Week 43 – Walk With Others
Fitting my walks around commitments means I often walk alone. Walking alone is good for thinking and clearing my head but walking with others gives me a greater sense of wellbeing.
My most recent walk with others was to check out a route for a group-led walk for visitors to Attingham Park.
My sense of wellbeing started well before I arrived at Attingham. I left home in glorious sunshine which turned to mist as I drove past open fields. The sun was trying to break through the misty layers casting shadows on the ground. As I approached Attingham Park the house was completely concealed by the misty veil only partly revealing itself as I walked to the courtyard where I encountered the VR (Visitor Reception) manager and the group walk co-ordinator. We had a brief conversation and I found out that there was currently a problem with a power outage which they were trying to get fixed.
I headed to the meeting room above the courtyard where the other two walk volunteers were waiting. Both were a little confused as to why the office was empty, it seemed they hadn’t seen the group walk co-ordinator as they passed through the courtyard, although he must have seen them because he told me they were upstairs in the meeting room!
Once the problem was under control, James, the group walk co-ordinator joined us and we set off to walk the route we had mapped earlier in the week. The grounds were shrouded in mist. As we entered the deer park the house was completely hidden and the trees appeared as dark shadowy shapes. Along the first stage of the route, I was able to point out a large nesting box (for owls?) that I had seen earlier in the year.
We left the deer park and entered one of the woodland paths that leads to the Berwick memorial. When we reached the memorial, James mentioned a tree that had been inscribed by WWII soldiers and prisoners of war. As we were discussing the location of the tree, a man arrived through the gate nearby and asked if we had seen the inscribed tree. Unbeknown to us we were standing next to it! He told us about the WWII connections and the inscriptions on the tree. Some of them are fascinating and I need to research some of the symbols on the tree.
We continued our walk along the pathway leading past the Repton Oak towards the mansion, pausing briefly to chat with a couple of volunteers that were collecting acorns from beneath the old oak tree. Deer, although obscured by mist, could by seen nearby as we continued our walk back to the deer park bridges and the mansion beyond.
On my way back to my car, my VR manager, Nicolas, was at secondary VR and wanted to know all about the walks and would I still be helping out on VR (Tuesdays). I reassured him I would; Tuesday afternoons are my commitment to VR. As I arrived back at main VR the sun emerged through the mist and I chatted to other colleagues before driving home.
