Today I had an assessment for my course. When I completed it I decided to go into town and get some coffee. Upon returning home, I decided to go back out to this huge park I have been planning to go to for a while. It is approximately 1.3 miles from where I live.

Trying to get there was more effort than I thought. I get anxious when I go to places I am not familiar with. It is also very cold and windy and I only had a hoodie. I did have walking shoes though which helped support the feet. So, all the pain was in the face. I had a bit of struggle to find it at first. When I did find it, it was such a relief for my anxiety. You see, I had to cross a big road, a sort of mega intersection and these areas cause me a lot of stress.

Upon arriving at the park I was immediately taken back by the shear size of it, even from the entrance you can tell it is huge. Unfortunately the café shut at 4pm and I was there around 4:30pm. I decided to follow the path that seemed to go from the entrance right through the middle It took me all the way round, with some old buildings and ponds. It is a memorial park so a lot of benches dedicated to the deceased. There were multiple grass trails and pavement routes but I was intent and satisfied to simply loop it. All in all, I was there about an hour walking. There is a few sections which are particularly nice and relaxing, simple because they have maintained flowers beds and hedges. There was plenty of dogwalkers. It also rained briefly so I bet I looked quite funky inn my sunglasses.

For fun there is a few bowling greens, a café, museum – which apparently is closed down – a park for kids, old buildings to look at, ponds to look at, lots of paths and a yew maze. You can see over part of the town and city as the park it quite high up. Aside from the cold weather I enjoyed it a lot. I made a plan to go and I enacted it.

Altogether it was about 3 miles there and back amounting to about 40 minutes walking there and back. I have been trying to increase the exercise I do. I am also looking at getting a bike, so the park is the perfect place to go. Also, there was a cool section involving a cobble path which led under a bridge. Apparently the architect of the hall there was Thomas Harrison which I found to be a cool coincidence.

Since it was a memorial park, it did bring back memories of my own, some painful. I think places like that do have a melancholy feel, not the fault of the land, but being memorial is a place where people can ‘remember.’ I think I had a feeling of, ‘I wish certain people could be here with me.’ It wasn’t that I was alone that bothered me, but the feeling that I could have shared that with someone, who may not be here now. I suppose it is part of grief and we all carry that at some point. I suppose walking is good for mental health so taking that step is important. I encourage anyone to wrap up warm and do the same, grab a walking buddy if you have a friend or family member who might be interested.

How do you feel about this? What walks have you been on lately? Thank you for reading. I really appreciate all the support from you, it means so much to have people liking my posts and more importantly, reading them.