Free Range

~ tidalscribe.com

You don’t have to be a chicken to go free range. Like chickens, outdoor reared pigs and hill sheep, free range humans are well adapted to life outside and wandering free. They don’t need to be shut in or put in a vehicle if it rains or snows.

Like us with the Covid pandemic, free range chickens recently had their life style cramped with outbreaks of bird ‘flu, but unlike other animals, free range humans don’t usually get eaten.

I have been wandering around by myself since I was seven and set off for the first day at junior school. Freedom was at my disposal, well as long as I didn’t take the short cut through the large park, which was like a rhododendron plantation with lots of hiding places. I was allowed to play there with my friends and had no idea why solo walks were forbidden.

Plenty of drivers enjoy walking and leaving their car at home, but for the dedicated non driver there is the added excitement of knowing you have to walk to get to places and buy your shopping.

Perhaps the three big ‘C’s, Covid, Cancer and Chemotherapy have enhanced the delights of being allowed or able to get out whenever I like. I am also only too aware that plenty of people my age or younger are not so lucky, whether struck down with strokes or waiting for new knees and hips. I don’t take being able to walk far and fast for granted.

During covid we were allowed out for a walk and many people discovered walking for the first time, but we weren’t allowed to go anywhere, just back home. The joy of our regained freedom is destinations, meeting your friends for coffee and cake, going to your favourite groups or just going anywhere with people interest.

Whatever the destination the free range human just goes there, no worrying about finding a parking place or nervously looking at the time in case their parking runs out. We just nip down footpaths or cross the river on a ferry. The free ranger is not always on foot, we can jump on a bus if it’s raining or we have shopping to carry. We could jump on any bus and see where we end up. The free range human sees life. The writer certainly sees real life on the bus, but that’s for another blog. The photographer can pause and snap whenever they spot something interesting, which is why I have so many photos in my WordPress gallery.

For our health we don’t need a running machine and step counter, though now I have a smart phone I can’t resist seeing how many kilometres and flights I have done. You can enjoy fresh air, nature and the four seasons or human life and the camaraderie of others ‘on the road.’

Do you like walking or jogging. If so, do you wander locally and walk your dog or are you very adventurous going up mountains and doing marathons?

39 thoughts on “Free Range”

  4. My first walk is at 7 am every day rain or shine today normally my walk is about 5 km but today slightly shorter as needed some shopping so I walked to where my favourite tuk-tuk waits and then it was the tuk-tuk to get shopping so only 2.33 km this morning…after a couple of hours writing when I got back…another 1.95km to get fresh coconut water my last walk today will be late afternoon and that will complete my 11,000 steps or a bit more but never less if I can help it and yes a smartphone is great for collecting this data and telling what I have left to do…I am just like a free-range chicken as every day my route varies 🙂

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      1. It’s great fun and I never tire of doing it, Janet plus they wait while I do my shopping load it in the tuk tuk and unload it when I get home well worth the tip I give them 🙂

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      3. If they could get a licence there they would be great in a seaside town ..I’m so used to transport now that picks up and stops anywhere I couldn’t go back to using a bus stop 🙂

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  9. I love Love LOVE walking!
    My dad inscribed a love of the outdoors in me, even when he took me on an ‘evening stroll’, aged 4, that ended up being a 10 mile hike around Ennerdale Lake in the Lake District! He carried my brother, aged 3, but refused to carry me because, “Then you won’t be able to say you did it!”
    Dad took me up Wales’ highest mountain, Snowdon, and many of the Lake District peaks. To this day, I feel like I’m on top of the world when I’m on a mountain peak.
    Obviously, with four bouncy Cavapoos in tow, we walk every day, and that is at the centre of our travel planning. At the moment, we’re in beautiful Slovakia, in a place called Slovensky Raj – Slovakian Paradise. And it really is!
    My poor mum suffered from osteo arthritis. I remember her weeping when she realised she had climbed her last mountain. I am grateful each day that I am fit, healthy ,and mobile.
    While I can, I will! 🙂

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    1. Wonderful father, no wonder you are so adventurous. My first six years were in a flat ( top half of a house ) near the River Thames and my parents were always taking me out for fresh air and exercise, so the river, Kew Gardens and Richmond Park were my playgrounds. Arthritis is hard, especially for people who would otherwise be very active. Enjoy Slovakia.

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  10. I have always been a pacer, a walker, and a runner. I am very fortunate that I have remained healthy enough to do it all my life without any major injuries even though I have fallen plenty of times. I feel tremendously powerful when I do not have to rely on other modes of transportation to get anywhere locally. I enjoy what I call roving but also love to have a purpose or destination.

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  11. Plenty of benefits to being on foot rather than in a car. It allows us to take in more of our surroundings since we can quickly stop and start whenever we want.

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  12. I used to walk to and from work in London most days, (30+ minutes each way) depending on the weather. You see another side of a city on foot, and discover things nobody would notice from a bus, or be able to see from an underground train.
    Since moving to Norfolk, I have walked every day, in all weathers. Mostly with my dog of course. Now he is getting too old for long walks, I am going to have to consider bringing him home and going out again on my own. But I don’t like to leave him, so might have to wait until he is gone.
    Best wishes, Pete.

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