Day 113

Saturday 11 July

Yesterday, I felt a little down about the end of the spring-summer sprint. Back in March, nature’s bottle of fizz gets shaken vigorously then, POP! The cork flies and spring comes frothing out all over the place. This spring-time effervescence continues to flow for quite a few weeks, months even, cascading into summer. So much energy, sounds that excite, vibrant colours and new life. Just so much energy!

Then, after just a few days of rain, there’s a change. The energy reduces. The day time temperatures cool and the evening grass dampens.

But, of course, this does not mean the summer is over. Of course not! Why did I fill my cup with flat cola yesterday? The summer fun still has a good month or so to go. These past few days have been a blip, not a trend. The spring fizz may have gone, but there are still the zesty, chilled whites and long, warm reds of summer yet to be enjoyed.

Me and Lisa took Mabel for a walk today. This route was new for me and relatively new for them too, and I realised how important it is to see new things. Ok, so it was only a walk but at times I was really excited by the strange lanes, the unexpected turns, the dips and rises, the ponds, the massive trees, flowers, insects…..

I hadn’t been for a walk for a few days and this is now a daily need, not just for Mabel for us too. I need to mix up the paths I tread so that when I return to them, there is visible change. I also need to experience new paths, ones that have never had my feet on them before. During this walk today, I saw so much, shook myself and reminded myself that we are only in July – there’s still loads of summer left. Let’s open another bottle.