Today, after a full day at University, the plan was that I take the children to their swimming lesson. I usually enjoy this. We enjoy a varied discussion/argument about what music to listen to on the half hour drives there and back, and I get to watch them swim from the relative comfort of a room alongside with full length windows. No sweating on the poolside for us, which is a real parenting bonus.
But today my body ached. My knees, my hips and my back, despite a 10 minute workout this morning, were stiff after an hour's driving (to Uni and back) and several hours sitting in a chair which probably claims to be ergonomic, but really REALLY isn't. Plus, the lecture theatre had no windows, so I had barely seen the sky all day. So instead, we agreed that Rach would take them swimming, so I could stick on my welly boots and go for a walk.
I took the new circular walk which we enjoy now we live at Bramleys. Down this footpath alongside the crop field which is currently in full rape flower (I made sure to take an extra shot of nasal spray before venturing out), along an old lane and back past the sewage works and through Kiln Meadow.
There was so much to see and hear while I walked. I had my earphones in, listening to a podcast about unconscious bias in maternity care, which was thought provoking. But I took them out now and then, to enjoy the sounds around me fully. A skylark, singing above that crop field. And here, there was a blackbird singing its' evening song to my right. I couldn't quite spot it, but I could hear it clearly.
The wild verges are looking beautiful at the moment. I love these delicate little white flowers. I've just had a Google and I think it's Greater Stitchwort. I've seen lots of it around this year.
Gotta love a buttercup. They're just so vibrant.
This bank was covered in so many types of wildflowers and grasses. Nobody has sown them. Nobody has tended them. Nature looks after itself, when we let it.
The lane led me further and further along, and every few minutes I couldn't resist pulling my phone out again to take another photo. I'm such a total sucker for wildflowers.
A verge full of cow parsley... I think.
These cowslips by the wee pond at Kiln Meadow really caught my eye. Those, the purply flowers near them, the green of the leaves and the reflection of the sky in the water. Delightful.
I wandered into the small wood and found that some local children have been busy building a den and creating interesting decorations in the branches with found objects and gardening twine. It made me smile. I must bring our chiddlers here to play too. Those twisted, leaning trees look amazing.
Then I spotted this sloping tree, which appears to have been used a lot by a (I'm guessing) woodpecker. Amazing texture.
Eventually I wound my way back home, where the blossoms on the Bramley apple tree called to me. I watched a bumble bee buzzing around here this morning Such beautiful blossoms, and such a brilliant eco-system component.
The wildflowers I've sown in two beds in the front garden are finally showing reassuring signs of life. I was worried that the seeds had failed or the seedling had not survived the dry weather we had, but all my careful watering, and then the rain more recently, has been enough. I'm excited to see these patches develop over the next year and beyond. I pottered around the back garden, putting the cosmos back into the greehouse for the night, brushed the weeds away from the onion seedlings and watered the pot plants.
Taking a walk was definitely a good decision. By the time the kiddles returned, excited to regail me with stories from their lesson (Miss O got to jump in FIRST and Master R, in his first Stingray class, swam "faster than he ever has before!") I was feeling chilled. There's this particular feeling that comes when I've spent time outside in nature, or just watching the world through the window. Or practising yoga. That works too. It's a stillness, internally. My usually fast inner monologue slows or even stops, which for me is a big deal. That internal monologue is often loud and fast.
That time outside meant that I was ready to embark on bedtime with the children, then an evening doing pre-reading, re-energised and less harrassed. Self-care for the win!