Spring at the Favourite Place

I took a half day off work a couple of weeks ago because, whichever day this was, it was such a damn-fine-looking day and I had to go outside after my lunch just to see what was going on. I wrapped up in my warm coat and gloves and hat, as usual, but I soon found that I had too many layers. As we've already established in a couple of posts, spring is coming. I wouldn't say it was quite here yet on this particular day, and I suppose that officially it doesn't start until some time in March. But there are definite changes in the air. Of course, if you live in certain parts of the globe, it's nothing like spring. The southern hemisphere, for example; Texas, for another, where there have been extraoardinary winter storms.

It's been a while since I hiked up to the Favourite Place. If you live in Lancaster or Morecambe and you've only recently joined us on the bloggings, the Favourite Place is around the the new road, Powder House Lane and Barley Cop Lane. Read on, and you'll see where I mean.

I've been here since Freya came to live with us, but I've always driven half way because three miles would've been too far for the little lady. It probably still is, but we had a sit down in the middle and she was absolutely fine.

Powder House Lane scares the bejeezes out of me, but I also really love it. And today it was gorgeous because someone at the cricket club was cutting the grass for the first time this year. Wowza! Amazing smell of fresh cut grass. My apologies if you suffer terribly with hayfever, and you have my sympathy, truly. But, my god, I do love this smell. It's smacks you right in the face, grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you about and then yells, 'SPRING IS COMING'!!!! Of course, I took a few gigantic lungfuls and grinned my head off, while Freya tried to climb this wall, clearly shouting, 'Mum, what is THAT?!' about the ride-on lawn mower. It was an intense and refreshing couple of minutes, I can tell you.

But onward! There now, I've been telling you all year that this was a pond, and you didn't believe me because I couldn't get up high enough to snap the water. But there it is, absolutely proof now. It is a pond.

I remember when there were hors— Nope, I've done that bit already. Ah yes, the challenge as we go into the spring properly and reach the year mark will be to make sure I'm not repeating myself from the year before. I'll have to find more places to go, otherwise I'll start telling you the same stories in every post and then where will we be? No place good, that's where.

For our new readers, this is Jack Sparrow Lane. If you want to know why, you can read this post from when I walked with music. Suffice it to say, the name doesn't really make sense, but this is what I call it and I can't undo it now because it's stuck in my head.

Whatever it's called, it was very boggy on this day. We passed a nice lady coming from the other direction with her dog, and her trainers were ruined, poor nice lady. I had my wellies on though because I pretty much always walk in my welllies now. It's muddy everywhere.

Well, after much huffing and puffing on my part, and a lot of pulling on the lead by Freya (I've nearly sorted this out, it's okay!), we made it to the Bench, and the favourite bit of the Favourite Place. New readers, you'll know this spot, I'm sure. It's quite popular, and sometimes we have to wait our turn to sit on the Bench. It would perhaps be nice if there were a few more benches because it is a view that I don't mind sharing.

The flask was with us again today, and let me tell you, it's not that easy to pour tea when your dog is on a long lead and exploring while you sit. But I managed.

I shouldn't think it'll be too much longer before this field is muck-spreaded again. That happened right at the beginning of our walks last year, so it'll be soon. And then things will begin to grow! So exciting!

And lo! What have we here below? I've been here loads of times over the past eleven months, and I've looked at this view and admired it, and smiled and felt at peace with the world and myself. And I never realised I was looking at Torrisholme Barrow, or what we now call Freya's Field. That's it, right there! Almost the whole of it. Someone could sit on this bench in the Favourite Place and watch me and Freya for the whole of our walk in the field. They'd be able to see me throwing the ball and Freya larking about with other dogs. They'd be able to see me jumping about like a loon when Freya comes back for a treat. Hell, if the wind was right, they'd probably be able to hear me hollering 'GOOOOOOOD GIIIIIRRRRRRLLLLLL' with totally wild abandon. It's a good thing I'm not shy anymore.

I don't know why it completely delights me to see a place we've walked from a different place we've walked. But it does. Maybe it's something to do with my realisation of the interconnectedness of things and the smallness of the world. Or even the bigness of the world.

We could've gone back up Jack Sparrow Lane and home the way we came, but I figured that going through the Hundred Acre Wood was probably about the same distance, and Freya still looked plenty bouncey anyway. So into the woods we went. They've been re-gravelling the paths, which is lovely. They were getting quite boggy.

Daffodils! Wahooooo! First ones I've seen this year. This was over a week ago now, and I still haven't seen anymore.

Right, so. This seemed like a safe enough place to try some more recall training, so I let young miss go, just for a couple of minutes. I didn't really fancy chasing her through the trees, so I made sure she was well aware that I was carrying treats! Everything was fine. There was so much to sniff that she didn't even think about wandering off. But the second she ignored me, the lead was back on. Let's not forget, she'll be in her teenage phase soon, and we don't need to be letting her think she's in charge. Absolutely not.