A Countryside Walk at Christmas Time

 

Can you relate to the struggle of finding your footing on a churned up muddy countryside path in winter?

"Whoop!" I exclaim, as I slide in the mud. My arms extend in an attempt to regain balance. Thankfully, I remain on my feet. My boots are waterproof, but they still slip and slide in the mud on a wet Christmas walk.

Unlike last year, I have been able to visit my parents for Christmas and, for the festive season, I am staying in the village in which I grew up. My parents have the chocolate biscuits, sweets, and various other treats out that we all over indulge on at Christmas time. If I get nothing else for Christmas, I will always definitely get fatter. So, taking myself off for a brisk country walk might be a pointless endeavour if exercise is my goal, but for the pure joy of being out and about in the countryside at winter . . .

The days are fairly mild and Christmas is grey, not white. The fields about me look like a giant brown blanket covering the land. The fields, like the paths, are mud and look nothing like the waves of green and gold they will become in a few months. Puddles the colour of milky tea fill depressions on the path and I try to avoid the worst of them; some would pass my ankles if I were to just walk through them.

As I get older, I find myself huffing and puffing more as I trudge along the countryside paths I love so much. And though this hint at age and wear does diminish the pleasure of the walks a little, I still find much of that old pleasure in the hiking. Today I still get the joys on these paths that I got back then; regardless of how may times I might have walked these paths before, there is still a sense of exploration and discovery. The nature and wildlife that lives along these paths has surprised me and taken my breath away before, it still has that power, and I hope that it will continue to do so.

I hope that you have been having a merry Christmas, and I hope the coming year brings you everything that you wish for yourself and yours. I also hope that we see a kinder and better world for our nature and wildlife.

If you enjoyed this read, you can support my writing on ko-fi.com - buying a coffee not only keeps me writing, it also keeps me warm on those long trudges through muddy English countryside.

Why I go out walking footpaths . . .

 

Rainwater in tyre tracks; picture taken in a field in Stevington, Bedfordshire (photo from personal collection)

I find myself most happy when the path I am walking is empty of other hikers and ramblers. Not because I have any ill feelings towards anybody I might meet there, but because I am far more introverted than I am extroverted. That, and because I prefer to be the only witness to how much I wheeze and struggle when I have to conquer any uphill paths - a love for walking does not necessarily translate to peak physical fitness, unfortunately. 

There is a great part of my love for walking that is about escape. Getting away from the day-to-day and the mundane, some time with myself. All the more better if the woods through which I am walking are an awful spot for mobile phone reception.

Of course, there is also the fact that nature and wildlife can be found along those paths. I grew up in the countryside and developed a love for the foxes, deer, hedgehogs . . . and any number of other wonderful wildlife sights I spotted there. They take my breath away when I see them from those footpaths. Still.

Perhaps, if I had grown up in a much more grey and concrete urban setting I would not have the love that I do for paths lined by trees and flowers and grasses. Maybe I should be much more grateful that I had the privilege of growing up in a small English village. I think some of the moments I was most at peace could be found in the hours I explored the countryside public footpaths with my dog when I was younger.

There are now a number of studies that suggest nature is good for our mental wellbeing. The mental health charity, Mind, lists the ways in which nature is beneficial to our mental health and can ease ill mental health (How nature benefits mental health - Mind). I didn't know this when I fell in love with the footpaths around my home in my younger years. But, as somebody who is acquainted with anxiety quite well, I can definitely attest to how walking in nature soothes the mind.

The view from a bench - Bromham, Bedfordshire (photo from personal collection)

This blog is intended to be a nature and wildlife blog, but it is also a blog about the ways in which I interact and engage with nature. It is an expression of love for that nature and wildlife. 

I thank you for reading, and if you want to start a discussion about the ways in which you engage with nature and wildlife, please do leave a comment below.

Thank you again for reading. Readers can support this blog over on ko-fi.com, buying Monsta Wild a coffee - the caffeine keeps me rambling and writing - sometimes rambling in my writing! Thank you to all supporters!