• I sometimes lie in bed and stare out across the fields and golf course on the other side of the road. Somehow I’ve been either too busy or unable to get someone to come with me and walk around that view for eight years now.

    So today I walked up the hill to find my way round the footpaths that circle the comb-like top of the valley above Coleford to get the view from the other side. I’m so glad I did. There’s nothing like knowing what’s under your nose.

    The first half of the walk is across the golf course. I’ve never walked over one before. What lifeless, boring places they are! I’m sure Capability Brown could have made a beautiful golf course. The landscape is tortured into an unnatural shape that is all about function not beauty.

    The footpath back was squeezed in between two house fences, ugly or what? And intimidating. You have to be quite brave to go walking on your own! Public footpaths have been sacrosanct, so building boundaries are built right up to them. Interesting, in that you get to see into back gardens and see what other people do with theirs, but the downside is that the owners don’t really want you walking past them, so they make it an unpleasant experience. Barking dogs being only one of the hazards.

    I caught a glimpse of a fox running away at the start of the walk. I caught him later. I’m quite impressed with my camera – it can really get quite close up.

    More ice pictures too. Different to puddles as the stream is still running so it makes the edges all crinkly, like Norway!

  • Etiology is the study or attribution of where things have come from. Too much etiology can make you grumpy and start accusing people of using words incorrectly. The fact is the meanings of words change over time. In conversation, most people know what a word means because of the context and inflection.

    Lawyers need to know the exact meaning of a word in context. A bit of shrewd, applied etiology can entirely alter the wishes of the deceased!

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.

  • I had a meeting this afternoon which gave me the excuse to have a walk round Lower Lydbrook, a long, straggly village with a coal mining history, that meanders down from the Forest of Dean to the edge of the River Wye.

    I came across a fabulous bit of Ice. Cars had splashed water from a puddle over a fence and the lower branches of the hedge, where it had frozen to create fabulous shapes.

    There seems to be a lot of mistletoe around this year. One clump of trees over the river, they look like may trees, looked as green as summer.

    I walked up a very steep footpath and found a massive stone bulkhead at the top. It seems there used to be a viaduct crossing the valley. I’ll have to find out why.

    The path took me down to the main road, which I have driven down many times in the past twenty years. It’s amazing what you see when you are walking. I was taken by a flattened shed – it must be dug out inside because you couldn’t stand up.

    On the side of the road was this now dried up spring – I say dried up – of course it could just be frozen up. I feel there must have been a trough underneath it once for the horses to drink from.

    I felt quite brave walking on my own of my immediate turf. I guess the more you do things outside your comfort zone the more normal it becomes.