Way?-markers

By Rhiannonw

Tue, 02 Apr 2019
  • 1470 reads
7 comments
 

When walk instructions are unclear,
and arrow-signs the worse for wear
– why does the colour disappear? –
they might, if shaped to point the way
still help us not to go astray!

We need a map, and clear views
or steady signal we can use
from satellite to show position,
(grid ref.) to ease the situation.

A plain white circle gives no aid,
when colours in wild weather fade!

 

Certificate U
Poem
Countryside explorations
Nature
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

You could discover something new Rhiannon after being led astray by a rogue arrow or you could get lost and end up in a field with a bull (my worst nightmare, I was cornered by one in Llanbedr). There's something magical about roaming with limited guidance from maps though I think. Although it would be helpful for those signs to be maintained, by who though when there is no money for school books?

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

laugh Yes, there are some interesting experiences when going the 'wrong' way, or having to avoid fields where the footpath is through a field with large maternal cows with their calves! You seem to have had a soothing way with the bull.

Our thoughts re these signs have been that when they are replaced, if they could be replaced with arrow-shaped signs, they would remain useful for longer, whatever the weather! Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

That's a very good idea Rhiannon!

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Thanks, it would seem so!  Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Ha! The "walk" here, there are arrows. They are GREEN. In the middle of the moor

A sort of moorland green

presumeably so as not to be an eyesore to all the hundreds of very light people (leaving no footprints on the endless grass) who wander that way every day so don't need markers because they know where they are going...

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

The less tourist-attracting paths around here, often lack arrows at various points anyway! I suppose it's up in the mountains that they get most 'weathered' and lose their colour. I'm wondering if the yellow ones keep their colour better (yellow for footpaths, blue for bridleways but can be across moorland or mountainside. Rhiannon

[I was interested in your son's writing interest, and the reading – the jump from childhood reading to adult seems to have always been quite a big jump. Books supposedly aimed at teenagers aren't necessarily helpful as a bridge anyway. Maybe he'll get interested suddenly in quite good books! I'm sure your quiet interest will prove supportive, and he'll ask surprising questions sometime!]

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Thanks Rhiannon :0) I think that was the worst part, that at the beginning there were loads of arrows, then when you got to the middle of nowhere and had been going hours - NO ARROWS.

 

Re reading - he asks questions now. What inspired that blog rant ws, I gave him the day off on condition he did some writing. At school he had been supposed to do a presentation on the ethical problems of human genetic engineering(!!!) He said he had not been able to find any problems  (I did mention the lazy bit?) So, I had a quick look on Wikepedia, read out a couple of examples for him and left him to it. What he came out with was something Orwell or Kafka would understand. But he's not even heard of them