Pine scented

I love the smell of pines. It’s such a comforting smell. Reminds me of living in Sweden. So walking through these woods was heaven. Bert and I stopped off for a wander on our way back from lunch. My goodness, it’s good for my senses to be around trees.

It’s also good for my stomach to have a lush lunch. I met up with a friend. He’s nearly 85, but we still have so much to talk about. Mostly horses. It’s fascinating listening to his stories of eventing and farming over the decades.

It’s one of the things I appreciate about the horse world. It’s very egalitarian. I have met so many people through horses. From all walks of life. In many age brackets. The common thread is a love of horses.

And horses are by far the best thing I’ve found for my heart and soul. But to be fair, being in nature comes a close second. Apparently you can ride in these woods. Now that would be a wonderful…

Ancient woods

I took Bert for a walk through some ancient woods this morning. I’d forgotten how beautiful they are. Even more beautiful in the winter sunshine.

After the grey skies, clouds and fog of the past few weeks, this made a wonderful change.

These woods used to be privately owned, but were bought with donations and put in trust to preserve them. That makes me heart swell. So much of our beautiful woodlands and countryside are being lost. Knowing this will be kept for future generations is great.

These woods were on one of my lockdown walks. It seems such a long time ago that I used to walk miles to keep my head from imploding with it all. Now I have Bert, I can see I will need to rediscover some of the routes again.

Think I might need to invest in some decent walking boots…

Dog walks

Today I got to walk with three dogs. First I headed over to meet Natalie and her two pooches.

We met somewhere I’ve driven past many times, but I had no idea it was called The Mystical Woods. What a wonderful name for a very wonderful place. If a bit soggy. There were some rather large puddles to splash through. And that was just her Labrador.

Then it was home to take my oversized Labrador for a walk. No puddles for him though.

My saddle is ready to collect, so that’s on the list for Monday. Buddy will be thrilled that his semi-retirement is over. I definitely will be happy to get back in the saddle.