Outdoor Discoveries

What originally was a news section for the rest of the website soon became a place for me to write about human-powered wanderings in the countryside. Photography inspires me to get out there, mostly on foot these days, though cycling got me started. Musings on the wider context of outdoor activity complete the picture, so I hope that there is something of interest in all that you find here. Thank you for coming!

A Sunday morning stroll

7th October 2007

The weather in Britain and Ireland is an ever-changing affair that doesn’t take long to change when it sets its mind to it; thirty minutes often is all that’s needed. The weather this weekend is what’s put that thought into my head. Yesterday morning started as a cloudy affair before the clouds shifted to leave a cloudless blue sky and very quickly too. That wasn’t to last long, however, and my enthusiasm for an afternoon stroll among the hills beyond Bollington waned. Yes, I have to admit that cloudy skies do bring out the lazy git in me as does my indecision regarding where to go for a walk when my time is limited; it’s all too easy to stay where you are. Many of my walks are also photographic expeditions of a sort and cloudy skies more often than not do not make for pleasing landscape photos; saying that, they are good for subjects where diffuse light is what you need and woodland comes to mind as an example.

This morning was a similar affair and it is now well cloudy as I write this, though the sun is still trying to find a way through. However, I made no mistake when the sky cleared this time and pottered out for what was a gentle stroll starting on my own doorstep. The thoughts of seeing wondrous autumn colour in equally wonderful October sunshine was enough to set me on my way to Prestbury along the Bollin Valley Way. And I wasn’t to be disappointed on my excursion. My return journey was an unplanned affair made up of a mishmash of public footpath and road walking; at one point I ended up on an overgrown path and encountered plenty of nettles in a wilder patch of a normally manicured Cheshire. The sun had delighted, but clouds were appearing from the south and, within minutes of returning home, the sky had filled with clouds.

Heybridge Farm, Prestbury, Cheshire, England

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