Fàilte

Here we find ourselves in summer. After a soggy winter and very cold start to the spring, the weather over the latter half of the season improved considerably, with a decent warm and dry spell. I remember being down in West Yorkshire in mid-May last year and remarking on how far ahead the trees were compared with up here. Not so this year – the trees are in full leaf and the rhododendrons and gorse in full bloom. We even experienced midges in the garden in May, much to our disbelief. Now they are something that really can wait to appear (or preferably not at all)!

The weather has been so amenable, I decided to try walking to Goathill from the house on the night of the Moldova Cup final. Trying to estimate the time it would take in my head, I left home at 5.45pm (kick-off was 7pm) and arrived in town at 6.25pm – 40 minutes and just over 5K later. It was an interesting, if slightly sad, experience. I passed no other pedestrian the entire way and only one bike. I expected that when I turned onto Perceval Road I would encounter someone…not so. It wasn’t until I approached the ground’s gates that people started appearing. Because of this, I felt quite self-conscious and exposed, especially as I didn’t have the dog with me (at 14 years old, she would struggle with that distance these days). Another friend who lost her dog recently had also recently mentioned that she felt ‘weird’ going out walking without the excuse of ‘having to take the dog for a walk.’ Were people wondering was she mad going out walking alone? Were they staring at her?

I was also struck by the sign at the entrance to Laxdale School advertising ‘Walk to School Week’. I found this quite depressing. When I was in school, you had two choices: walk or take the bus. For me, it was always the former, only living a very short distance from Back School. Some days if there was no one home at Broadbay View, I would walk down to no. 50 Back, or even out to 58 Coll with my pal, rain, hail or shine. We walked or cycled everywhere. I’m in danger of taking over Coinneach Aig Baile’s page here, but maybe it’s time we start to think about whether we really need to be taking the car out for these short trips. The traffic never stops, and it can be scary walking along the main roads, but maybe if more of us try it, the less strange it will seem? Only a few years ago, it wouldn’t have seemed strange at all!

Small steps…if the weather stays nice, I’m going to walk to Upper Coll tomorrow evening for the Back v Aths game and try to normalise walking solo in my own head. (And a special shout out to those few dedicated souls I see walking past my window to and from work almost every day.)

Jayne