A Country Spring

I’ve always enjoyed trips out in the countryside, especially in spring.

As a child, a Sunday afternoon treat on a sunny day was a drive out into the Kentish countryside to see whatever the current seasonal attraction may be – bluebell woods, primrose-strewn grassy banks, fields of lambs or budding hedgerows. The rest of the time we led a typical urban lifestyle.

For years my life has been town based, with a sprinkling of forays into the countryside for high days and holidays. I enjoyed every moment of my rural stays in Wales, Yorkshire and Cornwall and found myself feeling extremely ‘hemmed in’ on my return.

Certainly day-to-day life consisted of urban activities and journeys, with occasional countryside jaunts being welcome, but not always frequent enough.

This year however, things are different. We’re experiencing our first spring in our rural based ‘glorified shed’. Now every journey we make involves travelling through the countryside – we’re surrounded by it!

Whether we jump in the car, hop on a bus or just go for a stroll, we pass farms, woodland, fields of sheep and horses and generally expanses of open green space in whichever direction we travel. In fact we don’t even have to leave home to experience the whole country scene, just by looking out of the window we can see the river, common land and distant hills. We certainly don’t need to go on Sunday drives to experience the countryside and we have no inclination to reverse the process and go for a drive to town!

You would even think that when planning our first holiday since moving here we’d chose a very different environment. But no! We’ve booked a stay in another rural location, just in a different part of this green and pleasant land.

This spring we’re revelling in the delights of our new surroundings. It is indeed our first country spring!