Winter walks
I am embracing the winteriness of our days this month. Rather than grumble at the cold and dark, I wrap up warm, head out into the quiet and walk. I enjoy meeting nobody, having no vehicles pass us on the lanes, and, so long as I have at least one dog with me, I cross the fields in a state of contentment. Alone it would conjure weirdness for me. I am never alone when walking in frosty winter bare fields. It’s always Albert Claude and I, and when the days are dry, his sisters too.
They stayed home yesterday in front of the fire as it was the first walk this winter with snow. Their aversion to everything wet runs deep, they hate rain and almost as much detest snow. It started falling lightly during the morning, and continued all day. But little settled and this morning it’s gone, washed away by cold rain.
I spent December making adjustments, mental and practical. I’m starting the year afresh, with a crisp sense of how I’m going to use my time. Last year I allowed demands on it to run riot. No more of that. I know what I need to have in my life, and do with it, in order to thrive. And what I don’t. Walks are essential.
Regular walks with the dogs have been important in my life since 1996 and our first dog Jasmine joined our home. Ever since, the most consistent practice where I find peace is walking with my dogs. There are days when it feels a struggle, but within seconds of seeing the dogs happy, any negativity is kicked aside.
That’s not to say I enjoy every part of every walk, that would be silly. Some summer days if I’ve left it late – by which I mean past 8am – we limp home, sweating, craving shade and cool and a long cold drink. Or, some days now, when the lanes are dirty, covered in winter mud dragged from the fields by tractors, sloshing through with three sets of dog paws is no fun at all.
Even with the extra faffiness of winter walks – boots, hats, scarves, coats, muddy dogs needing baths – I enjoy them a lot. We can walk at any time of the day. We can make a walk long and stretching, with no worries about midday heat. I see the landscape differently, stripped back to its winter essentials. Distant hills are visible which in a few months time fresh spring growth will have obscured. It’s a beautiful part of the world and I love that sharing my life with dogs gives me reasons every single day to explore it.
This year I’ll be using Schnauzerfest’s monthly walking prompts to see it with fresh inspiration. Schnauzerfest Walks The Globe Prompts is a new initiative and I’m excited as to where it might take me this year on our walks. Every month the charity will give a prompt – January’s is ‘bridges’ – and invite people to walk using it as inspiration. The idea is to explore familiar surroundings or farther afield, visit new places, or see the old with new eyes. And post photos on social media tagging the charity and #SFWTGPrompts
I made a start this week, taking one of our regular routes down to a tiny bridge. If you’d like to see more of what I do, check my social media posts for the hashtag – I post our walks mostly in my Instagram stories. Next month’s prompt is ‘The big screen’. I am sure with lots of bastide towns and chateaus in this part of France, some will have been used as film locations. Time to get researching.
