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.