will be announced on the 12th December 2022. Just one entry per person. There is no charge. Keep it original: Entries must be original and not previously published elsewhere. All entries will be judged anonymously. Copyright remains with the author. The prize: The winner will receive a first-place competition certificate signed by the judges and a ten percent discount on any one of next year's holidays from Journeying. The winning poem will be published on the Journeying website, Social…
Walking into Quietness
Monday 12th September 2022
What a magical day! There are no words that can capture what we experienced together, which is why so many of us were companions in silence or spilled over into tears.
A day well lived
Saturday 27th August 2022
Our walk was lovely and our group was a happy one - despite the intense heat! As well as all the `getting to know each other'; we shared freshly picked apples and plums and picked blackberries along the way. It was a delightful little walk that had the feeling of a much longer route ... perhaps because Pepper's sense of time and distance is rather 'elastic': 10 minutes to lunch was about 25!!' There was so much countryside crammed into our day - woodland, river valleys, tow paths, historic villages, the site of an ancient Carthusian Friary and MORE woodland. Julianne, one of our walkers, said "this walk has everything except a bit of coastal path!" We enjoyed fellowship…
Singing Birds and Silence . . .
Sunday 17th July 2022
A collection of poems by Janet Wilkes
Janet first travelled with Journeying to West Wales some ten years ago. Singing Birds and Silence is her second book, her first, After The Blossom,` is autobiographical and a lovely read. Janet's debut poetry collection is a treat. The poems speak with a grounded, real-life quality, that capture the moment perfectly - you can't help but be caught up in the occasion... 'There are many forms of writing poetry and anyone can do it', Janet says. 'All you need to do is take a pen and describe the place you're in, ether where you are or in your thoughts'. Janet does this wonderfully. Here's the title poem: SINGING BIRDS AND SILENCE Singing birds and silence remind me of Christmas long ago with…
Journeying on Holy Island - Lindisfarne
Wednesday 8th June 2022
David Heathcote
By Monday midday, the tide had receded sufficiently to allow our pilgrim group to cross the causeway in safety to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne and we settled into Marygate House, our base for the week. There was time to unpack and introduce ourselves over a cup of tea before our leader Steve drove us to the mainland so we could walk back to the island across the Pilgrims Way, following the poles across what becomes the seabed when the tide comes back in. Four of us tackled the sands, while one walked along the road causeway. Two chose traditional bare feet, while two used appropriate(?) footwear. Setting off across the sands, we occasionally had to paddle in a few…
EASTER ON THE PLAIN DAY WALK - 16th APRIL 2022
Friday 22nd April 2022
Sue Peachey
On Easter Saturday morning a group of 12 pilgrims (and 3 dogs!) left the village of Heytesbury in Wiltshire in glorious sunshine for a 7 mile circular walk. We first made our way up to the edge of Salisbury Plain, the majority of which is owned by the Ministry of Defence, although there is plenty of access for members of the public. Along the Way we listened to an Easter bible reading and got to know each other. There was quite a wide age range of people which made it interesting and some had travelled quite a way to join us. After stopping to have our packed lunches we continued down off the Plain to the small village of Upton Lovell…
For Those Who Have Far to Travel - a poem by Jan Richardson
Thursday 7th April 2022
Sue Peachey
As an Associate Leader with Journeying, this poem resonates with me as I feel it so accurately describes our daily journeys in life. We are all pilgrims who encounter obstacles and doubts along the way, but by keeping going we can be reassured that the journey is worthwhile. Sue Peachey For Those Who Have Far to Travel An Epiphany Blessing If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it, might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not. Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping, step by single step. There is nothing for it but to go, and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes: to be faithful to the next step; to rely on more than…
Connections… Journeying through Galloway, Scotland
Wednesday 16th March 2022
By Joy Rousay
Not long after the Gatehouse of Fleet walk was announced for May 2015, my friend Patricia and I made our booking, and because we were travelling from Western Canada and we knew it was imperative to make our plans early. This would be our second Journeying adventure, the first being to Iona and Mull in 2013 and we were eager to participate again. I knew that my maternal grandfather, David Porter had come to Canada from Galloway in 1888 as a 9-year-old - Kirkinner Parish, Wigtown - to be exact, but I wasn't aware of any family connections in Dumfries on the east side of Wigtown Bay. Mere days before the tour was to begin, I was amazed to…
Walking to an Island . . . Iona
Saturday 12th February 2022
David Gleed
Journeying in Scotland is always wonderful! This June, 2022, we explore the Islands of Mull, Ulva and Iona, and in 1997 it was the same! But on that occasion the journey began in Applecross on the shore of Wester Ross... The view from on top of the treacherous 'Bealach-Na-Ba', the pass of the cattle, toward the small township of Applecross and the islands of Raasay and Skye, provides one of those classic Highland and Island, land and seascapes; rugged hills tumbling down to a turquoise sea with islands and mountains on the horizon - a view I first glimpsed, though without the colour, in the vintage film 'Laxadale Hall,' an endearing tale of a community determined to win its fight to…
Journeying Poetry Competition
Wednesday 26th January 2022
Here are three more poems from our inaugural poetry competition where we welcomed poems inspired by a pilgrim-journey to one or other of the Christian pilgrimage sites of Britain and Ireland, or by a longing to undertake that journey. Journeying By Yvonne Dixon Together we walk in step with the waves With horizon eyes and breeze-rinsed ears, Speaking slows to the pace of the heart, Prayer paths transform our longings and fears, Thoughts now follow the rhythm of the soul. I see you anew each day, Pilgrim Friend, Adjust first impressions, appreciate gifts, Filled with thanks as this journey draws to its end. Kevin of Glendalough By Michael Mitton Gentle Kevin, Few heard your footsteps in the forest As you searched for your place of prayer. You came to your mountain like an evening mist; Mystery hung…