Ashdown Forest is 'the largest free public access space in the South East' - or at least it is according to its website: http://www.ashdownforest.org/home/index.php
It also features in the 'Winnie the Pooh' tales. As a die-hard Paddington fan, this holds little interest for me. I never really got the rotund little fella with the honey, and I hate Disney, so that never helped. I perhaps identify with the melancholic Eeyore, but he doesn't really compare with the duffle-coated, marmalade-guzzling chap. I admire the chutzpah of Paddington: coming all that way as a stowaway and then finding a terribly nice family to adopt as his own. I digress...
New Year's Day seemed like the perfect time for a yomp in the forest, especially as the sun was shining and the ubiquitous grey sky had been replaced by something altogether more blue and pleasing. It was glorious, bright and very, very muddy!
About half an hour's drive from home, Ashdown Forest is less 'Robin Hood' and tree-filled and more 'Wuthering Heights' and windswept heath. Families and over-excited dogs were out in force today. As a displaced Northerner, I am frequently disheartened by the aloofness of the South, but country walks seem to be the exception. We got more 'hellos' and 'happy new years' than if we'd actually gone out last night: we didn't - I sat in my pjs, marking books and sulking. The former is reassuring, as part of the motivation for the jaunt was to familiarise ourselves with the area - it's where we are hoping this year's house move will take us...
'You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.'
(Winnie the Pooh)
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