I’m not sure what Hadrian would have made of us setting off to walk his wall just for the sheer joy of doing so; nor even in order to raise money for Breathing Space – a place dedicated to peace and stillness. While he was generally considered to be one of Rome’s more benevolent dictators, he nevertheless (at least according to Wikipedia) had ‘a capacity for both great personal generosity and extreme cruelty’ and (perhaps not unlike other leaders with imperialist ambitions) had a penchant for building walls.
Still, as Lois pointed out to me this morning, he probably never walked his own wall, and he is not here to either condone or condemn our endeavour.
The summer solstice has come and gone; the dreadful British weather seems to have taken a turn for the better; my two big projects (the Triennial Review of Serious Case Reviews and designing a child death review programme for Jordan) are both complete; work is progressing on our the access ramp and alterations to Breathing Space; and we have both cleared our diaries for the next week.
So, fortified with a breakfast of strawberries and raspberries from our garden, we set off for Newcastle. Tomorrow we will start our 70 mile hike across the country to Carlisle.
We are really grateful to all those who have donated or pledged to sponsor us for our fundraising for Breathing Space. So far, we have raised over £5,500 towards the cost of the alterations. Once the work is complete, it should allow us to be much more accessible to all who are seeking a place of beauty and stillness, and overall we should have far more flexibility in how we can use Breathing Space to serve others.
If you would like to contribute towards this project, please click on the button below.