Walk On The Wild Side
There is very little to occupy one’s time during this lockdown, but thankfully the behavioural guidance from the UK Government includes taking outdoor exercise once per day. For us, our daily walk in the countryside is our only escape other than shopping for food, but it’s a very welcome daily event.
Luckily, we live in a village surrounded by attractive countryside and woodland and can walk straight from our house into open country, safe in the knowledge that we will see almost no one and easily practice social distancing. Equally luckily, this period of lockdown has so far coincided with a spell of lovely Spring weather, we’ve had a lot more sunshine than rain, and at times there is just a little warmth in that Spring sun. And even more luckily, it’s that time of year when the English countryside is preening, as leaves bud and flowers open.
Spring brings joy. Wood anemones, celandine, periwinkle are in bloom, and the first of the bluebells are casting their first hues; the carpet of Spring colour is taking shape. Hedgerows tinge green just a little more each day, birds busily collect materials to build nests, bees emerge from slumbers and hunt down the early flowers.
In these first three weeks of the daily walk, which we tend to take around mid morning, we have seen foxes, hares, rabbits and squirrels, woodpeckers, a nuthatch, goldfinches and warblers – the first of our summer visitors are arriving. Kestrels and buzzards scour the fields; ants swarm around their woodland mounds.
Daily, we map these walks with the intention of publishing a small guidebook for walks around our village. Just something to occupy our minds during lockdown. Every one of us needs to find things to do, new things to do. It’s not easy with such empty spaces of time to fill, but in this extraordinary year we are grateful for our safety and for the fact we have choice. And freedom, and health.
Heroes
On Thursday of last week, Britain joined in with this growing appreciation of our wonderful health workers. Footage from across Europe has started to fill our screens as other countries show their appreciation of what health workers are doing, for us all, and that Thursday was our first night; it was repeated thus week, a week on, and will now become a weekly Thursday night event.
We live in a village, we thought probably we would be the only people out there. We weren’t. Even here in our little rural corner of England, shouts and applause filled the air. It’s not Madrid or Rome, but our village did its bit to say our heartfelt thank you.
Those guys are heroes.
Sadly we have some anti heroes too, namely the renowned British media, who despite these awful times are still hell bent on criticism of a Government trying its very best to deal with uncharted territory. Each day at our national briefings by Government representatives, the delivery is followed by a Q&A session, which in its early days was useful and informative. Less than two weeks later it has descended into aggressive criticism as so called journalists strive to find gaps in the Government’s response, often asking the same questions which have been succinctly answered several times already, constantly criticising and never praising, or even asking the questions which we would like to be answered. They say a nation gets the press it deserves. In our case I do hope that’s not true; these people are parasites.
There is much love for health workers though, throughout the country. We were all out there again on Thursday, and will be each week, to say…..
Thank you.
9 Comments
Monkey's Tale
Thanks for sharing the scenery from your daily walks. We’re in the mountains and don’t quite have spring yet.
Joe
You guys sure live in a beautiful place. Your daily walks must be a real pleasure. Even though the surroundings are familiar, it seems you are doing your best to quench your wanderlust. We have been very impressed with the vigilance and spirit of the British people, during this calamity. Just this morning, we listened to the Queen’s reassuring message. We also read that Boris Johnson had to be admitted to the hospital. Hopefully, he will be alright.
Phil & Michaela
Hi Joe, Thank you for those comments, we are of course facing the news that Boris is in intensive care in a worsening situation. It’s getting tougher here and our health service is already reaching breaking point and as far as we can tell we are nowhere near the peak yet. After years of muddling through the Brexit issue, we at last have a PM capable of being a strong leader. We can only go to sleep tonight hoping Boris pulls through. Some analysts are saying that by the time we pass the peak, everyone in the UK will know personally somebody who is killed by the virus. It’s a frightening and sobering thought. Goodness knows what the world will look like the other side of this.
Gilda Baxter
Taking daily exercise is what keeps us sane at the moment. You have a beautiful area to explore and it looks like you can keep away from people. We live very near the beach, so we are making the most of the recent beautiful weather and taking our daily exercise along the seafront. People here have been good at following the government instructions, I just hope things will get better soon.
Phil & Michaela
Hi Gilda, yes, our daily walk certainly breaks the day up and gives us an aim each day. We got very fit on our 7 weeks of travel so although we have no mountains to climb we are able to keep our fitness up to a certain extent. We live a 5 minute drive away from the Herne Bay seafront but haven’t ventured in that direction as there are more walkers down there than in the woods. Stay safe!
Fairy Queen
very beautiful places. I love tose wild flowers 🙂
Phil & Michaela
Thank you!
Albatz Travel Adventures
Walking in the British Isles is one of my favourite things to do, especially since there’s usually a pub or tea and cake shop just when you feel like a break. That butterfly is astounding – I’ve never seen anything like it
Phil & Michaela
Thank you. Yes we love walks that include a pub visit. We have missed that during lockdown, they are only just starting to open up again. The butterfly us beautiful, its a Peacock butterfly