It has been a very sad few days here. For those of you that have met Banjo, my little sidekick on the guided walks we had to say a sudden goodbye after she has a stroke đ and only six weeks after we said goodbye to her mum. đȘ
With such a struggle to get out on the forest on my own today I took a very deep breath, put Banjo's ball in my pocket and head out on my own for the first time in 12 years. After half an hour of being surrounded by the early signs of autumn, my pain started to ease and I could think about all the daft things my little girls did rather than why they had both been taken away so quickly.
There was a warm breeze blowing through the yellowing beech leaves.Beautiful heather and ripened blackberries are a true sign of early autumn but ripening holly berries and very early flowering gorse seems to be confused by the seasons. The fallow bucks look fantastic in their autumnal headgear while the swallows skim the heath picking off spiders and flying insects getting them ready for their epic journey coming up. A small flock of gold finches went unnoticed foraging on the ground ahead until they erupted into the air full of twittering commotion and stonechats kept me company flying from gorse to bramble along my path. Before I knew it, three hours and 7.5 miles had past, the forest has once again helped me start my healing journey and even though I didn't have my four-legged companions I realised my walks on the forest are far from lonely and the only way is up! đ