The season is changing and temperatures are falling. Ticks are less of a threat now. Soon it will be possible to walk in the woods without having to swat away gnats every three seconds. I’m looking forward to returning to some of my favorite walking paths.
But I find that I like walking on my own property, just for the convenience of it. It’s good for me to take breaks during the workday, and I do that now almost every day. So, even as I am planning to walk farther afield, I am also thinking about how I can improve my walks here at home.
One thing I’m thinking about is trying to make a walking path on my own property. I have two acres of land, much of which goes unused, so this is theoretically doable. The path would start on one side of the driveway and follow the crest of a slight hill, loop around another small hill and connect to the woodland trails, in case we wanted to go that way. Then it would follow the property line all the way around the house, down the front yard, to turn toward the hulking rock at the front of the property. It’s an interesting rock that would be fun to climb from time to time. Then the path would turn again to cross a bridge over the Sometimes Stream and end at the driveway, across from where it started.
The bridge, though as of yet unbuilt, has always been part of my long-term landscaping plan. If you have a stream, you should have a bridge to cross it, right? The stream may not be constant (it tends to disappear during the dry months of summer), but the bridge would always be nice.
Making a permanent path would be complicated. The complications are that my husband and I would need to finally decide on how long we plan to live here, how much money we’re willing to spend on improvements to the property, and what our long-term landscaping plans are. We’d also need to know the exact locations of the property lines. There are ticks, poison ivy, and briers to contend with. And, of course, there’s no bridge yet.
But, it would be fairly easy to get started in the wooded areas. Wearing my tick clothes, and/or waiting until winter, I could blaze a trail along the path of least resistance and remove the underbrush. Once it was cleared out, it would be safe enough for walks during the cooler months. If I inadvertently crossed the property lines, no one would notice, and it wouldn’t matter much as long as I didn’t make any permanent changes. A few well-placed stepping stones would let me cross Sometimes Stream without a bridge.
My husband likes the idea of a walking path, not surprisingly, since it was his idea. He’s eager to work on it, and that’s great, because it’s not going to happen without him. It might just be a pipe dream, though, for both of us. I need to accept that. We have a lot of things we want to do around the house, but with limited time, energy, and money. Our track record is pretty spotty. That is to say, we’ve had more than a few pipe dreams over the years.
So I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it could happen. As long as it could happen, it gives me something to hope for. And these days, a little hope goes a long way.