When my eldest daughter was at primary school, she and her friends were enthusiastic players of stuck in the mud. During a family walk the other day, Helen literally got stuck in the mud and I had to haul her our of it. Getting Helen free was the easy bit: It took a second, tricky operation to remove her Wellington boots. Before I did so, I had to take this picture.
I know we’re only in February, but doesn’t this picture scream “2021”? We were all left in hysterics because once I got Helen clear, we all noticed her boots had been left behind. Needless to say, the experience didn’t do much for her socks as I had to place her on the ground but mucky socks were an unavoidable consequence of this scenario!
Muddy walks have been one of the few forms of family entertainment. After months of being either in Tier 4 or Lockdown Numero Trois, I am genuinely shocked at how churned up all the local public spaces are getting.
One local farmer seems to be putting fences up to keep people on the footpath that crosses his family’s land so his field doesn’t get messed up any more than it already is. In another nearby spot, a style has collapsed and been left lying on the floor because of the people crossing it and every park and footpath has been reduced to a muddy, squelchy mess.
The worrying thing is that we live somewhere that’s semi-rural. I have to recognise we’re fortunate to be able to walk across farmland and nature reserves. I dread to think what the parks in the big cities are like.
Anyway, what’s been your most amusing lockdown walk experience? Have you managed to get yourself stuck in the mud at all? Have you needed rescuing? Leave me a comment below.
Oh, should you be inspired to see what our recent family walks have been like, I shot an Instagram Reel of some highlights. I’ve put it in below for your enjoyment!
This image has been added to the #MySundayPhoto linky hosted by the Darren Coleshill photography blog. Follow this link to pay the blog a visit and see photography from other keen photographers.
Wow, they really are stuck! I can just imagine the dramatics of trying to drag Helen, then her boots, out of the mud! We live in a semi-rural location too, but we are steering clear of the fields until the spring because they are all extremely muddy and waterlogged. We’ve got a quiet country road near us that we walk up every day. To be honest, we walked up it every day before lockdown too!
Yes, muddy and waterlogged. It has, with the exception of this snow, been quite a warm, wet winter and that can’t be helping.
Oh no!! That is some serious mud.
Just a little bit! Yeah, that walk was spectacularly muddy.
Wow that is seriously stuck. When out you really notice the damage walkers appear to have done to woodlands
Thank you for linking up to #MySundayPhoto
Oh the damage is palpable. I’m just waiting for the landowners to start asking for Government help to repair their land.
hehehe! This did make me chuckle. I have had the job of rescuing wellies when my girls have got stuck. lol
It’s very muddy here too. All the footpaths over the fields are more like swamps now and we’ve been avoiding them.
Yeah, we’ve found a few alternative walks which aren’t quite as muddy but everywhere seems churned up.
that’s a lot of mud – hope she had fun #MySundayPhoto
Haha, yes it was like quicksand, kind of! At least I was able to rescue Helen.
We’ve had to airlift many a child, usally after laughing hysterically at them as they try to free themselves, but swooping in before they fall in face first and spend the rest of the day crying or trying to kill their siblings for laughing at them. I do feel sorry for the farmers, I’ve seen some awful behaviour from some. So far I’m enjoying my walks since I’ve been back and not needed rescuing yet, will be walking the hills later this week though #mysundayphoto
I can’t say I’ve seen too much bad behaviour, but the definition of what counts as footpath has certainly become elastic as paths themselves have been quagmires. Enjoy your hill walking. Hope the paths aren’t too badly churned up.