There’s no doubt about it, the Christmas break has gone with a blur, and it’s back to work on Monday. But, when we arrived at 2008′s end a couple of days ago, we vowed to get out and about again in 2009 just as we used to, before computers, work, and habitual jobs seemed to overtake our lives.
Well, we’ve stuck to our guns, and over the last two days we’ve been revisiting some old haunts, and discovering some new ones. Aside from walking, one of the activities we’ve missed doing is geocaching, so we’ve been seeking treasure, and getting out into the Essex countryside.
On New Year’s Eve we strolled around Thorndon Park, near Brentwood, and sought three caches, before having a birthday dinner at Verde in Chelmsford (it was my 35th), and then settling in for the night. Sticklers for a quiet life, our now traditional way of seeing the new year in is with the cat, on a rug in the lounge, with warmed camembert from the oven and crusty bread.
As yesterday dawned dry and cold, we drove to Highwood, just outside of Chelmsford and walked the familiar Loves Green geocaching route, which takes in a circular walk through woods, fields, and tracks, and has traditionally been a place where you can see herds of wild deer.
Last time we considered ourselves lucky when we saw a small family group of three, but this time we thought we’d not been quite so fortunate. Three were galloping through the woods just to the left of us, but were so quick, we only just caught sight of them.
Then, in the last field were 43 of them, dancing across the top of the soil. Some distance away, they stopped, stared at us, and then carried on their new year gallop, unaware of both the new resolutions we’d made the night before, and that the new day marked the first day in another year of their lives.
