Walking: the Oxford Canal and Stratfield Brake

The weather has finally turned bright and cold (the frost in our garden today still hasn't melted) rather than mild and wet, and while we had more heavy rain in the week and I knew that there was no chance things would have dried out a crisp, sunny Sunday is far too much of a treat to pass up the chance of even a very short walk, so I put on my wellies and we headed down the canal and through the nature reserve to buy dinner at Sainsbury's.



I was a bit unsure about the wellies, as they aren't nearly as comfortable as my walking boots, and as a lot of the mud along the towpath was frozen I found myself wondering whether walking boots would have been a better choice as I walked along feeling my socks slipping down inside the wellies and working their way off my feet. And then we crossed the canal into the nature reserve and discovered that the bit of path that was really squelchy last time, and which was the main reason I'd opted for wellies, was ankle-deep in water and the wellies really had been the best idea after all. (T had worn walking boots, and just managed to get through without the water going over the tops, but his boots are taller than mine and I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have managed it. I'm not actually sure I'd even have tried.) I definitely wouldn't have wanted to walk more than two and a half miles in them, but it was good to get outside briefly at least.