I managed a 12 mile walk through the stunning edge of the Mendip Hills, across a nature reserve, past limestone cliffs, along the beach and up pretty terrifying steps onto the top of Brean Down (the Brean Down way, which I would highly recommend and, as a public service, have included a link to). I would recommend this if only as a way to escape the crowds of holidaymakers and retired people in Weston-Super-Mare. The number of times I was nearly taken out by a pushchair or a mobility scooter or a dog lead...
As an aside, I hate how some dog owners assume that you must also love their dog. I do not like dogs. I do not want a dog barrelling into me at top speed as I sit peacefully reading. I do not want a dog sticking its slobbering nose in my bag and generally making a nuisance of itself. I will glare at you in a typically British way until you get the message and drag your dog off me, and then I will mutter for the next half hour while I try and get sand out of my biscuits, and curse your dog with fleas... anyway...
Walking long distances makes me channel my inner homo sapien (as opposed to homo technologicus). It is the same feeling I get when I successfully make fire, or grow my own food, or swing through the trees like Tarzan. Maybe not that last one. There is a sense of achievement in doing something which takes so long, something you could achieve in minutes with modern tools. You are forced to go slower, to look around you, to concentrate on something. It is hard and that makes it satisfying. It adds context to life when you spend a day walking somewhere... and then get a bus back in 20 minutes. It brings you closer to your ancestors in a relatively safe way (hunting a marauding mammoth would probably achieve the same effect...)
So, I have been working on my nymph picture. Any helpful comments or suggestions would be very good:
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