It is already moved past the time when I can legitimately say Happy New Year but I have managed my first walk of 2014. I think I remember telling you that I had a really bad cold before Christmas and that has sadly hung on, like a drunken man to a lamp post, with tenacity and strength until I almost begun to believe that it wasn't a cold at all. My cough has, over the last couple of days, suddenly diminished from something that almost stopped me breathing into a much more comfortable (but nevertheless annoying) irritant, so in that respect I am feeling so much better.
I decided to go out for the walk after being challenged as to how I am going to motivate myself when my personal trainer decamps these shores for warmer climes for the next three weeks. Apparently off working in the UAE and all I can see there is desert! How wicked.....
But I took up the challenge and decided that a walk is what I need and as the sky was blue and the sun was actually shining, I took courage in both hands, threw my scarf around my neck, zipped up my coat, pulled on my gloves and then I was away. My walk has been completed in around 45 minutes previously, but as I have not been well - it was a very respectable 50 minutes. As I walked I could actually feel the weak heat from the sun on my back and although it made me feel ridiculously hot in my gear, I felt a deep sense of joy that I could actually appreciate some form of heat at this time of the year. In fact I would go so far as to say that I took my gloves off about half way round as I was feeling a little uncomfortable and then undid my coat. Unheard of from me which I guess means that I was either working effectively to get rid of some calories or I am sickening for something. I am hoping for the former....
As I walked I had the opportunity to look at the gardens, the hedgerows and the houses. One of the things that I haven't noticed before is the beautiful ridge tiles on the roofs on some of the older, much bigger properties. They sit like rows of scalloped shells and one can imagine (well I certainly can imagine) the beauty of the "big house" as it once was. For many of the houses that stood majestically and belonged to the more well to do, they are now forlorn scraps of their former glory and are resigned to bed sit land occupancy, peeling paintwork and grubby windows. Such a shame.
The trees and hedgerows are another matter entirely. Because we had such a harsh winter, late spring and a glorious summer, this has all conspired to make the trees and bushes positively drip with berries. The berries range in size from smaller than a pea to great globules the size of raspberries. The colours go from the palest orange to the deepest red and as I walked along the road there was an abundance of berries in nearly every house and the splash of colour in otherwise bleak looking front gardens was spectacular and lifted my spirits just by looking at them. People have said before now that lots of berries mean that we are in for a harsh winter; I have no idea whether that is true or not, but I have relished the colour at this time of year when everything seems so dull and lifeless.
The other thing that I have really noticed on my travels (I would like to say up hills and down dales but the reality isn't half so idyllic) around the roads close to where I live is that whilst some trees are completely devoid of their leaves (and I am not talking about evergreen versus deciduous trees here either) others are still hanging tenaciously to a few green leaves and some more decidedly brown dead ones too. The result of this desire to not shed their leaves at the right time has resulted in a sticky mulch of leaves fallen in the recent gales that have got wet in the persistent and often pouring rain and now stick like discarded chewing gum to the bottom of your boots; this in turn means that you are in danger of walking into your nice home all the dirt, sludge and grit that forms a clay in the ridges of said boots and shoes and then dries and deposits itself all over your house.
The Next Day.....today the sun is shining and the sky is blue again with barely a trace of cloud, there is very little wind, but it is cold. Looks can be deceiving and whilst it looks nice from inside the fact that I am sitting writing this with the heating on full blast and still feeling a chill, I can probably assume that it is not very warm out. But I am already beginning to count day the days again until spring. Seven weeks....I can't wait and hope that the spring comes on time this year, rather than what happened last year when it was dreadfully late and only stayed for a couple of weeks (well that is what it seemed like to me).
Only a short and hopefully sweet little blog post this time as I have run out of things to say (very unlike me I admit, but I am sure that it won't last long and I shall perhaps have something more interesting to say next time). Until then, be good and if you can't be good, be sorry.
P.S. For some reason it won't allow me to add any pictures so this will have to be a little more boring than usual. Sorry......
The other thing that I have really noticed on my travels (I would like to say up hills and down dales but the reality isn't half so idyllic) around the roads close to where I live is that whilst some trees are completely devoid of their leaves (and I am not talking about evergreen versus deciduous trees here either) others are still hanging tenaciously to a few green leaves and some more decidedly brown dead ones too. The result of this desire to not shed their leaves at the right time has resulted in a sticky mulch of leaves fallen in the recent gales that have got wet in the persistent and often pouring rain and now stick like discarded chewing gum to the bottom of your boots; this in turn means that you are in danger of walking into your nice home all the dirt, sludge and grit that forms a clay in the ridges of said boots and shoes and then dries and deposits itself all over your house.
The Next Day.....today the sun is shining and the sky is blue again with barely a trace of cloud, there is very little wind, but it is cold. Looks can be deceiving and whilst it looks nice from inside the fact that I am sitting writing this with the heating on full blast and still feeling a chill, I can probably assume that it is not very warm out. But I am already beginning to count day the days again until spring. Seven weeks....I can't wait and hope that the spring comes on time this year, rather than what happened last year when it was dreadfully late and only stayed for a couple of weeks (well that is what it seemed like to me).
Only a short and hopefully sweet little blog post this time as I have run out of things to say (very unlike me I admit, but I am sure that it won't last long and I shall perhaps have something more interesting to say next time). Until then, be good and if you can't be good, be sorry.
P.S. For some reason it won't allow me to add any pictures so this will have to be a little more boring than usual. Sorry......
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