“It’s not necessary to go far and wide. I mean, you can really find exciting and inspiring things within your hometown.” Daryl Hannah
Anyone else currently wishing they lived somewhere more interesting right now? I normally spend so little time where I live that I have never stopped to think about where I actually live and the area. Currently I live in Crewe, its where I was brought up and despite moving away, around and travelling in my 30’s I ended up back here. For adventure its actually perfect, I am 90 minutes from Snowdonia, 45 minutes from the Peak District and 2 hours from the Lake District. For further adventures I am 4 hours from both Cornwall and Scotland, I am currently in the perfect position to travel to any of my favourite places!! What I never considered was what if I couldn’t leave Crewe, what would I do if I had to spend months and months walking the same few miles!!
Built up as a railway town Crewe has more of an industrial feel than a nature feel about it!! We have one main, pretty small park (now closed because people couldn’t social distance) and few green spaces however, we are surrounded by fields if you walk to the edge of the town. I am very much about #stayathome and #staylocal. I have been limiting my one form of exercise to a walk a day, no longer than 90 minutes. And now after 35 years I am forced to explore the town I spent my whole life trying to escape!
We have a skate park that I never knew existed and some alright graffiti
After exploring the middle I decided to venture to the edge of town and to a world I never knew existed, its amazing what you actually take for grated. I must have drove past the fields thousands of times in my lifetime and never noticed them before and certainly never gave a second thought about them being there. This is now my chance to explore and really get to know the town that really shaped me as a person!
This is the town where I spent my teenage years hanging around on the corners, kissed my first boy, had my heart broken. It is where I learnt to drive, it is where my family live. It is where I went to college, its the one town with the most memories and yet it is the one town I know least about.
Turns out if you actually just start walking you will be transported to a whole new world!
Although the new world is very much as muddy as the old world.
Have you noticed through all this that nature is getting louder, it feels like the natural world is really benefiting from this. The birds are singing louder, the wind is moving like a ballerina though the trees and the air feels calm. Now is a great time to reflect on climate change and the effects we as humans are having on our planet!
It seems like, with so many other things, I have taken for granted what is on my doorstep and even though its hard right now and I almost feel like my freedom has been taken away. At the same time I am grateful that my life has slowed right down and allowed me evaluate what I consider important in my life and it is giving me the space and time to consider what parts of my old life I want to bring forward into my new life when all this is over. And it is making me more aware and thankful that I actually have a roof over my head and food in my fridge, it really is the little things in life that are important.
