May 2020

​May 2020
 
Walking
In May I walked. Freed from my usually very busy B&B routine of meet & greet, breakfast, cleaning & laundry I had time to explore my beautiful home area on foot. 
 
The sun shone, the air was clean and full of bird song. I found public footpaths everywhere, through woods, between fields, along streams and over moors.  
 
I walked on the coastal paths, joining up the bits I hadn’t walked before with the more popular bits that everyone knows. I found mining heritage areas, bronze age sites and hidden hamlets. 
 
Climbing the hills I found, towers, quarries, quoits, cairns, memorials and bronze age settlements. I learnt to recognise each from the next day’s hill, learning the lie of the land with its valleys and peaks. 
 
Flowers everywhere and early butterflies flitting around. I took photos and learnt the names when I got home using my old Readers Digest Britain’s Wildlife, Plant & Flowers, the best book I ever bought.
 
I found a field full of tall daisies and buttercups, so beautiful that I shed a tear! A small but perfect bluebell wood along a country lane had a similar effect. 
 
When the sun got too hot I swam and paddled in pools, streams and on almost deserted beaches. I studied the area on google earth and headed for the shady wooded valleys with streams and rivers flowing through. 
 
All the time I took photos. I made no other art, not wanting to keep still long enough and waste the great exploring weather. On facebook I posted the photos a few at a time and made a “vote for your favourite’ event each evening. My facebook friends enjoyed choosing their favourite tree / yellow flower / beetle etc and looked forward to each day’s offerings. 
 
Chris joined me on some of the walks, though mostly I went alone. He and I have decided to try to get out more in spring and summer from now on, having discussed how to minimise chores and make more space for exploring. We have missed out on so much these last few years just by not making more effort to get away from the house!