the corner office

My first time out in a while. I'm only recently past an annoying case of plantar fasciitis (also known as "sore foot"), and the weather's been lousy, and I've been busy, and maybe getting a little bit winter-lazy too. It was great to get some fresh air into my lungs again.

The biblical rain had stopped, we'd had a fairly mild and pleasant week, but the mist rolled in for the weekend. I didn't mind.

Being my first excursion in a while, I'd decided to visit a few of my favourite places. There's a stretch of land near Halstead - copses and woodland and lawns, really pretty. Somebody, years ago, marked it as a private golf course on OpenStreetmap, but I can find nothing more about it online. The lawns look like fairways, and satellite images show that the lawns are mowed, but there are no tees or bunkers or greens that I've ever seen. Part of someone's country estate, maybe? A public footpath leads along one side of it, but being private land, I've never gone off the footpath to explore. Who knows?

It's another public footpath so infrequently used that there's no "path" at all - just a couple of signs marking the route. At some point I stopped and looked back to enjoy the view behind me, and saw my footsteps in the dew.

It reminded me of the line from Mater, in the movie Cars, when he's talking about his mad reversing skillz: "no need to watch where I'm goin', just need to know where I've been." It always struck me as an amusing bit of folksy wisdom that's easier in the recognising than the explaining. Which might mean it's actually just nonsense. I still like the picture though.

And finally, I visited my field. They've let sheep into it since my last visit. Sacrilege!

And beyond that, the first time I've ever seen other people in the field. On one side, I met an elderly woman (out for a countryside run; respect), and on the other, two teenage boys. The boys were heading in the same direction as me, and had nearly imploded with awkwardness when I passed them the first time, and said hello. Our relative stopping and starting meant we crossed paths twice more, one of these in the field, and they ignored me both times. Gen Alpha social anxiety? But they were navigating old-school style with a paper map, so respect to them too.

As for the sheep, my main gripe is their poop ruins the walking and the paths they wear into the grass ruin the photos. Although lambing season will arrive soon and if my field ends up with lambs, all will be forgiven.