Time

For most of us life gets incredibly busy. I know that my days tend to revolve around work and meetings and fitting everything in around school hours and then school homework, just to make time more crammed and stressed along with a multitude of other boxes that need to be ticked. Rushing from one thing to another, losing sight, making time pressured.

Sometimes we have to make ourselves stop and take time out and remind ourselves of the things that really matter. Slow down time.
Taking time off from work and being at home sounds great, but then it’s difficult not to be distracted by jobs that have been left undone and another different level of work starts to happen, cleaning, tidying, decorating, gardening and on and on it goes.

Today, hot sun, blue skies (again!) Me and daughter pack two towels, food and drink and walk through fields of cut hay, lying drying in the sun, waiting to be made into bales. Always an indicator as to how long the dry weather will last is how quickly the local farmers process the cut grass. Our farmers appear to be in no rush to create bales. Turning the grass reguarly to make sure the moisture is being driven out.

Onwards we walk to the river, just four fields from my house, to meet two villagers for a picnic and a swim. Food is shared and enjoyed, stories are told. The sun is hot and the river inviting. The coolness of water as we swim is refreshing and the setting is stunning. Laughter fills the air as we slip on wet rocks as we make our way downstream, swimming and paddling as we make our way to surprise a neighbour by emerging from the river and into their garden that sits quietly by the river. Greeted by the neighbour as if people emerging from the river into their secluded garden happens on a daily basis.

We eventually swim our way back to our abandoned picnic.Reflecting on how lucky we are to be surrounded by such views, hidden swimming pools and good neighbours. Reflecting on how easy it is to stop noticing what we have around us and to become bogged down in the daily grind and forget to stop…slow time down and look around.

The day has been long and we say our good byes and plan other adventures for days to come.
Walking back over just four fields towards home, with a happy heart, my childs hand in mine, feeling incredibly lucky.

Cycling and thought revolutions

….again needing ‘essentials’ (more bananas and a newspaper) I set off for my nearest shop. There are two roads into the valley that I live in; whichever one I decide to use I have to climb out of the valley. For a change I take the road that will make my cycle a circular ride. Realising that this will make my ride longer, but acknowledging to myself that I’m choosing this way as tomorrow I will be sitting in my car for three hours on my way to a course in a city and then another three hours to get home. I pedal away from home off my pot-holed track onto tarmac with the road rising gently, I can see the hill ahead of me; knowing that the bridleway to the right will take me down tracks, through farms and woods and will give me the opportunity to cut out this hill and make my ride easier. I choose to ignore it and stay on the tarmac. A storm damaged tree catches my eye and causes me to circle back and take a photo.

I carry on pedalling, watching my knees staying in line with my toes…thinking about cyclists I’ve observed with their knees not in alignment with their feet and thinking that surely that will cause problems and perhaps pain.

I arrive at the shop and buy my few things and pack them into my small rucksack…thinking that transporting our food from shops in our cars has perhaps been one of the factors that have caused people to get fatter…I set off cycling for home..observing people  carrying pies from the bakery to their vehicles…I have to stop to re-arrange the items I have bought as my rucksack is uncomfortable…noticing people passing me in their cars eating chocolate bars…thinking about shopping when I was a child and how it involved a two mile walk with my mum and other siblings (she got travel sick on the bus)…shopping for seven in our household and then carrying our weekly food back…thinking that when you are physically transporting food home, you become more selective in your food choices…buy one get one free offers? No thanks I can’t carry the extra…thinking that ease of transportation of our food has not done many of us any favours….thinking it’s hard to eat and cycle….

Dads’ Lesson No.3

She’s a philistine

In cultured clothing

Books on her shelf never read

Coffee table high brow to impress

Daily Mail in her head.

French cheese and red wine

Holiday home next in line

Instant coffee?

Not for she

Organic, hand picked chemical free

Big house, fancy car

She thinks she’s all la-di-da.

But wisely my dad said to me

“Fur coat no knickers,

Can’t you see?”