Page 109 - Through a glass brightly

You’re about to get three emails in quick succession, just so two of them can got into THE BOOK before I send you Version 2 with lots of explanations!!
Last year, Val and I walked from Porthmadog to Aberystwyth and, as usual, Val wrote up a Diary for every day and I sorted and photoshopped both our photos and added a few twiddly bits and we ‘published’ the book (i.e. made two copies!).
On the Wednesday Maggie H. joined us and this is the extract from Val’s Diary for the Wednesday and Thursday. My boots had been killing me so I wrote the poem to go with our adventure in Barmouth!
Wednesday/Thursday 26th/27th June 'Barmouth to Aberdyfi'
We felt much better by the time Maggie Houghton arrived with a bottle of Prosecco and even better by the time we had demolished that, repaired to the local hostelry, eaten a delicious meal and downed another bottle of wine.
It was a good day. We were surprised to find a hooley blowing when we came out of the pub. We are not sure how that will bode for tomorrow.
Maggie was still with us this morning and drove us to the other side of the ferry where we picked up the narrow gauge railway to Fairbourne - a lovely route along by the sea and the marshes with huge skies and distant views. We said goodbye to her there as she drove home to Oswestry and she waved to us as we set off to tackle a somewhat daunting hill, up which we trudged and down on the other side to the next bay.
On the basis of which I wrote a poem! Well I call it a poem - but a finer bit of doggerel ye’ll no find east of Barmouth!
A new pair of boots at your age?
I abandoned my boots at Barmouth! Well, I’d bought them for Hadrian’s wall; And they’d seen me walk with Coleridge, Through Dorset and Devon an’ all; Along the river from Ilkely,
Across the Pennines at Dent,
And up and down like Everest
With thousands of feet of ascent.
My rucksack was dumped in New Street (A tip-off you’ll have to agree!)
As we walked through Aberystwyth And down to the infinite sea.
It had carried my waterproof trousers, A bookshelf of maps and guides,
A medicine chest for disaster
And various utensils besides.
So, on Monday I went to Tiso’s
Aware, if you’ll pardon the pun,
Of being considerably over the hill,
On my last legs when all’s said and done! But the path still winds through the uplands
108