It's a tad unnerving how a few weeks of inactivity, having been unwell, has impacted my strength and fitness. Muscles seem to atrophy at an alarming rate! I'm now determined to build back to where I was but it is easy at first to overdo things.
Take yesterday for example... It was a lovely sunny start to the day so I decided I'd go out for a walk, which I hadn't really planned. (Though by the time I'd had breakfast and changed my clothes for something more suited to mud (!) the sun had more or less disappeared.) I opted to go across to the little mill dam at the bottom of Shipley Glen. It's a round trip of roughly three miles, so I don't think of it as 'far'... but I was cream-crackered by the time I got home! I was puzzled, since I thought I'd walked much further a few days previously without any problem. When I checked my phone health tracker I found I'd walked almost as far in about half the time, so maybe it was the pace that did me in. It just shows how one's perceptions aren't always accurate. I'd have sworn that the earlier walk was a lot further but, on checking the distance, it was only half a mile more. It just took me a lot longer, with stops to take photos and a sit down whilst I had a packed lunch. Luckily, I wasn't planning on doing anything else energetic when I got home so I was able to rest. I'll be fine. I just need some patience.
The mill dam walk wasn't especially scenic. We're at that time of year where most places look a bit scrappy, mucky, muddy and dull. Some over-excited dogs running around near the dam ruined any chance I might have had of seeing the kingfisher that is sometimes there. There were a few mallards on the pond, looking beautiful in their breeding plumage.
On the canal there was a swan, one of last year's young by the look of its mottled feathers. I reassured it that it wasn't just an ugly duckling. I don't know if it understood me.
Up the track by Trench Meadows nature reserve, a length of holly hedge has been newly 'laid'. Hedgelaying is a historic method of caring for our old hedgerows. You cut through the hedge stems almost completely, then lay them at an angle to the ground. Laying the branches (‘pleaches’) down like this invigorates growth where they’ve been cut, so gaps in the hedge fill up and the hedge looks younger and fresher. Some of the cuts looked fairly drastic, so I will have to check in a few months and see how and if it is regenerating.
I know exactly how you feel! Walking with wellies on can be a lot more tiring though. Nature reserves and National Trust properties are the only places I see hedge-laying these days.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'd be curious how the hedge heals itself...something new to me. (I have house plants, so I think I know a bit but it's really a very small bit). Yes, patience. It took a year for me to get back to normal after a bout of pneumonia. After the heart thing I was in a rehab program, 2 times a week. That helped some.
ReplyDeleteFitness seems to disappear so quickly the older we get.
ReplyDeleteThe swan looks regal.
ReplyDeleteThe dam looks a nice place for a walk. Me too as soon as I stop walking for a while with my friends and then return after a few days off, I find it hard to keep up and then feel knackered when I get home after an hours walk.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWish your recovery were going more quickly, but apparently patience is something we think we've learned when we're old, but we really haven't. I keep having to do it. Lovely to see all the water. I am envious. And a special thank you for the hedgerow photo. I never really knew what the word meant til now. Very interesting....could be done anywhere that there are vigorous shrubs...Hmm.