Stepping out

A daily walk, that's the plan. I already go out with my dogs but they're proper old folk now and we go slowly. Generally half a dozen steps at a time, then a break for sniffing every blade of grass. If I want to get some momentum going, my heart rate up and some distance covered, then I'm going solo.

I even bought a step counter. I know there's no actual, scientific basis to the Do 10,000 Steps theory but it's a good number and who doesn't love a goal? I'm not one of those people who got fit and active during lockdown, instead I got meditated which was more important for me. Now the sun's coming back it's time to fit in some movement, and I get to survey the common ground for interesting things!

I decided to see how many steps it took me to do what we call 'the track' today. It's a public bridle path, much loved by dog walkers, and cyclists whose bikes have tyres that can cope with gravel and potholes. At this time of year, much of it is ankle-deep puddles and fall-on-your-arse mud. Conveniently, for those of us who like to measure things, it's roughly a mile from our gate to the end.

Along the way, you pass two of these in a garden wall. Do you know what they are? Well I'll tell you - they're geese holes. Yup, holes for geese. It seems geese were popular in the nearby village (and at this slightly more isolated Big House) back in the day, and the birds would use these specially constructed doorways to get out of the garden and onto the fields or common land. There are still geese who roam free in the area - not at this house but nearby - and anyone who knows the lane they live on knows to allow for the possibility that delays will happen because the geese are on the road, and they ain't budging. I give you....Geese In The Lane.

But I digress... So fresh was the morning - grey again, but dry and cold enough to be bracing, not cold enough to hurt - that I got to the end of that mile and, inna Forrest Gump stylee as we used to say back in the 80s (except for the Forrest Gump bit), I just kept going.

Turning left, I passed by The Poor Houses (now anything but, but a name sticks) and walked up the lane. The road will eventually bring you full circle but instead I headed down a public footpath that leads across four fields and a stream, back to the track and home; a distance of about three miles, or (apparently) 6700 steps. Not bad.

The world is full of birdsong again it seems (we added a new Voice today - a Blackbird with a whole lot of backing singers) and even my untrained ear was able to home in on some favourites. Sweetest of all was the huge number of Skylarks. Just hearing them brings imaginary sunshine and memories of Summer afternoons, strolling through the fields.

I'd been hoping to see some butterflies but it was too early /cold. Instead I saw some warring squirrels whose vocabulary is quite extraordinary - their voice is definitely one I hope we can share with you at some point. Crows, a distant Buzzard, those Skylarks, babbling streams still full with recent rain, and a pair of swans who fly in every year to take up residence on a small lake near here. Seeing and hearing them fly over never gets old.

Green shoots are everywhere, and blossom is beginning to light up the hedges. Farmers are doing "stuff' in the arable fields (pleeeeeease don't let it be a return of the slug pellets), and lambs are a bitter-sweet beauty at every turn. It's definitely Spring. I swear I heard a lawnmower.

Lockdown is easing next week. We are all champing at the bit, desperate to just GO somewhere that isn't where we are, where we've been and where it feels as if we'll never leave. But I have a feeling my daily walk on the common ground will give me a few of those freedom vibes, with something new to swoon over every time I head out. I promise I'll take pictures.