Mr. Percy Thrower Reporting back after a 16 mile Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks training walk
By Tom Winnifrith | Sunday 14 May 2023
There were three reasons to procrastinate about starting a training walk this weekend. The first is that if you were lying in bed next to a gorgeous younger wife would you want to get up? The second is that walking a long way by yourself, up and down a main road to Wrexham, is not that interesting. You can think about various things but there are only so many things you can think about or talk to yourself about. My training walk, avoiding the killer cows of years gone by is dull. The third reason…Is that I put in an amazing shift in the gardens yesterday. The area once known as the jungle is really starting to take shape. We are already set for glorious crops of strawberries and lavender, the early potatoes are coming up strongly and were hilled yesterday, our rhubarb is flourishing, the broad beans are surging ahead as are lettuces and spring onions while the first radishes are already being harvested as I plant a big second batch. In the field the big news is that there are signs of life on two of the five olive trees I smuggled in from Greece with small shoots showing. And the other three certainly are not dead.
But there are still vast amounts of lawn to mow, fruit bushes to plant once I have weeded out nettles and now bare earth is opening up, denuded of weeds calling for dwarf beans, carrots, swedes and beetroot. The later potatoes are chitting in the library and I have a raft of peppers, chilies, marrows, squashes and pumpkins and tomatoes, home grown from seed and also bought in, now sitting in my potting shed but ready to plant out in the next couple of weeks. I have a glut of tomatoes as the ones grown from seed appeared – and are now flourishing - just as I had written them off as dead, panicked and bought a stack from the Duke of Westminster’s garden centre. So, there is a lot to do and on Saturday – with the Mrs. taking the kids out to supper with her parents – I laboured until it was dark.
As a result, I felt terribly tired last night, a third reason to procrastinate. However I walked to the Petrol station on the Wrexham bypass and back. That was nine and a half miles. I bought some milk to drink, back in my home village and set off again doing the five miles to and from the Holt Lodge hotel, an ideal place to stay for ShareStock as it is affordable if a little East German if you know what I mean? Finally, I took the path there and back to Frog Lane so added just over one more mile. All in all, it was 16 miles.
I have splashed out on five new pairs of thick woollen walking socks so my feet felt a lot better than this time a week ago. I really could have got past twenty miles without collapsing although on arrival home I did have a shower and promptly collapsed into a bed, snoring happily as the family headed off to Chapel.
Anyhow, my procrastination was overcome. As you think of my still slightly sore feet, think also of what a cracking cause Woodlarks is and please make a donation HERE.
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