A 40 Minute Walk From Home

In the last few weeks, through business, I have driven through parts of the Lake District and up the west coast of Scotland. Driving along the edge of Ullswater or the road from Glasgow to Fort William you feel like you could just point your camera anywhere and get a great photo. But I don’t live in the Lake District or on the west coast of Scotland and both are too far away for regular photographic trips, However, I am fortunate to live in Rochdale (You won’t hear that said so often!) or more precisely, on the outskirts of Rochdale in a place called Wardle and from where I live I can be in the countryside in less than 5 minutes walk.  Okay, you can’t just point your camera anywhere and get a great photo, but there are great photo opportunities, you just have to search a bit harder for them.

For the last 2 or 3 years, I have 2 or 3, 40-50 minute walks  which I do 2 or 3 times a week for exercise and grounding purposes but it is easy to take this for granted and it is only recently when when I have started to take my camera with me.

500m from Home on the edge of our estate is a small natural Wood which is great for misty mornings or to capture bluebells in spring and on the opposite side of the footpath, a pond  where you can capture great reflections. 

From here you walk east across a hillside where early in the morning, you are walking right into the rising sun. As you continue towards the King William Pub at Shore, you pass another woodland and a small babbling brook.

From the King William, turn north past open fields with some very old trees and along the lane to Wardle Village where you return to civilisation and walk back down Birch Road to Home.

These short walks are great for grounding and just to be in Nature and many times you will see rabbits, deer and other wildlife, and taking your camera with you sometimes helps us to take a bit more notice of our surroundings. There are many surprises to be found when we slow down and take a bit more notice of how the views and scenery change through the year and with the seasons.