Category: walking

Birds · Books · Dogs · Garden · Happy · Trees · walking

A Spring in My Step

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I had a hair appointment on my birthday! It felt like a fantastic present particularly now after this latest lockdown. My hair was the longest it’s been in twenty years. It was definitely time for a chop.

Perhaps I was thinking about hairstyles as I looked out my window this morning? A bit of a wind today and the Laurel bush is waving like a shaggy monster from The Muppet Show. The breeze is rippling through the bronze tint on the Beech hedge and the bobbed Kilmarnock Willow is showing off streaks of green through it’s mane.

Green tinted Kilmarnock Willow

Each year I have the discussion about when the leaves will appear on the trees. I always think Spring comes earlier than it actually ever does – perhaps too optimistic? So I look out of my window to check what’s happening in the garden and every morning I try to read a poem. ‘A Child’s Song in Spring’ by Edith Nesbit summed up exactly what I was thinking one day.

Signs of Spring are coming and a blue tit is nesting in the bird box hopefully kept warm by our dog, Molly. Having brushed Molly, we put the fur from the brush into an old bird feeder and recently spotted the birds collecting it to line their nests. In no time at all the feeder was empty. Molly is one very well groomed dog these days!

Well groomed Molly keeping me company as I write this,

I recently downloaded an App: Merlin, which is helping me to identify the birds I see in the garden and out and about. I love the way their calls and songs are available to listen to as well. To top it all I was totally delighted to receive a pair of binoculars for my Birthday. I had a sudden flashback to childhood and trying to use my parents’ binoculars and now at last, I have my own! So with the App and the binoculars, I’m pretty sure the pair of birds who scurry around our garden are dunnocks.

So with my newly cropped hair, my binoculars in hand, I’m off for a walk with a spring in my step. Here’s to life as a twitcher!

I’m reading ‘Golden Hill’ by Francis Spufford and ‘Flight’ by Vanessa Harbour. Still reading Muriel Spark’s autobiography.

Picture Book Review

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Latest Review – ‘I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End’ by Emma Perry and Sharon Davey.

Seasons · walking

Walking the dog

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Pull on one layer, then another, just in case. Hat, scarf, definitely gloves.

Big brown eyes watch me. She circles impatiently. She knows. All the signs are there. Then yes! I pick up the lead. It can only mean one thing. Time for a walk.

I’m taking the dog out but the reality is, she’s taking me out.

Today, the coldest day in months. A grey, sullen sky hangs. There is none of the sharpness, the detail of a bright sunny, frosty morning. It is. Just. Cold.

But I am determined. This dog needs walked. If I don’t go now it will be worse later.

The mist is not just around me. It’s a fog in my head.thumb_IMG_0546_1024

Marching, moving fast, keeping warm. I have purpose. I’m on a mission. This dog will be walked and so will I.

I am not the only one wearing a big winter jacket. The horses in the field are newly dressed in clean, brightly coloured coats. They watch us with steady eyes as we pass.

A single leaf floats down in slow motion. Encouraging me to admire its colour, shape, pattern before it merges into the patchwork carpet before us.

An outsize crow caws. The wind sighs, travelling from tree to tree.

My eyes lift up. Maybe tomorrow will be the day of winter blue skies with marshmallow clouds?

Then it is here.

The clearing.

I am ready once again.

My steps, which have slowed down begin to speed up. Once again, determination, enthusiasm awakens within me.

I know what I must do.

My arms are swinging now, even the dog walks faster. She must know we’re on the way home. We both do.

 

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A welcome home – the Godetia is still flowering

 

There are too many quotes about walking to list so here are just a few.

Walking is man’s best medicine. Hippocrates

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress. Barack Obama

This might be one of my favourites!

I don’t know what my path is yet. I’m just walking on it. Olivia Newton-John

 

I’d like to add. Sometimes you just have to go for a walk.

Books · Nature · Thank you · walking

A Year of Writing

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I set a target to write a blog for a year. Well, I did. Now …

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Eight reasons why writing a blog has been a good thing for me.

1. The discipline to write and post once a week

2.  To connect with new people

3.  To take time to reflect

4.  The garden, photos and writing all link together

5.  To join the Big Bee Count and the Big Butterfly Count and share

6.  To walk the dog – with purpose, giving me time to think about the blog post

7.  To learn eg. – about Lady Bird Johnston and her ‘Beautification Programme’

8.  To read and review books

 

Funnily enough, one of the things I had to learn was to give myself a holiday from the blog!

 

So, what next?

A new target.

This year I’d like to write a fortnightly blog and continue with the other types of writing I love;  writing for children, short stories, poems and so on.

I hope you’ll join me along the way and I’d welcome your feedback!

Time to switch the kettle on, love!

 

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Stunning Sweet Peas

 

Books · Nature · Reading · walking

Restful Reading

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Reading something you enjoy for just 6 minutes a day can reduce your stress levels by two thirds.

 

So I thought of a couple of suggestions, hope you enjoy them!

  • Read my blog post about Balancing Life  with the Five Ways to Better Wellbeing.

 

 

 

  • Take a moment to read a poem.

 

 

 

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Forget-Me-Nots planted from seed last year!

 

 

 

 

 

butterflies · Inspiration · swimming · walking

A Kaleidescope of ‘Butterfly Moments’

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Now, I am a person who enjoys exercise, mostly once I’ve finished! I love the sense of achievement.

Owning a dog has made me walk in weather I probably wouldn’t have otherwise and I’ve spoken before about the ‘butterfly moment‘ on a walk when your mind suddenly seems to relax and fly free. Leaving your thoughts clearer to return to everyday life again with new enthusiasm.

A special butterfly ‘moment’.

Well, I’ve been going swimming and something I’ve noticed is that at a certain point I smile when I swim. Slightly bizarre I confess, to smile under the water but there we go.

I think it is probably the same as when I walk, that moment when you begin to enjoy the exercise for what it is and relax into it. I would like to call this my swimming ‘butterfly moment’ but there is no chance of me swimming the butterfly stroke so perhaps it’s not such a good analogy here!

Now, I’m no lepidopterist but there must be something in it as when I went for a run (unfortunately a rare occurrence) recently I again found myself smiling, call it the endorphins, call it what you like, it’s definitely very inspiring.

Have you noticed what gives you your ‘butterfly moment’?

 

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Spring arriving!