Suggested by - Jacky via Facebook
"What about the most rural and quietest place in Uttlesford you can find. No phone signal, no view of pylons, wind turbines, road traffic noise or voices"
Hmmm, I could search for the perfect place for ever! However, being a dog owner, our walks have often taken me to places where I can escape. Escape the pressures of every day life, escape the sounds - well most of them anyway. The biggest sound problem for Uttlesford is from aeroplanes, closely followed by road traffic noises. It would be almost impossible to escape from those completely but as with anything you live with on a regular basis, then, it is possible to shut them out. Pylons and wind turbines? With trees around, that is fairly easy too. No phone signal? Well, it is pretty much off the scale in many rural places where I walk with mutt and all it would take to be completely quiet would be to turn the phone off or leave it at home.
With all that in mind, where did I go? Well this is one of my regular walking places within Uttlesford. A wide tree-lined bridleway where I frequently don't meet anyone but where I hear and see so many countryside animals. I can completely switch off during our walks, just sitting quietly under a tree whilst mutt sniffs around after interesting trails of scent. Is it the most rural and quietest spot? Well, maybe not but for me it is both rural and quiet.
Was it quiet tonight? Errm, actually, no! It was a buzzing hive of activity in the fields with the farmers desperately trying to combine the crops before the rain which is forecast for tonight. However, as the light began to fade and the moon began to rise, I could hear a tawny owl woo-hoo-ing on the far side of the field and as I gathered up my kit, a pair of bats flitted along the field margins - all part of my idea of what makes up rural quiet. Tomorrow I may do another favourite walk with mutt, and then that will be the most rural and quiet place for me. You see, rural quiet is also a state of mind. If you want to be calm and peaceful, then it is quite possible to enter a state of near meditation in many favourite spots. This is something that I have learnt to do, thanks to mutt requiring her daily walk.
It is a simple pleasure in life.
Tomorrow, Day 6
"Out damn spot"
Finding quiet spots anywhere at all is such a challenge these days, but it can be done - and as you suggest, it is mainly in the mind. Lovely post!
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