Making the Most of Outdoor Time
There is no denying it. The world is weird right now. Society as we know it has ground to halt except for essential workers - highlighting what many people have been saying for years. It's the retail/service workers who make the world go round. Hopefully, there'll be a global increase in respect for them after the pandemic.
But this is not a ranty post about that. It's about Spring.
I have found it so reassuring that while "the world" has been crumbling, the world has actually kept spinning and doing what it does. As I write this, our garden is delightfully over grown and we've had our first "We should probably mow the lawn" conversation of 2020. Our mint plants are sprouting up, begging to be turned into ice cream. Daisies are pushing their way through the grass. Hell, even our half dead Christmas tree from three Christmases ago is finally showing some signs of life. The laundry is hanging outside and I have dug out the wobbliest table in existence so that I may work outside too.
When the world starts warming up, I do get a little giddy and OTT on the "Hurraahhh it's sunny" vibe. I don't know if anyone has been following my stories recently, but they have heavily featured bad pictures of the skies and ELO tracks. I am sat in the one part of my garden not drenched in sun right now, as it's the only place the table will go, with the knowledge that the sun will eventually make its way round to me. I am even wearing a sun dress (and a cardigan, I'm not a total maniac).
I will forever be grateful for the sunshine.
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| Springing into life! |
As we are only allowed out of the house once a day for exercise, we have been making the most of our time. I may have mentioned it in the past (or just a thousand times in cover letters, I really don't know at this point) but we foster for the Dogs Trust. It's a fabulous scheme where we take a shelter dog into our home while they wait to be formally adopted. The dog gets the love, care, and attention it needs and we get a dog. Currently, we have an older lady called Tara who just loves going for walks. She gets so excited in the morning when we put on our shoes and coats, and she even has a chair she sits on when we put her harness on. It is a joy seeing how happy she gets.
We are lucky to have a variety of walks available around our home. We go to the church, to get our PokeStop for the day; there's the River Tern and woodland for something more adventurous; and a few open fields for playing fetch. I have said it before, and I will say it again, I love how green Shropshire is. I am very much a country girl, I much prefer the smell of farm to traffic. If we're getting picky, the best smell is, of course, salty air by the sea but we don't get much of that in landlocked Shropshire!
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| Office views |
As the lockdown and quarantine continue, I am finding more ways to appreciate the great outdoors. As well as making a bucket list of things I want to do when we can get back out and about! For the last few days, I have been sat next to an open window in my study or at the kitchen table with the patio doors open, getting a lovely mixture of spring breeze and sunshine. As I mentioned before, today I've gone whole hog and am working outside. Tara is even enjoying some outdoor time and sunbathing! With Jools Holland blaring, I am one cocktail away from this being a garden party!
In true British fashion, I am sure the rain will no doubt be just around the corner. I mean, there is a song called Little April Showers after all. But I will endeavour to not let it wash away my sunshine fueled optimism. The world is still spinning.
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| Posing with the blossom |
Right now I am going to take every opportunity I can to get outside. Instead of eating lunch and watching YouTube, I am going to suggest we dine outside. We will take as long a walk as our schedule allows. Once the lawn is mowed, I will do some outdoor yoga (to Saw, no doubt). Our garden is in desperate need of some TLC in general - the messy corner needs sorting, we have bulbs to plant, and the never ending supply of dog poop needs picking - so that is something to spend the day doing. We even have a badminton set which we bought in Italy two years ago!
Currently, there is a nesting pigeon in our garden as well. Congratulations Mrs Pigeon! When I was growing up, we had a million rabbits. Honestly, I barely feel like I am exaggerating there. It started out as two lady rabbits who escaped and had babies. Then we decided it would be a really good idea to get a boy rabbit because the babies were so cute! From that point on, there was never less than about thirty rabbits living in our enclosed orchard - with three chickens for good measure. It was fascinating watching them grow from tiny little splops (technical term right there) to fully formed rabbits. The original mammas were the standard grey-brown rabbit colour, but the first male was white with brown bands. That was enough to make a jet black rabbit, a ginger one, a fully white one, one with a lightning scar, one that was actually an afro with feet, and so many more variations. Had I decided biology and genetics were for me, I could have probably done an entire research project on those rabbits.
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| Mrs Pigeon |
Basically, the point I am getting at is that it is exciting to see new life develop. Mrs Pigeon's nest is tucked away in a bush that doesn't even originate in our garden, it has grown to hang over our fence, so we won't get to see the little squabs grow much. But it is exciting to know they are there! That amidst all this madness life is still continuing. It gives me hope. In the words of everyone's favourite Chaotician, "Life, uh, finds a way."
There are things I am looking forward to doing once this is all over. Namely, diving. One of my 2020 goals is to dive somewhere new and I haven't even been in the pool this year! I really want to travel to parts of the UK I haven't seen before. I nearly applied for a job working on the Isle of Mull in an aquarium (seemed a little counter productive to move to the arse end of Scotland for a part time, seasonal job). The aquarium sounded amazing, because they released their exhibits back into the sea every four months making it the most sustainable aquarium. Also, you could go every four months and it would be different! So that is on the list of places to visit. I'd really like to go SUP again. We also keep threatening to go canyoning/scrambling but always organise our holidays at the wrong time of year!
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| Adventure awaits! |
Basically, I want to reclaim my sense of adventure. However, I am very much enjoying the domestic lifestyle right now and doing my best to make the most of it. Sunshine, rain, snow - whatever weather Britain wants to throw at us - I am safe and I am happy.
Hope you are all staying safe and happy. What are you doing to appreciate the great outdoors in these times? Lemme know below!
Listening to: Jools Holland
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