Ramblings

Clare Balding joins Jenni Williams and her disabled three year old daughter, Eve, as they take their daily walk in the Surrey Hills. These walks are the highlight of their day as both enjoy being outside, admiring the views and watching the antics of their young and exuberant, golden retriever, Scout. Jenni talks candidly to Clare about how she and her husband, Steve have come to terms with Eve's condition and how they feel blessed to have such a happy and life affirming child. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Carolyn Savidge, an artist who channels her grief into creativity, joins Clare Balding on a poignant walk through North Somerset. Carolyn shares how walking and art helped her cope with the loss of her husband, creating the Embrace DNR project that intertwines photography, sound, and writing. The conversation flows through the emotional landscapes of love and loss, emphasizing nature's healing power. Her tales of cherished memories and the bittersweet journey of walking through grief are both inspiring and uplifting.

Clare Balding has been exploring Artists' Ways in this series of Ramblings. This week she walks with Matthew Hopwood whose project 'A Human Love Story' takes him walking through England as a pilgrim, seeking hospitality where it is offered, meeting people where they are; on the path, in the pub, around the corner, on the street, in prison, in church, on the towpath. The people he meets share their love stories, which Matthew records and publishes on his online audio archive. Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding goes in search of Nun Appleton House in North Yorkshire, the subject of one of Andrew Marvells most famous poems. She's accompanied by contemporary landscape poet, John Wedgwood Clarke and Stewart Mottram a Lecturer in Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Hull University. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding walks along the Forth and Clyde canal to the spectacular Kelpies - 30 metre high statues of horses' heads, modelled on Clydesdales. Walking with her is a group led by Jan Bee Brown - the Reader in Residence at Falkirk Libraries.Producer: Karen Gregor.

Clare Balding heads out across Windsor Great Park in the company of writer and prolific walker, Bill Bryson. He explains how he developed a passion for exploring both Britain and parts of America on foot. They discuss how ones notion of distance changes dramatically when you walk.'A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.'Bill takes Clare on one of his very favourite walks around Windsor Park, a place he has enjoyed walking with his family.Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding discovers the essential role walking plays in contemporary artist's work. In this programme she walks with Louise Ann Wilson, a sceneographer, who has created a walking guide and artbook specific to, and created in, Warnscale, an area of fells to the south of Buttermere Lake. Louise explains to Clare that this 9 kilometer walk and the accompanying guide, are aimed at women who are childless by circumstance. Society offers no rituals or rites of passage through which women who have missed the life-event of biological motherhood can be acknowledged and can come to terms with that absence. Louise created this project to offer imaginative and creative ways through which women can engage with landscape to reflect upon and even transform their experience of this circumstance. It provides a multi-layered yet non-prescriptive means for the walker - whether walking alone, with a partner, friend or in a group - to make and perform their own journey, and can also be used by others who are in sympathy with women in this circumstance and persons in comparable situations. They are joined by Zakyeya Atcha, who has undertaken the walk before and found it a consoling and affirming experience and Dr Celia Roberts of Lancaster UniversityThe route can be followed on OS Explorer - The English Lakes North Western Area Grid reference NY 196 150 www.louiseannwilson.comProducer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding revisits the English Civil War by walking round Edge hill in the company of a group of fathers who've been walking together for twenty years.

Clare Balding joins The Red Ramblers, members of the local Labour party, who instead of being downhearted after the general election result, are glad to be striding out across the beautiful Dorset countryside, after months of trudging on pavements delivering leaflets. They walk from Symondsbury, near Dorchester, regaling Clare with their campaigning exploits as well as their plans for the future. They explain that walking together creates a bond for when the political going gets tough. Producer Lucy Lunt.

Clare Balding joins Team Zulu, a group of walkers, led by Tarquin Shaw- Young, who prepare for long distance charity walks by training on the majestic Malvern hills. Tarquin became obsessed by the 1964 epic war film, depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift, as a small child and now uses Zulu as the motif for bringing friends and family together to embark, each year, on completing the Worcestershire Way. As Clare marches across the hills with the group she talks to Tarquin's wife, Kelly about what it means to be married to a man who turned up at their wedding in a pith helmet.Producer Lucy Lunt.