Slightly Creaky Today

What do you do when the sun is shining, the house is claustrophobic, your son is in seventh heaven on a computer game tucked away in a corner somewhere and your husband is glued to the TV for the football and heaving heavy sighs every time someone interrupts by breathing?

What do you do if your youngest expresses a desire to go out to find a beauty spot and try sketching? Why, you oblige, of course, gladly and even gratefully. At least you do if you're silly.

With no set destination in mind we went:

• East out of town
• South to the cliff
• Over the cliff between the farms
• To the meandering river between this cliff and the next
• Down to the sea
• Back up the meanders
• Across the roadbridge
• Up the banks of the river proper, on the only footpath which is on the wrong side
• All the way past the forest
  
• Past sheep and millions of unphased rabbits, a gun dog trainer and herons
• Past cows in a sort of "excuse me huge and disinterested bovine, you are on my path" way
  
• Miles upstream to a tiny bridge
• Back down the right side for home
• Back round a huge hill (huge as in the top of the slope has a famous chalk picture)
  
• Up the hill (mind the giant rabbit holes, Alice)
• West through more fields (just higher up)
• and home again.

Only four and a half hours, which I make to be about twelve or thirteen miles. Sorry I forgot to count the number of stiles and kissing gates.

Guess what.

Daughter found lots of things she would love to draw, but never any benches or grassy humps devoid of droppings or nettles, which is why we just kept on going from one vista to another.

I guess we'll just have to go again, next week.

Photos to come when my brain works. Tanaa!