Goodness me, we seem to have strolled into June already. At the start of May I had plans to make it my most productive month on the blog so far, partly because it’s one of my favourite times of year thanks to longer days, blossoming flowers and cute animals. On top of that it’s National Walking Month and my birthday so all in all I thought there’d be plenty of fodder for the site. But that didn’t happen, no big reason mainly just the normal everyday elements of life taking over. Well that and the fact I never want this blog to become a chore so I won’t force myself to write if I’m not in the mood too.

Which leads me to today’s post as while there have been times when I’ve had ideas of things to write but lacked either the time or the inclination today I find myself in the opposite position. I want to write something but am not sure what, so I hope you’ll indulge me as I try a little experiment to see what happens when I just start randomly rambling. The ironic thing is that I do still have a couple of draft posts I could expand upon but for some reason those topics aren’t drawing me in today.

So what shall we talk about? Well actually this idea of a random ramble has got me thinking about the physical equivalent and I realise it’s something I rarely do. I guess for the most part it’s for practical reasons as I’m either walking as part of a journey to a set destination or I only have a limited amount of time. However there have been occassions when I’ve just wandered & this can lead to moments of panic. I remember one time I came to a main road, I started off trying to walk along the grass verge but then that disappeared so I doubled-back and thought I was back on track only to be confronted with a ‘no trespassing’ sign which I probably could have risked but I didn’t fancy it so it was time for another u-turn. It was a relief when I finally made it back on to a path I recognised!

Although if you don’t mind getting lost, a meaningless meander can be lovely. For one it can lead to discovering new routes you can return to in the future; for example one time when walking we discovered a nature reserve which is now one of my favourite places to visit. But even without new discoveries, an aimless amble is enjoyable simply because you don’t know what you’ll see next. The routes I take mean that what I’ll see next is most likely to be more fields and woodland and that’s fine by me. I have even joked with friends then if I ever go missing send the search party to the forest, I think reading Wind in the Willows at a formative age had a profound effect!

Of course a pointless plod doesn’t have to be in the countryside, it’s a great way to get to know a new city and it’s generally what we do anytime we go for a getaway. Although it’s not something I’ve done near home for a while, even though there are plenty of streets I haven’t ever been down. Even suburban streets can offer surprises, on my walks I’ve seen a bush with giant googly eyes, a knitted Dougal sitting on top of a postbox and a front garden full of toy dinosaurs. So next time I go out I’ll allow time for a whimsical wander as you never know what you’ll see around the next corner.

Before I leave I have to ask, did you enjoy my alliterative walking terms? I did, ha ha! We had random rambles, meaningless meanders, aimless ambles, pointless plods, whimsical wanders and of course soothing strolls 🙂

Well I’m not sure if you’ll agree with me fellow strollers but I think just diving in without a plan for this post turned out ok, in fact this one seems to have made more sense then some of the others where I claimed to know what I wanted to say. I guess sometimes plans are good but other times you’ve just got to head out and see where you end up.

That’s how I stroll.

• The best laid plans…
• Hiding in plain sight
• Holiday Strolls
• Something is better than nothing
• National Walking Month