We are more than half way through the year already. It seems to have slipped by ridiculously quickly, a sign – I am sure – of my advancing years.
July is a strange month. The build-up to the Solstice is over. The nights are beginning to lengthen once more as we slide back towards Autumn. What was once vibrant, verdant and full of new life starts to look more tired. Dusty. Dull.
It has been hot here, remarkably so. Records have been broken. Even I – a lover of warmth and sunshine – have hidden indoors again the oppressive heat. Plants that normally battle through everything the weather can throw at it are struggling, wilting, fading.
I am feeling uneasy. School has finished for the summer holidays, we have no camping holiday to look forward to this year. I feel unsettled and rather out of sorts. I need to shake something up, make a change, do something just for me.
I have decided to walk 150 miles throughout July with Race At Your Pace. I undertook the 100 mile challenge in March and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some dreadful weather. Walking helps my physical health, my mental health and my general outlook on life.
I need to lose weight; but most of all I want to become stronger, physically and mentally. I want to push myself. I need to challenge myself, but I am not a gym or a race-track type of person.
I am going to continue with #30DaysWild throughout July – shall we term it #61DaysWild? I may not blog as regularly as I have done; but during my daily walking I will look for beauty and wildness everywhere, wherever I walk. At the very least I will post it on my Instagram account; but the time to blog several times a week is, at least for now, over. I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of writing every day (or every couple of days) but trying to sustain this pace would, essentially, kill my love of writing.
A new challenge awaits me on Sunday. A new chapter. I hope you will continue to wander, and wonder, with me.
The Hawthorn Path 
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