Season's cheer on a cold and frosty morning

Festive scene in lights at a neighbour's house

I HOPE you're all having a nice festive break (even if you've had to go back to work on some days) and are looking forward to the New Year.

I confess I haven’t done quite as much walking as intended. You know how it is; there’s been family around and films on the telly, and food and the occasional drink and more food and  . . . well, you get the picture (basically, insert any excuse you like to remain slouched on the sofa tucking into mince pies and whatever!).

At the beginning of the week, I really didn’t feel like going out at all. Along with others at this time of the year, I was battling a headache, sore throat, cough etc. My voice was not so much ‘alluring husky’ as ‘irritating raspy,’ although at times I was unable to speak much at all; virtually silent, in fact – which some around here would count as a blessing!

But, as is often the way, once you get up and go, you actually enjoy it more than you thought you would. It’s the getting-up-and-going in the first place that often takes the effort.

I did a ‘power walk’ on my regular route that I know takes half an hour, but have since done a couple of more leisurely strolls. That’s the beauty of walking, you can take it at exactly the pace to suit your mood – and energy level – at the time.

How the environment changes with the seasons. A noticeable difference now, of course – at night-time, at least – are the homes bedecked with Christmas lights; in some instances, you can hardly see the houses for the glow! 

Santa's still glowing in some homes!

Early this morning there was a sparkle of a different kind, with a fresh coating of frost. Although it was nippy, it was quite refreshing, and gave a sense of season's cheer. The ground was extremely slippy, so you wouldn’t have been able to walk fast, even if you’d wanted to. I took a leisurely walk around a local park.

I didn’t record it on my cardio app (my last stats were for the 23rd). It was more ‘mooch’ than ‘march,’ and I stopped to snap a few shots on the way, so it would have been a rather odd read-out. I enjoyed the more relaxed approach.

As for my good intentions of doing more? Well, it’s nearly the New Year. I can always make some nice new resolutions and put my best foot forward, so to speak, with even better intentions for 2014.
Until then . . . another mince pie anyone?

This morning's view of the streets.

Overlooking a frosted park.

Early morning shadow and light.

Fence patterns in the frost.

No, I really mustn't. I've had enough . . . oh, go on then. Just one more!

Silhouettes, molehills and beacons mark the way

THERE was a nip in the air when I set off this morning, but it wasn’t unpleasant. I wore woolly hat and gloves, but towards the end had to take them off because I was too hot!

I didn’t leave as early as I’d intended because my mobile needed recharging: and I can’t do without my little cardio app that’s on the phone! I mean, how would I know how much fruit’s worth of energy I’d used? This morning I burned 228 calories – three apples’ worth! Yay! Three apples! That’s a bit more respectable than the tomato or two I notched up the other day.

The sun was a delight. As it rose the sky changed from a pinky blue to more of a creamy silver-gold, transforming trees into silhouettes as it did so. Not much fun for drivers at this time of the year, though, as it streams in through the windscreen at a low angle.

Tree silhouettes against the early morning sky

There were people up and about, dog walking, calling to the newsagents for their paper, or delivering them on their newspaper rounds; and the moles appeared to have been busy overnight, too. There was quite a long row of neat mounds, like buttons along the roadside. At least it wasn’t somebody’s garden! Moles can wreak havoc in a short amount of time, with their hills and tunnels (which can eventually collapse). Did you know that poisoned bait is sometimes used to try to get rid of the moles? According to Tom Clothier, a man who seems to know about these things, it doesn’t work very well because the bait is peanuts which, apparently, moles don’t particularly like? Well, I never knew that! In  fact, I'd never even associated peanuts with moles. You certainly live and learn when you go for a walk!

You see things differently when you're on foot rather than driving around in a car, especially at different times of the day. Even Belisha Beacons can take on a whole new perspective in the dark early hours; though beware if you try to photograph them at that time of the morning - you may get one or two funny looks!

A range of silhouettes - from the heavy to the delicate!

Molehills like buttons along the roadside

Fastest milk float in the West?

Worm's-eye view of a Belisha Beacon (above and below).

Adventure for body - and mind!

Setting out not just on a walk - but an adventure!

THINGS have been rather manic lately, with scarcely time to breathe let alone maintain a blog. I’ve been doing short bursts of walking but nothing to write home about, so to speak. But this morning I decided enough was enough and I had to get back into the swing of it.

I took my half-hour triangular route around the streets in our neighbourhood. After yesterday’s sharp early-morning frost, I was expecting it to be a bit nippy, but actually it was quite mild. There was a slight chill in the air, but you soon warm up once you get moving.

You can let your mind wander when you go on a walk, and on this occasion there was plenty to think about. Today is my wedding anniversary. This time umpteen years ago, my wife-to-be was sorting her wedding dress etc, while I was trying to fix our car, an old Austin A40 (Farina, I think) which had broken down. I haven’t a clue about mechanical things, but fiddled with whatever you fiddle with under the bonnet. I can’t remember fixing it, but must have done, because I made it to the register office on time, along with my best man (and lifelong friend) Rob Waterhouse.

Generous spirit

Also on Wednesday was my brother Dave’s funeral at Swan Bank Methodist Church, in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent (UK). Well over 200 people attended, including some of Dave's friends from his younger days. Sad occasion though it was, you couldn’t have wished for a better send-off. The pastor, Ashley Cooper, spoke from the heart, as he had known Dave personally, and wasn’t simply reciting from notes scrawled on a piece of paper. The congregation also sang with meaning and emotion. At these sorts of events, the typical singing is a low mumble at best. Not this time. I thought there was a recording or a choir. But no, it was the usual church-goers, giving every ounce of passion, harmonies and all! It was wonderful, and a real heart-felt tribute.

Dave had his difficulties, but was always positive, seeing the good in people and constantly planning his next ‘project.’ He was a generous spirit and an inspiration who touched many people’s lives - and was partly the spark for me to get back out and do some walking this morning.

Also at the funeral was my dear friend Christine Lapping. We hadn’t met since we were teenagers, and have only recently been back in touch. But the prolonged hug said it all! It’s surprising how you can just pick up where you left off, as if the intervening years had never existed. She’d also commented that I hadn’t put anything up on my blog for a while. So, there we are Christine, I do think of you – and here are some words and pictures!

Part of my route incorporated where I walked yesterday – at a much slower pace – with two of my lovely grandchildren, who describe it not as a walk, but as an adventure.

What a wonderful way to think about it. And my walk this morning was certainly that; an adventure not just in body, but also in mind - and spirit!

Pictures show two of my grandchildren on their woodland 'adventure.'

Finding treasure among the leaves

Deep into the forest.

It's all in the footwork. 

A long - and sometimes winding - road.

Warding off an invisible foe.

The homeward stretch.

Time for a quick play in the leaves.

Carving into posterity

JUST dodged the rain this morning. Went on my half-hour route, and the drops started to fall as I approached the finish point; although since then, despite severe weather warnings, it’s been quite bright for most of the day. The sun’s actually shining through the raindrop-covered window as I write.

The blogging’s been a bit erratic of late, because of other commitments, although I made a pledge to myself not to let the walking slip, and try to do at least half an hour a day. Not always successful, but once you miss one session, it’s easy to miss another, and another, and before you know it, you haven’t been on a walk for ages.

I have a convenient triangular route around residential streets that lasts almost exactly 30 minutes. It’s nice to set off with no plan and follow wherever your legs take you, but it can also be useful to know how long certain routes last. It makes it easier to plan into a busy day.

Plenty of puddles with all the rain. 

I followed the same route yesterday, but about three-quarters of an hour earlier. Surprising what a difference it makes: a lot darker, not so much traffic and no-one around. At 6.30am activity is already starting to buzz!

There are eye-catching changes in the scenery at this time of the year. It’s getting wetter – so lots of puddles – but, of course, the leaves are falling, so there are carpets of gold everywhere. There are plenty of acorns and conkers on the ground. Last weekend I also spotted an impressive ‘fungi patch' at the roadside.

I also passed an old outhouse on the roadside last Sunday, with graffiti carved into the sandstone. One was dated 1979. Another was ‘TT’ in 1951 and yet another was from 1909. 

The topic arouses strong passions, but the carvings on the wall seemed to carry historical resonance, and it was fascinating to think of someone in that exact same spot, hastily scratching their way into posterity, albeit anonymously, over 100 years ago. 

Van passing roadside fungi.
Below, close-up of the vegetation.

Old outbuilding at the roadside and, below,
graffiti scratched into the sandstone walls.

A carpet of gold as autumn leaves fall.

Walk around the workload!

A HEAVY workload doesn’t help with your walking! With increasing commitments, it’s been more difficult to get out and about. I’ve managed some smallish excursions, but it’s all been a bit erratic.

That’s frustrating, as I’m trying to make walking a ‘habit’ - part of my lifestyle - rather than a bolt-on extra. Apart from the health benefits, it makes you feel good and can help set you up for the day (if you’re walking in the morning). I had an especially busy day recently and got up early to ‘pound around the block’ deliberately to get myself into the right frame of mind the face the challenges ahead. It worked.  The walk gave me a boost. Note to self: plan better to fit in walks – even if they’re only 10 minutes! Think: Walk around the workload!

I enjoyed this morning’s effort. The overcast sky was a smudgy light grey and there was a light drizzle. I found this refreshing. I followed a new triangular route I discovered a few days ago. It’s all urban, so it’s along pathways and roads in a residential area, but it’s fairly quiet early in the morning and varied enough. It’s almost exactly a half-hour walk, give or take a few seconds. Having a route where you know the distance and/or time it takes can help. If you’re pushed for time, you know exactly what you can slot in.

The scenery’s changing, as leaves and fruit fall to the ground and the autumn sights and smells emerge.

Back on the trail after odd patch

IT'S been an odd couple of weeks. There was no phone line for a quite a while – and as a consequence no internet – because of a fault on the part of the provider. It was a strange feeling of being cut-off. We’ve become so used to having these forms of communication. Also, writing a blog acts as a motivator. You can do that, of course, whether or not you have the internet. But it feels ‘unfinished’ if you can’t upload your post.

Rainwater seen
 from the ground up!

Coupled with a busy schedule, the walking has taken a bit of a battering. It’s been rather sporadic, and I have not done as much as I would have liked.  I need to review commitments and see how walking time can be fitted in!

The weather’s been more changeable, which has added some welcome variety. One or two mornings it's not been raining, but quite wet, with puddles everywhere. Now leaves are beginning to fall, and there are also unopened horse chestnuts and small apples on the ground.This morning was pleasant. It was dark when I set of at around 06.15 and quite mild. I aimed for a half hour walk.

No, not a flood - just a worm's eye view
of a puddle.

I prefer a circular route to a straight one, and today's excursion was a mix of the two – if such as thing’s possible. My outward route included a lane I had not incorporated before, so I had to double back along that on the return journey – that was the straight bit! Instead of simply following the same route all the way back, however, I varied it, to add a sort of a circle.

If you had to draw the route, it would look like one of those cartoon snakes that swallows a large object – two thin ends, and a big blob in the middle!

Stats record - with number of steps added.

Cakewalk now on the menu

Rose hips - seen the on the Cakewalk route.

ONE idea to work out a ‘menu’ of routes, so that you can choose one to suit your mood and the amount of time you have. You could have a longer, more challenging one at weekends, for example, and shorter ones for when you’re pushed for time.

Walking is not like going to the gym. Apart from the fact that you have no subscription to pay, you don’t have to travel to get there, you don’t have to book at particular times, you don’t have to follow any particular programme and you don’t need any specialist equipment.

In fact, you can fit a session in almost any time, any place. Even just a five-minute burst is better than nothing at all. And if you think of every step you take as an investment in your own health and well-being, then that time and those steps are invaluable.

I followed the same route this morning as I did yesterday. And because the distance was partly determined by my penance for eating so much cake – where I told myself I had to add an extra bit (on to the walk, that is, not another slice of cake!) - I’ve decided to call it my Cakewalk! It’s one of my favourites, and is exactly five miles from the door of my house and back again.

Early morning colour in the park.

I cross a main road twice – once on the outward and once on the home-bound journey – then stay on pavements until I reach the local park where I do an anti-clockwise circuit of the perimeter path. On the very last section of the route, near my home, I have the choice of walking alongside the main road or taking a woodland pathway which runs parallel to it.

My goal now is to do the same walk a few more times, until I get a good sense of exactly how long it takes, what my pace is, how I ‘feel’ about it. And I’ll be doing the same with the other walks, slowly building up the bank, or menu, of different routes.

The park was beautiful this morning, between seven and eight. A light bluey mist hugged the ground and beams from the low sun speared between the trees. It was quieter than usual, with the occasional jogger or walker, and a handful of owners exercising their dogs.

It’s surprising how quickly the sun rises, though, and for much of the way back I was walking into it. I like this least of all. It’s rather like when you’re driving and you’re blinded by the angle of the sun. Sometimes, you simply can’t see where you’re going. In these conditions, I stick to shaded areas as much as possible.

But the Cakewalk is now on my menu, and I’ll certainly be going back for a second, or even third, helping!

Extra mile for guilty cake pleasure

Pleasant day for a walk.

IT was fresher this morning after overnight rain. Puddles on the footpath and glistening drops on the grass created a slightly shimmering effect (or was that just me shivering?). It seemed cooler, but with a brisk walk, things soon warmed up.

I followed one of my favourite routes, where the surroundings vary from homes to leafy park, and I know roughly how long it will take. You’re soon able to judge the timing for certain distances. Five minutes to the first lamp-post, another five to the turning for a narrow ally, five more to the gnarly old tree. You can gauge time according to the ‘route-markers’ along the way.

A slightly niggling drawback is crossing the main road. When the traffic is heavy, you have to stop, which interrupts the momentum. But once on the other side it’s easy to get back into your stride.

Couple exercising in the park

Once you’ve settled into a rhythm, you become aware of your body; yet it seems to ‘take over,' as if on auto-pilot. It looks after itself. You hear your breathing. Today mine was a strong, slow, pattern of in-2-3, out-2-3, in-2-3, out-2-3. Your walking creates the rhythm, but the rhythm in return helps you to sustain the pace. It feels relaxed, comfortable. You could go on forever. Magic!

As with previous walks, the park was again buzzing. A large group of joggers talked excitedly as they waited for the off, young soccer hopefuls pushed through their routines, owners walked their dogs. Cotton-wool clouds billowed into the blue sky, long tree shadows stretched across the bejewelled grass, and everything was an enriched green.

On the return stretch I ended up behind a slow-walking smoker on a narrow pathway, unable to overtake. I had to reduce my pace – and breathe in some of the cigarette smoke. Thankfully it didn’t last long!

What did last longer than I’d planned was my walk. My wife makes wonderful cakes, specialising in heavenly brownies. And guess who’s the chief cake-taster! This week there was a lot of baking, including a chocolate cake that was a sort of giant brownie. I confess, I have been taking the job very seriously indeed, and undertaking a great deal of tasting! (I know, but somebody’s got to do it!).

Tempted by Heavenly brownies - life's so unfair!

To alleviate the effect of my guilty pleasures, I decided to extend my walk – and so did an extra mile or so at the end. I thought of it as my ‘cakewalk.’ I finished almost exactly on the hour, save a few seconds! It was a good feeling!

By this time I was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger. Trouble is, the first thing that caught my eye was . . . chocolate cake, anyone?

Don't go down to the woods tonight . . .

A glimpse of the highway on an after-dark walk.

UNLESS you have a torch, and ideally someone to walk with, it’s not wise to go walking in the woods at night. Not just because it’s scary – things take on strange half-human shapes that loom out at you from the shadows – but because of the hazards. In previous posts I’ve mentioned the uneven pathway, small holes and tree routes. In the daytime, they add character and variety to your walk; at night, they become obstacles waiting to trip you up at every opportunity. 

And then there’s the dog mess. It’s difficult enough to watch where you’re treading when you can see – when you can’t, you never know what you’re putting your foot into.

This is not to say that a woodland walk in the dark can’t be fun, but it would take a lot more planning – and really isn’t the sort of get-up-and-go-right-now kind of walking being advocated on Route Walk.

In a post on another blog yesterday (Bubblews: http://www.bubblews.com/news/1080680-back-in-the-swing-of-walking) I briefly mentioned the reduced impact walking has on your joints compared to jogging or running. Casey Mayers, in Walking, A Complete Guide to the Complete Exercise, points out that in running, we land with a force of three to four times our body weight; he says 3.5 is the ‘generally accepted’ figure. Maggie Humphreys in Step It Out refers to the same statistic, stating that your feet hit the ground with more than three times your body weight when jogging, compared to one to one-and-a-half times your body weight when walking. And the Livestrong website adds that power walking places less strain on your body and joints than running does. 

Headlight trails on the highway.

It would seem that even walking at speed, your body suffers less impact than when jogging or running, although to be fair, running would enable you to burn more calories over the same length of time.

Of course, if you go walking in the woods at night, you may receive some unwanted impact as you become snagged in branches, or take a tumble over that 'invisible' tree root.

So don't go down to the woods tonight; wait until it’s light, step out into a new day – and improve your health and fitness without bashing your bones to bits!