Route Walk: A stroll in nature's art gallery

A feast for the eye - and a treat for the taste buds!

Creative nature - from little acorns . . .

THE beauty of walking is that you can vary the pace to suit your mood and amount of effort you want to put in.

When you run, you have to, well, run – you need to be going at a certain speed for it to be classified as running. You can run slowly or quickly, of course, but you still have to run! When you jog you have to well, jog! Is jogging a sort of running walk, or a walking run? No answers required, just something to ponder if you’re at a loose end on a rainy afternoon!

With walking, however, you can powerwalk or racewalk, or you can stroll or even dawdle – just had to get that word in somewhere – but it’s still walking! Sometimes it’s nice to burn rubber and really go for it; other times, you can slow down and just take in the scenery.

Nature's art - textures of a fallen tree.

And when you’re walking there’s plenty to see. This evening, my walk was more of a stroll, with a few stops to absorb what I came across and take photos. I didn’t worry about my ‘stats,’ as I wouldn’t have burnt a great deal of energy or broken any land speed records, but it’s still activity, it’s still physically moving.

Nature provides a natural art gallery. Today I enjoyed beautiful shapes, forms, patterns, textures, colours. Here an installation, there a sculpture. A real sensory adventure – apart from a slightly painful wrestle with the brambles!

Mind you, I don’t know why dog owners who bother to take a scoop bag don’t take the bag with them instead of leaving it where it is. That’s worse than simply not clearing the mess in the first place.

But a mild annoyance compared to the benefits of the walk and the natural delights on display.

Oh, and as for the Fruitometer – the little measure of calories burned on my Cardio app – instead of ‘burning fruit,’ I took some home with me.

I mean, those blackberries did look inviting!