Back in October I went for a walk round my childhood stamping ground. I was extremely lucky, because it had been grey and overhung in the morning. There was a heavy shower as I was getting ready to go out, and then it stayed dry until just a few hundred yards from my mother's house. In between I enjoyed an autumnal walk in crisp watery sunshine.
The first photo was actually taken the previous afternoon but I again walked past this spot to reach the canal
At the time I tweeted my walk thusly
- 15:37 I am in England's most boring local park. It tantalises with a model railway which I've never seen run. Cafe/duckpond fail.
- 15:38 It's comforting to see Sale is as boring as it was in my youth. No kids play out. Few adults walk or bike.
- 15:50 I feel like Julia Bradbury yomping along the tow path. I suspect several of my fellow walkers are channelling Sylvia Plath.
The bridge in the distance is Park Road, Timperley.
- 16:00 I walked down the steps to the brook which I was never allowed to do as a child. I didn't fall in.
This is the bridge that takes Sinderland Brook, the historic boundary between Altrincham and Sale, below the Bridgewater Canal I wonder if the bridge is as old as the canal (18th century); in any case, it seems a shame to have done such a rubbish patch-up job with non-sympathetic materials. It would be quite fun to try and do a walk of the brook (although obviously at this point it would be necessary to divert along the tow path and cross the canal at Timperley. It would also be fun to bike the length of the canal, even more fun to do it in a narrowboat.
There is a nature reserve on the banks of Sinderland Brook
- 16:08 We have WIN as one kid swings across the brook on a rope and another crawls across the pipe!
- 16:18 This other park is the win cos of the brook, & cos the swings & slides have been renewed since the 70s.
- 16:20 Also because of the random crap sculptures near the playground and the large derelict house with 'Danger Keep Out' signs.
- 16:52 Walked along the brook through the woods into my third park of the day. Feel sorry for the lamerz sealed into their metal bubbles.
The light was fading by now, so my pictures of the pitch-and-putt/polling station failed. It's a great little polling station in a small polling district. On a good day ('Labour weather') a teller can just lie in the park and soak up the sunshine.
- 16:56 Why do so many of the Smug Marrieds drive round in Drug Dealers cars? Don't they know they live in boring suburbia?
- 16:58 A boring suburbia their kids will want to flee as soon as they cut the umbilical cord & allow them out unsupervised (age 25).
I think the point I was trying to make was that, wherever one lives, it is usually possible to find some green space to take a walk. This is quite a built-up residential suburb, it's not in the countryside or whatever. Sometimes we think we have to travel for miles and consume time in search of nature, and we forget what lies on our doorstep.
I find walking quite hard on my feet, but, nevertheless, such a walk is good for one physically and can be great for mental health. It makes me sad that one passes so few people grasping the opportunity; it also saddens me to think of all the times I have preferred to stay at home or join in the rat race rather than walk, look and reflect.