Running up that hill

Photo taken from Keswick 5km Trail website

On the 17th of May I will be running up hills around the beautiful Keswick Lakeside area, as part of the Keswick Mountain Festival 5km Race.   I will be running not only to challenge my fitness and give myself a the motivation to keep running regularly, but also to raise money for Piccadilly Support Services, Lancaster and Safe Haven Children's Trust, Cambodia. I have chosen these two small charities due to the volunteering experiences and relationships I have built with them in the past.


My time at Piccadilly Garden allowed me mainly to hang out in their greenhouse, in the winter months, expanding my horticulture knowledge, but it also helped me realise how therapeutic gardening can be. I know for me personally it helped keep my spirits up, having some way to feel like I was contributing the world.  The welcoming atmosphere and knowledgeable staff  provide a great way for, those with mental health problems and disabilities to build new friendships, develop valuable skills, and interact with the wider community.  

I'd like to support them in their spreading of the wonders of gardening and especially in the support of those with mental illness, who it seems to me often get forgotten in our image orientated society. (I could probably write a whole new post on that...maybe another time.)

To donate to Piccadilly Garden please visit my Just Giving page  www.justgiving.com/Anna-Noble1

Save Haven Children's Trust (SHCT) goes back to my very first adventures abroad,  taking part in volunteer tourism in Cambodia back in 2008/2009. At this point Safe Haven did not exist, but it would be the experiences that me and a fellow volunteer, Benedicta Bywater (now CEO of SHCT) had that would spark the idea, the need for Safe Haven Children's Trust.  A grass roots organisation that works alongside local community, working to reduce the number of children in long term institutionalised care, and give adults the skills they need to support their families.  An approach quite different to the one we experienced as volunteers.

Cambodia is a beautiful country with some of the most friendly and gracious people I have ever met. Children are some of the most vulnerable in society and are the future for Cambodia to rebuild its infrastructure and heal from the scars still left by the Khmer Rouge regime.  Safe Haven Children's Trust are working hard to lay the foundations for Cambodia to thrive in the future.  

To donate to Safe Haven please visit this Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/AnnaJMNoble

My friend Sam has also decided to join me on the run and is raising money for the Spinal Unit Action Group.

While I am busy training, running up hills and along the canal, I ask all you generous people out there,  if you could donate a few pounds for a good cause. Your donation would be very much appreciated.   A little can make a big difference to small charities like these.  

An atheist at a Christian retreat: a test of tolerance

 Group hike: escaping the sun

I am back in England,  over the jet lag, finally, and enjoying the mild temperatures and regular bouts of rain.  However I still have a few tales left from my time in the 'Land of the Free'. This one goes back to that dangerous territory of religion, time to tread carefully!

Those of you who are familiar with my beliefs, may be surprised to find that I spent a weekend in the Arizona at a Christian retreat.  No,  I have not found Jesus in depths of the Valley of the Sun,  but it did leave a lasting impression.

Let's start with how on earth I ended up there.  It all starts by being part of a volunteer group at Arizona State University.  The group met weekly and took part in community based events to help vulnerable members of society, like the many people who are homeless in the states or to clean up the local park.  These are activities I par-took as a believer in humanity and showing kindness to others.  I have to say that there was a definite Christian undertone to the group but it wasn't overwhelming.   Sitting silently and respectively while others pray is fine with me.  It also had some really cool reflection activities, which I am on board with.  I like taking time to myself to relax and focus on something positive in my life, I  think its healthy way to approach life. I'd also made some really great friends there, eating pizza and practising my face painting skills occasionally.

Anyway the group have this annual event where they spend a weekend in northern Arizona on a 'retreat'. Sharath has been a member of the group for all 4 of his years at college and had never been on this weekend away. Graduating this year meant it was his last chance to go.  I had my apprehensions about going,  I sensed it wasn't going to be a weekend I would feel completely at home on. I was willing to suck it up and go along with it though, as it was important to Sharath.    I figured spending a weekend with a bunch of people I knew I got along well with, would be fine even if there was too many mentions of the big guy in the sky for my liking.

It was a strange weekend.  There were moments where I was having fun and enjoying myself, spending time with interesting new people,  then there were moments where I felt down right uncomfortable,  like an outsider. I have these very different opinions,  that everyone else was oblivious to and in that environment I didn't feel comfortable telling everyone that actually I'm not a believer in God.   In my opinion there doesn't need to be a God or a religious text, with rules and traditions to follow in order to be kind and love people and the world around you.  It just takes an open mind,  where you are open to trying to understand things form other peoples perspective, willing to challenge your preconceptions.  A level of emotional intelligence,  you could call it.  

I don't believe in God but I do believe that human beings are good, we just get misunderstood by each other and interpret the world around us from a narrow, self orientated, perspective.  Its these acts of tunnel vision that creates the tension and animosity between us all.  Its what makes the pursuit of knowledge and the need to communicate so important.  I may well have it all wrong but that's my two cents.

My favourite memory of the weekend was escaping with Sharath for a few hours on the Saturday night and getting to feel completely comfortable once more, as we shared our thoughts on it all.  It was male and female separate dorm rooms too, which made me feel like I was back in high school, so hanging out in the car really was the perfect place to spend some time together. 

Overall I feel like I discovered that I had a lot in common with these guys in terms of our ideals and morals, which probably why they made such good friendships but I'll stick to my guns on the God element. Perhaps I'm also a little less scared by organised religion but think I'll be staying clear of retreats in the future.

Aint no mountain high enough

The past 3 months has been quite the hiking extravaganza.  Sharath and I have climbed a total of 7 different mountains (technically 6 mountains and a canyon trail) scattered around Arizona, that's like a mountain every 2 weeks!  There are literally mountains or canyons around every corner here.   

We are the tiny figures on Devil's Bridge

The wear and tear that this has done to my body, in terms of exhaustion and muscle pains has made it particularly difficult to keep you guys updated with all our travels.  I would just get round to feeling human again and we'd be off on another adventure to some new vista point! 

Having officially done our last hike of the trip together,  the beastly Mount Wrightson, its finally time to share all those slightly torturous but stunningly beautiful moments with you.   

Before we get stuck in let me just say that my hiking experience hasn't been all smiles.  At times walking up a giant rock has really tested my patience, motivation and endurance to the max, both physically and mentally.  

There did seem to be one recurring trend in our adventures in regard to these struggles. I would start a hike particularly grumpy when we had to get up around 5am and eat breakfast on the move. I am not really a morning person.  Especially if I haven't slept very well the night before, for example cos I'd had to nap in the car or we were so far up north that our motel room was freezing!  Luckily (for Sharath's sake mostly)  this moody period tended to be short lived, as it melted away with the amazing views and general highs from the physicality of it all. 

We also found that food was an extremely good motivator.  Nothing like the promise of  a diner brunch or a Mexican feast to keep you moving, when you realise you still have everything you just finished huffing and puffing your way up, to climb back down.   

I'm not going to bore you with the nitty gritty statistics and names of each trail we went on but here are a few things that stick out in my mind.  The colours in the rocks in places like Sedona and the Grand Canyon are amazing, due to the sheer variation in the rock. There were vast hues of reds, greens, golds that combined with the purples and orange cascades of sunrise and sunset to form quite the Modern Impressionists painting.   It was not only the rocks that showed this immense capacity for variation but the vegetation and terrain in general. I remember going from one layer to the next, then looking down on it all from the top and being awed. All this took millions of years for natural forces to sculpt into the earth.  Wow!

YAY! it rained! Picacho Peak

There was one hike up to Picacho Peak, where the Sonoran Desert graced us with a little rain, a rare and celebrated occurrence (among some, there are definitely some Arizonans who complain about rain as much as the English when it occurs.)    This might have been my favourite hike, in terms of the experience of getting there and coming down, although there were definitely those with more breath taking views. The clouds were low making everything a little hazy, the desert was green and smelt amazing! An added bonus was the lack of intense heat even though we only began the trail around midday.  It was perfect hiking conditions, although a little slippy on the rocks at times. 

The 10 mile round trip and 4000ft of elevation of Mount Wrightson are the one set of statistics I cannot stop myself from bragging about, despite my promise not to bore you with techinicalities .   Most of our hikes had been around 5 miles or less (and a max +/-2000 feet of elevation)  up until this last one, so as you can imagine this was quite the step up.  The trail is said to take most people about 7 hours round trip, it took us more like 12. 

I should point out that Sharath and I have a habit of losing track of time when we are together. We like to take our hikes slow, so we can take in all of the new surroundings (or read a book in a picturesque setting). This day dream filled approach had never caused any problems on our previous short hikes, as we could always trail run back down the relatively short distance before it got dark.   Our tendency to meander was not the only reason our hike was so long, somewhere along the way I developed a throbbing and persistent pain in my upper right thigh. I remember it being particularly bad when we were a little under 2 miles from the top.  We discussed if we should just turn around and head back down, this may have been the sensible option but I could see the top!  It felt like an injustice just to turn around with out reaching those magnificent views across all of Arizona and out to the Mexican border. So we trudged on. 

 Silly faces time!

So much glee

I was so elated when we finally reached the top, I was literally shouting and running with joy for the last few meters. The views were utterly spectacular, with the classic Arizona clear blue skies all around. We were on the highest point in the Santa Rita Mountain Range; on top of the world. 

After refueling and beginning our descent it became obvious that we weren't going to reach the car before nightfall.  Mount Wrightson is what they call a forested Sky Island. A vastly bio diverse mountain, with vegetation and wildlife all over the peak, completely surrounded by the much less inhabitable cacti filled desert.  The unique ecosystem gave us a canopy of trees to walk among for most of the way, which was a great source of shade on the way up but a little intimidating in the dark on the way down.   As the sun set and we pulled out our torches, I became fairly anxious and jumpy to the sounds of lizards and snakes scuttling around the forest floor.  The signs warning that this was bear country down at the  start of trail head was also playing on my mind.  

My heightened state of fight or flight instinct came to its climax when we heard a tree crash to the ground somewhere behind us.  For a moment I really thought, "we might die tonight".  After some reassuring words to calm me down I got my confidence back and we started moving pretty swiftly back down the trail, as my desire to get home overpowered the sense of pain coming from my thigh.

Descent sunset view from Mt Wrightson 

In the conversation on the way down I discovered that night hiking was a real thing that people do for enjoyment, actively choosing to hike at night rather than during the day, but I figured it probably isn't for me. 

Some how we manage to keep each others spirits raised and made it to the car around 10:30pm, worn out and hungry but victorious!  

When we finally got home to feast on some real food, instead of the days fill of trail mix, cereal bars and Hershey's Almond Kisses, I could barely walk but I was pretty damn proud of myself! I'm certainly not going to forget this hike for a long time and I don't think my legs will either!

That was a bit of verbose trail through my hikes, but I hope you managed to make it to the end and found it as satisfying as I did.

Americans and the English, same same but different?

After over a month of living and breathing the cleanest air in all of America (supposedly),  I feel I am well tuned into to some of the cultural and lifestyle differences between the overly polite English, like myself, and those obnoxiously loud Americans. 

One place where I really feel like the UK and the US is on different planets is on the road.  You guys have so much space your freeways are six lanes wide!  Six lanes! In the UK 3 is the norm,  4 if you're lucky (not including the hard shoulder). I don't think a one way street exists here either, which must be nice , as driving in a new city in England tends to result a series of frustrating battles; where your destination is in sight but the turning says no entry, so you have to encircle the neighbouring streets a few times until you get to that same street but facing the opposite direction.  Oh the frustration.  I wonder if the simplicity of US roads reduces the prevalence of road rage.

EDIT, CORRECTION :   Arizona does have one way streets they are just 4 cars wide and in a grid system, so its not that complicated. 

When the federal government builds freeways they pretty much blow up anything in their path in order to create the shortest route to connect two destinations, by my understanding. This means travelling for 2 or 3 hours in the US gets you much further than in England, with our winding roads encircling this or that. Yes we may be a tiny island but we are densely populated, there is a lot going on. Arizona has vastly empty desert plains all over the place and then they stick some suburban housing complex in the middle of it. 

Here in Tempe, there are empty lots of land,  that are in a prime location for the retail industry, but for some reason the people here would rather scatter far and wide and increase their commute and transit time, just because they have the space.    

I've never owned a car back in England, so I'm used to walking everywhere or relying on buses or trains to get me places.   I swear outside of the university campus there are only a couple of hundred people who walk anywhere in this city.  Cars are king.  Now its starting to heat up, temperature wise, I think I am starting to understand why.  Air Conditioning is the only way to survive out here! The heat is unrelentingly dry, and the skies are so free of clouds it looks like someone placed a giant paint sample card in front of your lens.  Its shorts weather from now on until November!

 I got the bus to Phoenix Zoo the other day,  there was literally me and 3 other people on there, all who got off at the next stop. All my bus journeys in the UK consisted of a predominant presence of the young and the elderly and then everyone else in between.     

Smart

Beastly

Speaking of cars being king.  Smart cars are considered a joke here, next to four-wheel drives, pick up trucks and hummers they do look ridiculous. Back home and across Europe a Smart car seems like a viable, efficient and some might even say 'smart' way to actually find a parking space in a major city.   

Efficiency is clearly not on the mind of some Americans though,  taking a tank engine and riding it around your tarmacked freeways, seriously unnecessary. It's a good thing gasoline (petrol) is so cheap for you guys.

Next on the agenda is religion.  I 'm starting to really appreciate how secular England is. I find talking to people from different religions and trying to understand their different belief systems, really interesting.  My issue with religion is when, someone tries to push their beliefs on me or decides to actively insult me because I'm not a believer.

Last weekend me and Sharath attended an open mic event in downtown Phoenix, that was largely spoken word performers, with a few musicians thrown in to the mix. It was a fun evening, there were lots of passionate people sharing their thoughts with the room.  Towards the end the religious extremists seemed to take centre stage, and I found this pretty uncomfortable. Perhaps its a reflection of the music and arts communities in the UK, and their tendency towards the liberal left on the political spectrum, but I don't expect to be called selfish for being a 'heathen' in an evening of arts and entertainment.   It led to a pretty big discussion about the role of Christianity in the US.  Oh and the audience had this tendency to shout "speak it" and "tell it" at various moments in peoples performances, which is a new sign of appreciation to me. My inner polite Englishman found it a little irritating.
. 

This is how we do it in England

The US has discovered Cornish Pasties and made them into a gourmet food.  You heard me, those meat and potato filled pastry cases you buy at Greggs for (a little more than) a quid, when your short

My Gourmet Pastie

of cash and in need of something hot and filling to eat on the go, are marketed as an actual evening meal here.  Last night I sat at a proper sit down restaurant and ordered a "Cornish pasty"  filled with all kinds of fancy ingredients, chicken, pesto, artichokes, mozzarella.  It was really tasty, I have to say. Would giving pasties a face lift in England be a success or is it down to the novelty factor?  They also had English puddings on the menu, so I introduced a couple of Americans to the wonders of Sticky Toffee Pudding (mmm) , made with imported treacle. It seems strange not to have treacle as its just an unrefined version of syrup, but it obviously hasn't made it across the Atlantic yet.


I think that's enough snark filled analysis for this post. I'll be back soon, as my photos are telling me I've been to so many amazing places and I'm yet to talk about them.  Here's a sneak peak of things to come:

Devil's Bridge, Sedona, AZ

Greetings from cacti land!

Hey out there. I hope everyone is enjoying 2015! I know I am. I've left England behind and I've been in Tempe, Arizona for the past week. Time has zoomed by!

I've been excited and counting down to this trip for a long time and its taken some time to process that it's finally a reality. This trip isn't just about seeing a new bit if the world and having fun, although there will be plenty of that, but I'm also perusing an exciting new relationship. An extra burst of euphoria. Turning a chance meeting on a kibbutz into a, 6 month long, transatlantic in-depth discussion of life, dreams, emotions, and 2 hour long Skype sessions into actually being in the same room together once more, has been one hell of an adventure, in itself.

I'm very much still figuring out what to do next with my life but back in Garstang I felt a little trapped by everything. Location, lack of transport,  and a resulting lack in social circles. Time to try looking at things with fresh eyes. I can't work here, as I am on a tourist visa and US immigration assured me on entering that they would  to quote "hunt me down", if I seek employment. But I'm looking to do some more volunteering and enjoy being in the company of someone who's on the same wavelength as me. I know in the end what I do with my life is completely up to me but it's nice to feel like I don't have to face everything alone. And yes I know that's not true when I'm in England either, my friends and family are great but it's difficult to see that when your daily life seems to invoke such isolation.

Oops this wasn't meant to be such an emotionally fueled post just a round up of what I've been up to, but I guess my inner writer has other ideas.

I guess what I'd really like to say is that I'm following the things I believe in. Love, kindness, that there's more to a human being than what's written on their bank statements each month, in adventure, expanding your horizons and learning from people and the world around you. I might not quite have the balance right but I'm enjoying working on figuring that out!

Here's a few photos to capture this last week's adventures:

The cowboys are on their way!

Goat Kisses

Phoenix is massive!

street art, Tempe

Chinese feast

Green, green its all...wait is that an armchair?

Last week I volunteered with the local Canal and River Trust, cleaning up the Lancaster canal for a few hours.  It was a fun morning spent on a canal boat with fishing nets and rubbish grabbers.   I was a little shocked by how much we came back on the boat with us.   I don't understand why so many people feel the need to throw unopened beer cans or half filled bottles of wine, even the empty ones, crisp packets, take away boxes, everything just chucked  into the canal. I didn't realise people were quite so wasteful and careless.

I personally feel extremely lucky to be living near such beautiful landscapes, but there's obviously a lot of people with no appreciation for our lush green surroundings and waterways. Perhaps they should spent some time in the desert too!

Check out this collection of things we pulled out of the canal and along the verges of the toe path:

In my other volunteering exploits I've been bring new life to some plants, propagating fig trees and lavander and hebes and expanding my plant knowledge massively.  I also made a few festive table decorations with pieces of holly, fern, that kind of thing.   Creativity and practical  aspects of life feeling well and truly satisfied.

The only thing missing some intellectual stimulation!  Although, mi español es mejorar!

The job hunting is fruitless at the moment, but I do have something to look forward to.  I'm leaving the country again on an extremely thin shoe string budget,  in the new year! I'm off to Arizona to spend time with a guy I bumped into at the kibbutz in my last few weeks in Israel,  and haven't stopped talking to since. I feel like I'm kicking off some gossip generator in the ex Ein Hashlosha volunteer network, you'll be sitting there figuring out who it is.   I'm  incredibly excited about flying out there,  but I have 5 weeks before then to make the most of.
I'm looking forward to a Christmas at home with the family, after last years hard work and stress in trying to create some sense of Christmas on the kibbutz.  It had its fun moments and it was certainly memorable, but this time I'll know exactly what to expect,  which can be nice once in a while.  

Having a year away from the UK over the Christmas period, does seem to have meant I missed the arrival of us deciding to join in the with America's mass consumerism fests. Black Friday did not exist in England before I left for Israel, I swear.  Those supermarket fights were
shocking!  Please try to engage in civilised Christmas shopping people.



Hope you're enjoying this extra warm and sunny festive period!

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London

 

London, London you are filled with endless possibilities.  Its's quite overwhelming the range of places you can go and the vast amount art and culture that litter your streets and buildings.

The back garden!

I've just returned from 6 days of looking after a beautiful bloodhound and two adorable cats in north London.  Not only did I get free food and accommodation in exchange for my services, I also got some cash in hand to be able to enjoy myself while I was there (money whoopee!).  In between dog walking, where I got to enjoy London's green spaces on a daily basis, I managed to figure out one or two things that really stood out on my map of must sees in London. 

Having done most of the major central tourist attractions I am interested in a month or so back, when I was there last with the Koreans, and important stuff like the Science museum on previous visits, I decided to go a wander through the artsy, alternative, retro, hippie type world of Brick Lane and check out their Sunday market. 

World food stalls, vintage clothes, ridiculous queues for bagels and great street art was very much right up my street (apologise for the bad pun).  My favourite parts of
the day was getting a free sample of handmade chocolate from a guy working  in the chocolate shop on Brick Lane and his comments abut feeling like Jesus.  As soon as he appeared at the door with baskets of chocolate a steady flow of chocolate lovers swarmed towards him through the crowds of passers by. My lunch was pretty great too, delicious Jamaican lamb stew with rice eaten in the hustle and bustle of the street stalls while the guy on the right serenaded me with No Woman No Cry.  Good timing, Mr Busker.   

Sleeping Snowball

At the top of on my list of things to do in London was to check out Spoken Word London. I had hoped to build on my National Poetry Day experiences, with another performance of the same poem but with the added element of reciting it instead of just reading it.  Unfortunately, my underestimation of how long it takes to travel across London meant that I didn't quite get there in time to sign up.  

All was not lost none the less,  I saw some fabulous performances! There was a really diverse range of voices and subjects,and I got talking to quite a few people in the intervals too. A real friendly and open minded bunch. There was even one guy who stripped off completely naked during his first poem and kept his clothes off for the rest of his 5 minute stint.  That was definitely a first, a little distracting I have to say, but it worked well with the message in his words and certainly makes it a memorable evening.

Me and Minie

Izzy

I'll definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for events like this, a little closer to home, in the future.