Green Therapy

For us this usually consists of a long walk in the forest or over heathland or by the sea.  It's never failed to lift my spirits, clear the imaginary cobwebs and give me a feeling of life and vitality.  Until a few days ago.  

We went to Durlston Country Park - a mix of deciduous woodland and breezy coastal paths.  As far as the wildlife was concerned, we were not disappointed.  Within minutes, we were watching in awe as a peregrine soared effortlessly over our heads and then sped off into the distance to find its' next meal.  This was followed shortly afterwards with a glimpse of our first adder of the spring.  There she was, basking in the undergrowth, her diamond-patterned, copper body flattened out to capture as much of the meagre spring sunshine as she could.  This was at the same time as finding our first geocache of the day; and helping the owner out by replacing the log for a new, dry one in a baggie (standard geocaching procedure)  As we walked further, we were regaled with rafts of guillemots floating on the sea below the perilously steep cliffs.  Every now and again a few would take off and frantically flap off into the distance, and a few more would join the group from another direction. We were also treated to aerial displays from fulmars and an assortment of other gulls, including a huge black backed gull who kindly paraded for us on a cliff ledge.  We sat for lunch on a stone bench, with a view out over the bay, managing to bag a second geocache in-between passing "muggles"   And yet none of these wonderful sights of nature managed to clear the fog in my brain. 

From there we took a leisurely walk into the nearby town of Swanage - the home of our favourite chocolate shop.  Surely chocolate wouldn't fail!  We came out with a selection of the most delicious, hand-made, fresh chocolates in a mouth-watering range of flavours.  And yet still my mood had not lifted.  So home we came to the comfort of familiarity and warmth.  
The following day we decided to make our first planting day of the new season.  Between us, we planted a row of potatoes, three of carrots, and an assortment of tomatoes, chillis, beans, squash and flowers.  To us this represents not just the new season of growth but also the start of our year of creation.  We have some plants already in situ from the Autumn planting session but these new seeds are the ones which will almost appear to grow in front of our eyes.  Very exciting and yet, still not quite enough to bring me back to my normal self. 

At least this weekend, I'm not any worse. The positive side of this is that I know I'm improving, even if it's not as quickly as I had hoped.