Nature Reserves

I'm lucky, I have a small, peaceful nature reserve within walking distance of home. It's a great place to walk round, you don't often meet a lot of people there. In fact, there are times when you are in complete silence, apart from birdsong and the unexplained rustling in the undergrowth. It's a place where you can relax almost totally.

And there are occasional magical moments - when you come across a heron fishing, or hear the sound of a cuckoo, or find yourself amidst a haze of blue damselflies. At the risk of sounding pretentious, it's great to have a place where you can just take pleasure in the world around you.

I love taking a book, or a camera, and spending some quality time down there, but even a brisk walk around the reserve, which can be done inside half an hour, leaves me feeling a whole lot more relaxed than I was when I went in.

Playing darts

About a couple of years ago I got a dartboard for the garage. It's not set up at the correct height, and I don't throw from the correct distance, but that's not the point - I'm not in training for a competition, I'm doing it purely for fun. At it's most basic, it's something to do with my hands while I listen to my MP3 player, or at a stretch it's a very gentle exercise regime - at least, it gets me moving around after tea, rather than settling down in front of the telly.

It's kind of like yoga for the Scottish male, in that the more relaxed you are, the better you throw. So it benefits mind and body - as long as you don't pull a muscle punching the air when you get your first 180!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi, good to see you. First things first, I should explain what this is going to be about.

I'm on the verge of being made redundant, so I'll have a bit of time on my hands, and I thought I'd use some of it to start a blog. I thought about doing a 'coping with redundancy' blog, but there are people out there already doing it better than I could, so I thought again.

And I decided - why not do a blog about the little things you can do to make your day that bit better. So here it is. And now I've got to think of one. Or rather, I've got to decide where to start. I'll get back to you on that...

Until next time...