Getting up early!

Sunday morning first thing and I lie there listening to farming on Radio 4, or rather, that's what's on the radio. A hundred ghastly things I need to do start to enter my head and I wonder if I should make a list. Devise pub quiz; vegetable garden, clear greenhouse; ironing; general tidy up (especially kitchen); change bed linen; bathroom; hoovering...the list goes on and on...and on. Light has started to enter my bedroom and instinctively I know it's going to be a nice day and after all the recent rain we've been having, the rebel in me starts to surface. Who the hell wants to do jobs!? I make a decision! Before I do anything dull today, I'm going to take my (at the moment) favourite footpath and go for a walk with mates. I'm right and it's a glorious morning. We cross over the railway line and then onto an uninspired path behind a dull little line of houses and suddenly and without warning we're on open fields and climbing styles and making friends with ponnies. From here we join the Ferring Rife and taking the path by the stream, and instantly I'm a child again.

Slowly but surely those horrid little jobs make a welcome exit from my mind and before I know it, we've reached the Blue Bird Cafe, surrounded by beach huts on the Ferring seafront.

I keep my fingers crossed...and yes! The tide is out and so we can walk out to sea and then between rock pools and sandy patches make our way to the Goring Gap. The sun is hot and glorious and all my cares have evaporated and I've reminded myself of where I live and how very lucky I am...and more importantly how I should put the humdrum aspects of my life on hold sometimes and just enjoy what's around me.

It's free and it's important...and it gets rid of those cobwebs in the mind. The walk home is just as good, and we even stop to watch some youngsters playing football...and we talked! What could have been such a dull and ordinary Sunday morning became something magical. When I've done some of the jobs...I might go out again! :-)