Bentham Walk for Creation - 10 Oct 2015

Bentham's Eco-Prayer Walk is now the fourth "Walk for Creation" of Pilgrimage I have been on. It was organised by Rev Timothy Fox, and nine of us joined him from three different denominations and from 5 different churches. We were blessed by fine calm autumnal weather.
We remembered other groups that are taking part in pilgrimages now, leading up to the Conference in Paris

We met at the Horse and Farrier at 2pm and set off on our 3 mile walk.

1. Looked at Lichens with hand-lenses. I mentioned that someone at the Coventry Conference had said Lichens were an "extreme" example of reconciliation in the the algae and fungi in Lichens need to live together 
2. Saw an old mill in Bentham
3. Saw a garden with working model railway and slumbering cat.
4. Stopped on a bridge on the Leeds to Carnforth railway next to a crab apple tree. father Paul Hypher   .. read paragraph 240 from Laudato Si - about the Trinity and everything being linked

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   Reading from Laudato Si

   
   
6. We saw two butterflies in a hedge.
   a) a "Speckled Wood" - it flew away. This picture here is one I took in 2005, also near the Wenning four miles away, when it was one of the first ones which had been seen in this area. It has been spreading north. (Climate change?) Look at subsp tircis in the map from the NBN Gateway.
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      b) a"Red Admiral which posed obligingly. These are much more common
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1. We walked through a caravan site which keeps extending along beside the river Wenning.
2. Then beside the Wenning. We - well especially Sue picked up litter as we walked along. Collette read an amusing piece about children sharing food.

Some of the flowers seen en route include Herb Robert, Yarrow, Betony, Wood False-brome, Ivy in bud, Ground-ivy in leaf only (it has a strong smell) 

The "summit" of our journey was - our "deepest" point - to the Wenning oak, a huge old oak tree, in a bend in the river, its old roots exposed.  Timothy Fox read a piece about trees.

Timothy said "Look downstream - can you see something unnatural?"
We looked and someone spotted the carpet. It has become colonised by algae.

We thought about all the plastic being washed out to sea.. and were glad that at least the new law on plastic bags had started.

We returned via a shorter route over the railway. Just before Bentham we stopped again and Timothy read a passage by Vaclav Habel about Hope

If you look at the video full screen size you may notice that he had taken the quote from Green Christian's monthly prayer guide - September 2015.


Thank you everyone for coming. and thank you reader for accompanying us on this walk.