A Day in the Country - Dave

This blog contribution is a fictional story from Dave, who is sighted, but his daughter Amy is visually impaired, so he wanted to imagine a day in the country from his daughter’s perspective – thank you Dave!

Me and my friend we like to go walking, usually at the weekend and we always manage to get somewhere at some time that feels special to us. As long as it is out of town, away from the hustle and bustle of city centre life with the hundreds of people getting in your way and then the noise from all the cars and vans and buses and roaring motorbikes. As long as it is out of town anywhere is fine by us.

Across the moors, through the woods, along public right of ways at the side of fields, over streams with the sun on our faces and the gentle sound of water trickling over the rocks and stones of the river bed that have been in place for goodness knows how many hundreds of years, oh yes, out of town always.

So, on the day for our next walking adventure we had our backpacks ready with emergency rations of food and emergency rations of high energy drink and of course, Pepsi Cola. Well, it is thirsty work all this walking. We are always well prepared with all weather clothing - t-shirts for when the sun is out and rain macs for when the weather forecasters have got it wrong again, and always one piece of really warm and snug clothing should the temperature suddenly drop to near freezing, or any time the sun goes behind a cloud in my friend's case!

The last thing to do before setting off is to tie up my hiking boots, yes, we are going hiking, even though my friend calls it walking. We got to our starting point by bus, my friend's dad normally drops us off at our chosen spot in his nice car but on this day even though it's a weekend, my friend said her dad had a very important meeting to attend which my friend said is usually a thirty minute meeting to decide what to talk about at Monday's meeting and then four hours on the golf course before retiring to the bar for a pint and a bite to eat. Sure is tough being Chief Executive of a company.

We soon found ourselves deep in the woods following a well-used path and we talked and talked until we were breathless about pop music and world affairs and pop music, yep, we are pretty well clued up on which pop star is the latest hot star.

I heard girls giggling and feet pounding, coming towards us, a group out jogging, and I felt like saying, slow down, you go too fast, to get somewhere quick you miss half the fun of getting there, you miss listening to the birds singing in the tree tops and hearing the heather rustling in the breeze.

We found the stream, and lay down for a rest on the soft grass and it is so quiet and so very peaceful as we ponder life. How many people rush through each day? When they say "how are you" do they hear your reply? Have they ever lost touch, let a good friendship die, because they never had time to call and say "hi"? Hear the music before the song is over?

Then we are back home, my friend makes me a nice refreshing mug of warm chocolate and finds a little piece of cake to go with it. Me, I take off my hiking boots, stretch and sit back and fold up my stick, for I am blind.

Enjoyment is out there, it just needs finding.

Thank you for reading my story.