word and photos by Mike Daish.
Today I took my first walk in a little over two months. Due to a medical condition I was informed that I should isolate in my home for 12 weeks. I am still isolating but am now allowed to leave the house. I am very lucky to have a few beautiful places to walk to very close by. One of these is Salmon Leap at Totton. I packed just a camera and one lens to take with me as I had taken no photos outside in the two months.
I was happy to find the place very quiet and only the odd person here and there. Everyone was very mindful of distance so I was well over two metres away from everyone. I walked into a large field full with long golden grass gently swaying and making a wonderful noises as the light breeze played with it.
As I walked on I keep to the edge of the field to see what wild life I could spot in the hedges and bramble; so many little flowers scattered about and I just wanted to take photos of it all. For now, I am trying to keep my time outside very limited so as to be as careful as possible.
The foxglove was too tempting, so I grabbed a couple of pictures, it was an amazing colour and a popular stop for many of the bees flying about.
A little spot of red on a blade of grass caught my eye and it turned out to be a ladybird making its way down towards the ground. After so long, seeing all these amazing things became too much and I broke down into tears of joy.
Something landed to my left and it turned out to be a gorgeous little skipper butterfly. In a normal year, I would have taken many pictures of these as I think they look amazing and that colour is stunning.
I walked further on to the river and little bridge which is just near part of the Test Way. I don’t think I had realised quite how much I had missed being out in places like this, or even how important being able to be in places like this is important to my mental heath and general well being.
