Autumn Woodlands Walk

 

Yesterday I ran and Steve rode his old bike through our nearest stretch of woodland which is Angmering Park Estate, two miles, as the crow flies, from our home. He took some photos and a couple of video bits, making sure to keep them under the one minute mark or they cannot be loaded onto Instagram; or at least I don’t know how to do that, and I have tried and failed to load them onto this; my ‘Daf’s Diary’ page, but then I am not a computer whiz to the level of most six year olds. Still I think I have got to grips with quite a bit of the modern tech-know-how, enough for my needs anyway.

 

One of the photos he wanted to catch was including a background of the amazing burnished bronze colour that the fern has changed to in autumn. He thought he had caught it quite well. That was until we saw a photo that my professional photographer daughter Jacqueline posted on her page which made our best efforts look pretty weak. www.jacquelinerackhamphotography.com

 

After seeing Jakki’s post, I contacted her to ask where it was taken, how you get there, and where do you park. She kindly came straight back and offered to take us on a conducted tour of one of her favourite dog walking and photography spots; Eartham Woods between Arundel and Chichester. 

 

We jumped at the chance to be shown a new spot where we could go for a run in the future sometime just for a change, although it is still Sussex Woodland it is a bit different, in that it is hilly, whereas where we usually go on our training jaunts, it comes out onto downland anywhere hilly and the woody areas are less lumpy. There was also a much larger and prettier parking place right in the woods, where a spectacular carpet of autumn leaves leads the walker up into deeper woodland parts. 

 

When I saw Steve getting out his cycling shorts, I questioned his choice of get up, but he quickly responded that he would take his bike because his hamstring is still not completely better and as he said, “ I won’t be able to keep up with you two at walking pace, you both walk faster than I do”!

That is a family trait. My mother walked very fast and walked everywhere. She was always in a hurry, and grumbling at me to keep up when I was a child. Jacqueline in turn has had to keep up with me since she was little and is as strong of stride as I have always been. Jeffrey the Cocker Spaniel has no problem at all keeping up with anybody of course.

 We had a wonderful time and quickly lost track of where we were. In Angmering Park Estate, it doesn’t matter if you take a narrow path through the middle of the woods and lose your way a little because at any point there if you keep going onward, you will eventually come to a path that you know from all the years of wandering through there. Not that it mattered much, when you are just out to enjoy nature and give the doggie a good run. Still though, Stephen, who is a slave to his Garmin Forerunner, found where we were and where we had left our cars very easily, which was as well since he had places to go, and people to see, and things to do later that earned our bread and butter or at least a crust.

 

We hope to get together again soon and explore more of Eartham Woods and up onto the downs where we would I think sooner or later slip onto the South Downs Way at some point.

 

  

 

Midnight Tango

 

 

 

A

And other small pleasures

The ‘Spice of Life’ is not something that we should expect to come to us without earning it, as with everything else in life. We can only work hard on whatever path we have chosen, and hope to find some reward for our work sooner or later. I was reminded the other day of a quote from a successful sportsman who said, “The harder I practise, the luckier I get”. Good fortune is not floating in the air ready to be plucked out by lazy fingers. Just the same as a few years ago when Steve and I were driving through London in heavy traffic and we pulled alongside a taxi driver to ask the easiest way to where we wanted to go. I knew as soon as I opened my mouth with the quick question, I knew what was coming, “How do we get to the Albert Hall”?  It’s the sort of question that makes the day of a London cabbie, I knew immediately, but too late, that his reply would be “You have to practice madam”!

 

Along those lines of advice, I did go for another run this morning with Steve alongside riding his mountain bike. I am still a competing triathlete and so I must do my training as best I can, if I want to continue for as long as possible. There have been good days and bad days, and during the last eight Covid blighted months, there have been a few days when you might wonder what the blazes is happening in your life. However, it is happening to everybody’s lives, not just mine and yours. We have to soldier on and hope that eventually things will improve by next summer.

The poor old NHS are struggling to cope already and the death figures and rate of infection, are rising daily and we all know that this is forcing the hospitals to put patients suffering Heart disease and various forms of Cancer on hold they are, in some cases having to wait longer for their treatment because of the ugly pandemic that surrounds us all right now.

 

Most of the Charities are also suffering enormously because so many events have been cancelled, that were full of fine people who were doing the races to raise funds for one charity or another. My husband Stephen and I were entered for thirteen event several distances or forms over and we would have asked for some support in our circles for one of our local charity’s.

 

We did join in an event early in the first lockdown that nationwide raised a good sum of money but it was very little compared to a usual summer. So never mind about your own disappointment that you missed your memorable events. Why not make a small donation to the charity you would have supported, doing that instead of one of those entry fees that have been postponed until 2021. 

 

 Last night we watched Midnight Tango that featured Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, both of Strictly fame. The show that was first around in I think about 2011 and then a season in the West End too, was streamed on You Tube asking if possible for donations to the Arts whilst the theatres are having and equally grim time in ticket sales. It was marvellously unusual Tango Ballet with a simple easy to follow story line and beautifully danced with a world class group of ten dancers.

Keep on training all through this autumn and winter and if we are all sensible and do as we are advised to help stop the spread of the invisible enemy virus, we might then be able to get back to our fun days without losing our form.

 

 

 

 

More of the same

 

All the talk just now, is about the second nationwide Lockdown this year, said to be aimed at slowing the Covid spread of the second wave. The first lockdown, I seem to recall was supposed to flatten the curve and prevent a second wave. It is most interesting though that it simply shows that whatever the issue, the nation will be divided roughly into two halves. Each election build-up and result support that theory. The same is happening in the USA both with the Covid situation and the election drive. Half and half here, half and half in America, half and half world-wide.  

 

Will the second lockdown be any more effective than the first? I doubt it, just because I think that as per flipping usual, only half will take the precautions and that other half will carry on regardless spreading the virus as the brainlessly go.

 I went into Lockdown on March 1^st 2020 I was deadly seriously hoping that doing my bit as advised so it would help keep the death toll as low as possible. No chance because so many people took no notice what so ever to the advice. My husband and I stuck by our guns and continued to hold fast to our belief that we were doing the right thing. We have taken our exercise regularly to keep ourselves fit and well and we have kept strictly to a good healthy diet determined not to eat our way through a tough time but sadly I notice that many people have put on weight by comfort eating. Keep busy, is my best advice not eat yourself up a couple of sizes and drink yourself into oblivion.

 

It has been hard and I don’t expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel until spring at the earliest. Writing this diary page has been a tremendous help to me mentally. I have also kept cracking the whip over my own head to drive myself on with my handicraft activities which are absorbing and comforting, as well as giving some creative satisfaction. I have a procession of sewing projects in my head to continue with.

 My husband and I, who both love reading a good book, have got ourselves seriously into the books of Ken Follett that we have been enjoying together over the past eight months, listening to them on Audible. On the advice of my friends over the road we first started Pillars of the Earth. Any journeys and all mealtimes have been filled with these great books. Pillars was published I believe in 1989 and can also be found in a much shorter form on TV. The second book in the Kingsbridge trilogy

was published I found with a Google search in 2007; World Without End, and is equally absorbing and makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end when it delves into one of histories great plagues. First and second wave! Those who helped and did their best to stop the spread and those who ignored it and indeed those who were immune to it.

 

As a child, I did not catch the ailments that went around and infected my brother, cousins and friends; several nasty illnesses.

The only thing I ever caught, was a form of chicken pox when I was not unwell but had just four big spots all of which left scars.

 

Yesterday I was spending some time sorting our some of my poetry into groups. The reason I mention this poem is that as I have mentioned before I am a bit deaf. Not altogether, but if there is another noise nearby I will not be able to hear anybody who speaks. The swimming pool was a good example of that; deaf as a post in the water with the water movements splashing of arms swimming and background music to boot! At home with Steve I have come to enjoy foreign TV series and films because it is easier to read the subbies than keep on saying “What did he say” to my husband or “Can you turn it up a bit I can’t hear it”.

 

I lost some of my hearing during a bout of Labyrinthitis about ten years ago. The poem below speaks of the constant companion I have lived with since then, Tinnitus.

 

 

Tinnitus

It’s like it’s not true

Because whatever you say or do

Nobody else can hear

This endless, relentless din, those who

Can’t turn it down or off, can’t win

Only I, am here to hear

The cruelty of the level

Of ringing noise from the devil

Me alone to bear and hear

It seems that nothing can be done

My invisible torturer has won

Everlasting, on my own I hear

Even my husband, gentle as a foal

Hasn’t a clue how it plagues my soul

S’a miracle I can hear over what I hear

There isn’t any actual pain

A constant irritant will still remain

In here,

So near

Sheer noise

I hear.