Joining the landscape dots

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We’ve lived in this village for just over 8 years but until recently I didn’t really know the surrounding area intimately. I drove or cycled along the road and occasionally went for a stroll along the river to the pub or through the woods but didn’t really have a proper mental picture of the village’s place in the landscape. A year ago Pup arrived, and that has naturally spurred me on to get out on foot more. When he was first allowed out on his own four paws we were restricted to just 15 minutes at a time, and since there wasn’t anywhere close enough to walk to, have a free run and get back within 15 minutes (on little puppy paws it would have had to be about 20 metres from home!) I had to drive him somewhere. To avoid both of us getting bored I would stop at different places each time – different entrances to the woods, different patches of woodland, different access points to the river, different meadows. As he has grown the distance we can walk has increased and the known area has expanded, until now, at 14 months, he’s allowed 70 minutes of vigorous exercise at one time. He also walks faster of course so we go further in the same time, and by now all the bits of the local area that I knew have all joined up into one big whole. It’s got to the point where I reckon that if I walk briskly (and don’t get too bogged down in the really muddy, slippery bits) I could probably walk the entire circumference of the area we know well, a distance of about 7 km I think, in the allowed time. We’re going to have to start exploring a bit further afield again! I am happy to know the landscape better though. All my growing-up years were spent on foot, tramping over the fields and hills. Living here and not really knowing how to get from one place to another on foot, or where the footpaths went, made me feel disconnected and now I feel a much greater sense of belonging. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2016.