I slept like a log, and woke feeling rather better than I
had felt yesterday, which was something of a result. I made myself some toast,
then peered into the internet to see what had happened overnight. Very little
had happened on Facebook… I say “very little had happened”; my feed was
filled with all sorts of quotes and memes from mindfulness websites and groups.
I’ve always been rather dubious about “mindfulness” ever since some
consultant psychiatrist was interviewed on Radio Four who said that mindfulness
was actually rather dangerous as it was being practiced by all sorts of people
who don’t actually know how to do it properly. Some of these were (so she claimed)
doing more harm to people’s states of mind than good. She might have had a
point… I once went to see a counsellor. I went in feeling a tad miffed and came
out feeling positively suicidal. I’ve been wary of any of that sort of thing
ever since.
We got ourselves and the dogs together (finally
persuading Fudge to eat something) and set off. As we drove we listened to
Steve on Radio Ashford until the reception became too poor.
We didn’t have to go *too* far out of our way
because of the road closure at Leeds castle, and soon we were in the car park
at Sutton Valence where the dogs started their howling/screaming concerto. They
know when we are going on an adventure and once we arrive at where we are going
to start walking, the excitement becomes too much for them.
We should really do something to stop it…
Karl, Tracey and Charlotte soon arrived, and we went for a
rather good (if socially distanced) walk. Earlier in the week a series
of geocaches had gone live following the Greensand Way from Sutton Valence up
to Wierton and back in a circular route. The views were spectacular, the
countryside beautiful. We walked past some rather impressive houses; we walked
past one tumbledown shack which was up for sale. "er indoors TM"
looked it up – half a million quid would secure you the tumbledown shack of
your dreams (nightmares).
We watched a hawk fly into a tree, then swoop out and after
vanishing from sight for a second it flew to a post where it perched. We
managed to get to within fifty yards of it; it had clearly caught something and
was ripping its prey to pieces. Yuk!
As we walked we found a little pond. It was rather pretty
so we stopped and had our picnic. It was good being able to stop by water; the
dogs all had a spuddle, and Treacle and Pogo both had a swim. I had worried that
today might have been too hot for the dogs, but it wasn’t as hot as it might
have been, we were able to have the dogs in the shade for quite a bit, they had
plenty of water, and were able to swim in a pond. And their blue cooling
neckerchiefs worked wonders. They were still damp and cold at the end of the
walk.
It was a shame that Fudge had to roll in quite so much dirt
and ash, but that’s the kind of dog he is.
Geocache-wise it was a very good walk. Aleta had done a
sterling job in putting out this series. With caches packed closely together
and good hints we didn’t really have any problems at all. There was one iffy
cache – but that had been hidden by someone else. I posted “Needs Archiving”
on it. But that one was a perfect example of why when I hide caches I don’t
want anyone else’s caches nearby. People will walk this excellent series but
remember the one crappy cache for which someone else is responsible. (Hopefully
that one will soon be gone)
Today’s was a good walk - I took several photos.
We got back to the car park; we said our socially distanced
goodbyes. We came home cross country to avoid the road closure.
Once home we had a cuppa then "er indoors TM"
boiled up a rather good bit of dinner which we scoffed whilst watching a TV
show that had been recommended to me. “The Secret
World of Lego” was rather rubbish really. It was all about what goes on
the Lego headquarters in Denmark, and because the company guards its secrets (you
can’t blame them for doing so) it was rather out of date.
I only watched it because people at work would expect me to
pontificate on the show tomorrow. I wish I hadn’t.
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