last word
I
ON YER BIKE
between Heywood and Bratton. I saw many, many other animals, birds, insects and even another reptile... a common lizard since you ask! I also managed to clock where the biggest, juiciest blackberries were growing too and, as soon as they were ready, I took a bag and container with me and picked about 3kg of them and turned them into crumbles, pies and I have been running three times cordials. (I know, I’m dangerously a week and cycling three times a rock’n’roll). I also attempted to make week with a day off to let my old bones recuperate. I mostly run in and some blackberry jam (see!). This part did not go to plan; I ended up around Trowbridge but the cycling have always exercised a bit but over the summer and through into the autumn of 2020 I seem to have had a bit more time on my hands so have been doing more than usual…not sure why but I’m sure it’ll come to me at some point!
“On my travels I saw, and continue to see, a lot of people out and about either cycling or running or just walking with or without dogs. I hope this upsurge in people’s activity continues; we are incredibly lucky to live in such an pretty area of the country.” takes me much further afield. I have a few routes which take in some of the loveliest Wiltshire countryside and some of our prettiest villages. North Bradley, Heywood, Bratton, Edington, Steeple Ashton, Keevil, Bulkington, Poulshot, Rowde, Bromham... I could go on. I have regularly been cycling around at least another 15 more of these hidden treasures and have come to know them quite well - if only from the viewpoint of a bike saddle. I have seen some fantastic sights too; red kites being mobbed in the skies over Bromham/Stockley; a grass snake sunning itself in a field gateway in Steeple Ashton. I recentjly enjoyed the company of a Muntjac deer bounding beside me for about 30 metres just outside Edington and, most bizarrely, a couple of young, male peacocks running alongside me for around 50 metres 66 THEWESTWILTSMAGAZINE
with what can only be described as blackberry concrete having gone a smidge over the setting point! On my travels I saw, and continue to see, a lot of people out and about either cycling or running or just walking with or without dogs. I hope this upsurge in people’s activity continues; we are incredibly lucky to live in such an pretty area of the country. Within a five or ten minute drive from almost anywhere you can be out in the middle of the wild, beautiful Wiltshire countryside. What got me thinking about this was the start, a couple of weeks ago, of the ‘Beat The Street’ initiative in Trowbridge. For those of you who don’t know it’s a thing for families to do together and you earn as many points as possible for you and your team by walking, running, scooting,
cycling or rolling between Beat Boxes across Trowbridge. The boxes are fixed to lampposts all over town and you scan a fob or a card to say you have been to that particular one. The amount of families I have seen participating has been incredible and very heartening. Granted Trowbridge may not have quite as many picturesque views as a three hour cycle through the heart of Wiltshire but to see everyone out, in the fresh air getting some exercise, spending time with each other and having fun has been fabulous. I did however see a brother and sister arguing about who should be allowed to scan the fob the other day so maybe it’s not all fun and games!! Phil Rockliffe
