Spring in my Step

I tend to be a person with a permanent "Spring in my Step "....which is very fortunate and makes itself known in my hobbies of dancing, ice skating and hillwalking.

Play music and I'm off - feet tapping, body moving - and I'm likely to be up dancing in seconds. Any type of dancing, I like to give it a go. I laughingly tell friends that I'd do the " Wah toosie " .....as long as I can participate.

I haven't skated for a few months now as I found I was getting dizzy when spinning. I'd finish the spin and find the rink still revolving! Also I still love to jump and even telling myself that I'm just going to skate round sedately, or do a bit of ice dance....no , I'm still hankering to leap about! Springs in my feet!

As a teenager and into my 20's I took up trampolining. I absolutely LOVED it! I tell a secret here ....I have a trampette in the garage and often have a surreptitious bounce. In fact I hanker after a trampoline in the garden!!

As you all know by now I do a lot of hillwalking and am usually out at least twice a week. I shun the use of a stick ( although I carry one folded up ) preferring to use my own balance and if necessary use hands, knees and occasional backside movements to achieve a scramble! Jumping streams, muddy areas and the like is a great delight to me.

Why, just recently I've twice run for the bus, quite forgetting that I am getting that much older. Without a second thought I've heard the bus coming and taken off hell for leather down the pavement. The first time the passengers gave me a cheer! The second time the bus driver was gobsmacked when I handed over my bus pass, and he told me I was"awesome". I just don't think!!

I firmly believe that every park ought to have 'play' equipment for adults.  We tend to forget the joy involved in play, and I look enviously on when I see children enjoying the apparatus in a playground. Actually I have been known to sneak onto some of the equipment and have a go. I've enjoyed a winter time 'swing' at Stanah Country Park. I've slid down a slide in Melrose. I've had a go in the adventure play area in Slaidburn. Joy of joy I found an adult recreation area in Settle.

I have a push along adult scooter and whizz up and down the prom, or the coastal path at Knott End...even up the Dunsop Valley. Kids shout "show us some tricks granny " ...and one day I might!!

My poem this week is related to walking and I wrote it in 1989......I found it untitled..

Show me a track,

Put a pack on my back

And the open fields before me.

Then off I shall trek

All you'll see is a speck,

For I shall be off and free.

Give me fresh air

The wind in my hair

The mountain tops before me.

And away I shall speed

Dressed all in my tweed

For I shall be off and free.

Give me a good map

Some soup and a bap

And the open glens before me.

Then away I shall stalk

Gone far, for a walk

For I shall be off and free.

Give me stout boots

For I'll never take roots

Within the valleys before me

For away I shall stride,

My dog at my side

For I shall be off and free.

Give me a stout stick

And I'll be off quick

Down the road before me.

For I'll never turn back

From the wide open tract

For I shall be off and free.

Thanks for reading .....Kath