Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Whenever life gets too hard of complicated, I have to get out of the house and go for a walk.

My garden is great for those sticky moments, the ones that will make you scream if you don’t get out of the house and take five.

I have had several of those moments this week, and over all, I have managed to get a little gardening done. Today, I needed something a lot more and remembered The River Walk.

This mile walk is an old railway line, sans rails, and it runs along Liss Forest, here in Hampshire. It’s a very pleasant walk, along a small river. I have been there many times and never met anyone else there. It’s like another world, very green and at this time of year, very pungent with the smell of wild garlic that grows along the river.

Anita calls it the onion walk…

Hidden away in the overgrowth, there are remnants of old gardens or possibly from the railway station itself. I have found roses, and honeysuckle, and scarcely recognisable garden plants.

In this green world, we pass a field full of wild rabbits, happily running around. On one occasion, we made friends with a lovely brown and white horse who seemed pleased to see us. We often joke that we could live there, in a hut if necessary. Anything to be a part of all that magic.

At the end of the walk, we reach the old station, happily communing with Nature…

Of course, at the end of the walk you have to turn around and walk back to the car, but today, I think we will have lunch first…