Sunday 1st May 2016

My mother died 10 years ago and today would have been her 90th birthday so my sisters and I arranged to go for lunch and then said they would encourage me to start my 20 minutes a day challenge by joining me on a walk in local woods.

It was a damp start to the day but, luckily, the rain had eased to a small mizzle by the time we set off.  My sisters timed me and wouldn't let me stop until 20 minutes walking had been done, and then I was able to take some photographs and look at the views. The leaves at this time of year are a spectacular zingy green and the birds were singing away.  It is only as they begin to sing again I realise how much I miss them in the winter.

Hills are always a challenge for me and we had a few of those on our walk, in fact, as we were following a planned route, actually walked for 50 minutes.  As I had suffered from a form of vertigo for the last month, this was an extra challenge for me but my cheerleaders kept me going and we arrived, gratefully in my case, back at the car.