Walking home

Today was quintessential November: grey, cold, drizzly. We trolled around an art trail yesterday, so fancied a change today. I also needed to try my contact lenses for an extended period in which I wouldn't want to either read or use a computer, so a walk was the obvious answer. As I didn't want to drive anywhere Moonface & I took the local train to Shirehampton and walked home via the riverbank.

Seeing the Avon at low tide from this new perspective and at walking pace is to see it in a very different light as it's lined by low grey cliffs above the mud-line. The walk home is about six miles, of which only the last is through town, and there's about another quarter-mile of tarmac along the Portway to Black Rocks, before climbing up to the Downs.

A few observations: in spite of the weather and the omnipresent sound of traffic the walk had interest and was effectively rural. And I could see without glasses! Today must have been the first time for forty years that I have spent so long awake without glasses on my face. When I finally succeeded in the prolonged struggle to remove the contacts ( I hope that this gets easier with practice ) and replace my glasses, they felt very strange and unwelcome. I should have tried contacts years ago, before my ability to focus atrophied.

In the final mile we stopped for cake & coffee in a new-to-us caff on Whiteladies, then scouted for others to try on subsequent Sundays: winter is coming.

:o)