Derbyshire 84 - Chesterfield /The Hideaway/the missing cast iron marker /how many views?/ If I had walked a straight line I would mostly be in ......................

---

It is Sunday. The shine is shining . It is a day of rest . But each day feels like a day of rest . Everyday feels like a Sunday. I could turn over , fall asleep and have a late breakfast . Somehow along the way , over the last 30 days walking has become an obsession . Much as I want to return to sleep the sun shining in beckons me on. It does not take long to make that cup of tea . Make a full English for the driver. Poke my nose out and make the decision. Decisions . Decisions . Coat on . Coat off. Coat on . It is coat off . As long as I walk in the sun I will be fine . The sky is bluer than yesterday . Full of clouds though. That steely grey with the odd peeping out of blue . Not intense blue . Fine for walking . I pass no-one on my route down the hill. I have a plan . I have found another path . Who would have thought it after 30 days of treading the streets and fields around our village . I am heading for the next village. A circular route that will get me back for a capuccino and the remains of the Belgian Bun. 'Plus a dose of politics just to let the world catch up with me .

If you are joining me today then we have that short 10 minute walk down the hill until we reach the flat where walking is easier . We cross the road . Not a vehicle in sight . Close your eyes now we are walking past the electricity sub station . Not a pretty sight but necessary . Up the primrose lane and we find the Hideaway . A good name for a house . It is well hidden and almost threw me out on a previous walk . It looked as if I were heading for their garden so I turned back . Today though I know where we are going and head straight for the gap between their garage which is covered in rainbows. The fence is just in front us . We are going to climb through into the field . There is not much to see in the field . We will walk alongside the electric fence . Can you remember as child you just had to touch that electric fence? If you were good and obeyed instructions you did not touch it . If you were curious to know what it felt like you put your hand on it and then wished you had not . I stop often to look back from whence I had come. I look into the woods . They are quiet . I look ahead at where I am going . It is just me , you and thoughts.

Mine today have reached epic proportions . I have written 30 blogs since the lockdown . I have used approximately 3 photographs per blog . 90 photographs . It feels an achievement . I have not covered the same ground - well perhaps a little . So how many words have I written and how many views have I had ? After today 17,487 words and 1471 views . You must be bored out there to be reading this . But thankyou. It makes it worthwhile even if they are just personal thoughts on not travelling. We reach the point I got to yesterday . Should we turn right and head back the way I walked 24 hours ago . Straight ahead would probably take me too long to walk . So it is to the left we go . Following my nose in the direction of A61 . I can in the distance hear faintly the odd car or two . A train running on the tracks 3 miles away . The wind is the right direction to just pick up the sound of the trains on the tracks .

We are a bit lost . I stop at a stud . I can see horses and a lady taking straw down . It looks on this tarmacced road that we are heading for a farm which might be private . Not to cause offence I shout a cheery good morning and ask for directions to the main road . She tells me carry straight on. I meet the first humans of the day . A couple heading in the opposite direction . They greet me and move on. We reach the main road . It is all the back now home . With just one plan to find a cast iron road direction marker which I am sure is here somewhere . Passing by is a youngish man walking a beautiful what looked like a Japanese Hunting Dog . We will meet him again further round and find out its some kind of Alaskan Hunting Dog . She does not understand why she no longer gets fussed by everyone who passes her by . She does not understand social distancing and Corona Virus . Did we find the cast iron marker ? No we did not . It may be somewhere further than I thought it was, it could have been removed for safekeeping or some toe rag has stolen it .

Almost home . Just that hill to tackle . A few more numbers collected for the I Spy game and did you realise that had I walked in a straight line from home for 90 miles I would have reached the sea at Skegness by now ?

---