into the woods

The weather here today has been absolutely dreadful, so naturally, we decided to go for a nature hike through Storeton Wood. Normally, I don't really do nature. I show my appreciation for it, and desire to see it preserved from harm best by staying out of it. But, hey, sometimes you have gale-force winds and occasional bursts of extremely cold rain, and this strikes your spouse as ideal weather for a nice walk, so you tell yourself it's a fine excuse for breaking out that cute hat you knitted last winter, and it! will! be! fun!

And actually, it was. It was windy and wet, but not all that cold; I was certainly comfortable enough with my hat and a light, waterproof jacket over a cotton turtleneck, especially since we were walking briskly over uneven ground. There was a bit of misunderstanding between us at first, since we were shouting at each other to be heard over the roar of the wind (and I am not exaggerating even a tiny bit about that roar) but once we figured that out, we relaxed and had a really good time, wandering about, taking photos, exchanging greetings with the other people insane enough to be out in the woods in a gale, and trying very hard not to calculate the odds of a tree falling on us. At one point shortly after entering the woods, we stopped to fiddle with our cameras, and were interrupted by a very loud CRACK, causing us to look up into the trees to see which one was about to crush us, and then look at each other and laugh slightly hysterically. I strongly considered demanding we go home, but then I looked over to my right, through the trees, and saw this:



Sheep! I love sheep, source of my beloved wool. So I forgot all about imminent death, swaying in the wind above our heads, and went down to take a couple of pictures of the sheep, who were not even slightly bothered by the stormy conditions, or the madwoman behind the fence, taking pictures of them. Phil was immensely patient with my ridiculous delight in a bunch of, let's face it, profoundly stupid animals.

Eventually I was persuaded to stop trying to get the sheep to look at me, and we carried on down the path, running into more crazy people and friendly dogs, and god, there is nothing that makes me want to add a dog to our family more than seeing happy mutts out running around in the woods, obviously enjoying themselves. Our very enjoyable walk would've been at least twice as much fun if we'd had a dog along with us. We carried on along the edge of the woods, looking out over the very pretty, if somewhat austere farmland of the Wirral:





And then near a very typical for this area country lane:



Before walking deeper into the woods, to go out the other side, because my god, the wind was getting terrible. We came back out near a really good little country pub, where we had a couple of pints, which may have been a mistake on my part, because I forgot to eat breakfast, and a pint of cider on an empty stomach quickly put an end to the day's adventure. I was fine, just in absolutely no condition to walk home through increasingly foul weather, so we called a taxi and went home in comfort. I really am glad I overcame my natural slothfulness and went out, because it reminded me of exactly why we left London, and why, in spite of the usual lack of big city excitement, we live here.