Winter walks

Walking is good for your health, or so they say. So far, walking has been good for disturbing my sleep!


In truth, I am really enjoying my walks. My alarm is set for 5:56am, I listen to the news on the radio, and leave the house at 6:15am. It is dark and cold when I leave but when I get home at 6:45am, I am well and truly warmed up and enjoying the morning sun. I haven't been walking every single day. Weekends are off limits...but other than that I haven't missed more than 2 mornings. It has only been 12 walks to date but that is compared to nothing before...

I have noticed some things about the environment I live in on these walks. It is fascinating to see what goes on before the majority of people are awake. The sounds are different, the smells are different and everything looks different.

With every breath forms a cloud of fog and the cold air almost hurts to breath in again. The sound of my footsteps on the footpath are the loudest sounds until I reach the main road where there is rarely a car to disrupt my progress. There is one sound I hear that worries me every day...It is the buzzing of electricity as I pass by one particularly loud electricity pole. It is probably something I should tell someone about...It cannot be heard over the noise the day makes.
One morning I smelled raisin bread toasting as I passed one house, and another smelled of freshly burning wood. It was the first wood fire I have smelled and the only one so far. Then there is the smell of exhaust fumes as I walk past the service station. There is always cars parked there, engines running, as their owners slip in to buy coffee or cigarettes or whatever their need is. I imagine they leave their heaters running.

I find it oddly amusing that at such an early hour, so many people seem to be in a hurry. There isn't enough time in the day for anything, apparently.

I have contemplated taking my camera with me on these walks, but the weight of it would be cumbersome, and having to stop to take a photo every five steps would defeat the purpose of the walk. Sunrise is beautiful, each and every morning. The streets glow pink and orange and I feel as though I am walking towards the new day, fresh, awake - alive.


But every day that I walk, I am fighting off aches and pains. The impact on my knees and my body isn't pleasant but I ignore it because I need to stay active.
I need to teach my body and my mind that it needs to cope with at least that amount of activity every day. When I start working, I want to get through the day without feeling as though I have run a marathon!!

Not that I have a job yet.....

Here is a little something I took recently with my iPhone. I thank then inventors of camera phones every day, because if I don't have my real camera with me, I always have my phone!