Forget Dora, I’m Fran the Explorer lol. A few times, after dropping off my son at Uni, I’ve cut through the housing area rather than go around on the main road. My sense of direction in the UK is particularly poor, however it didn’t let me down, and I found the shop I wanted, and cut out numerous traffic signals and traffic. I say in the UK, because many years ago my then-husband and I visited friends in Canada. He was always ‘lost’ however I always knew where we were, and I said at the time, and still maintain, that I’m living on the wrong continent. If anyone wants to start a GoFundMe to send me to my ‘true’ home, then please do so LMAO. I digress: whilst exploring shortcuts, I espied a walkway/cycle path that looked like it might be a nice walk for the dog and me.

So, one day this week, I put the dog in the passenger footwell, and drove the half mile or so to the walk. He’s finding it hard to get into the hatchback, and I find it hard lifting a 4-stone (25kg) dog, so the footwell it is. We could walk to the walk, as it were, but neither of us is young and by the time we got there, we wouldn’t enjoy the walk itself.

The footpath went on much further than I initially thought, and we passed by the backs of gardens which were huge compared to ours. How I wished we could have rented a house like these! We walked along a proper path, which was flanked by gardens and a very shallow stream, almost dried out, though with pretty yellow bog iris aplenty. The other side of the stream was a grassy area with large trees. We walked to the end of the cycle path, approximately quarter of a mile I think, onto a small road, and walked a little way until I saw a cut-through to the grassy area. I wouldn’t walk this way after rain, however the grass had been newly cut and was very dry. This side was very quiet, flanked by a junior school with huge, fenced off, play areas. There was no-one about, no road nearby, so for the first time in a year, I felt it was safe to let the dog off the lead. Well he was ecstatic; sniffing trees, having a little run, snuffling the grass. As we neared the road and the car I put him back on the lead and I drove home where we both had a long drink and collapsed. A lovely walk, and we’ll do it again one morning.

Another walk I’d like to do is on a green with loads of trees though I’ll need to drive to it first, to see how easy or not the parking is. That is an issue here; plenty of places to walk, and lots of green, however unless you live near it, some are hard to get to.

Another place I’d like to explore is something I’ve seen signposted – an outlet mall. I’ve been tempted to detour whilst we’ve been on the way to somewhere else, however having googled it, it’s closer to get to from home than the signs I’d seen whilst out. Not my son’s idea of a good time, though it could be something I’d like.

Here it’s been very sunny and quite hot with temperatures set to soar before cooling down again on Sunday. Look away if you have a delicate disposition – I have unearthed my shorts! They’re knee-length, almost, and tasteful, and so much cooler than the trousers I have been wearing. I don’t own a skirt or dress, not my thing but it’s getting too hot for trousers now.

Enjoy the sunshine if you have it, and have a great weekend.