Hello and welcome to five minutes in nature with me Liz Scott up on the moorland of Dartmoor.
I'm coming up to a crossing of the Ludbrook stream and I'm going to paddle across and then head on back home.
I'm sort of at the halfway point of my walk and it's a beautiful spring day,
Lovely coolness to the wind,
There's the warmth of the sunshine and everything just feels vibrant.
I've seen quite a few stone chats around,
Bobbing around in the gorse bushes and up on the hillside we've got grazing sheep and ponies that are just probably enjoying this respite from the cold wet weather we've had for the earlier part of the year.
And today I'm reflecting on a walk I went on with my sister yesterday.
One of the rivers that's local to us is called the River Urn and we are walking it slowly from sea to source.
It's not a very long river,
It rises here on Dartmoor probably about eight miles from where I'm standing right now at a place called Urm Head and that's a marshy place on the moorland where the river rises and forms itself into a stream and then eventually the river that rushes steeply off the moorland through my local community of Ivy Bridge and heads on down to the sea at Mothercomb and we've already walked part of the walk.
We walked from Mothercomb which is beside the ocean all the way up to Irmington and then yesterday we walked from Irmington through Ivy Bridge up onto the edge of the moorland and we've got one more walk that we'll do.
I think the river is probably about 20 miles in total,
Something like that,
It's not a long river.
And as we were walking up the river yesterday it was a favourite walk of ours that we have both walked probably between us hundreds of times.
It's close to my sister where she lives.
When I had my dog we used to go down to the river,
It was a lovely walk,
He used to love going swimming.
If it was quite a hot day we would go under the wooded trees beside the river,
There was always a coolness there and I've got very many fond memories of walking alongside that river.
So we knew the walk and as we walked along the river we pointed out different things and my sister said oh that's where my son loves to go swimming and a bit further on she said this is where my other son loves to go swimming and a bit further on I said oh this is a place I remember Buzz and I used to go and explore and we'd climb up the hillside and find different footpaths through the woodland.
And between us we had many fond memories that were associated with the river.
And it was at this point my sister turned to me and said you know she said the river is something I've known for so many years,
My children have been brought up alongside the river,
They're now adults and the memory she had of walking with them in wellington boots as children and then growing up as teenagers and swimming in the river and eventually us walking along the river with my parents who were elderly and walking with a dog.
We've got so many great family memories,
Warm memories of the river.
She said the thing is with the river is I'm realising that maybe I've taken it for granted.
She said it's always here,
It's always on my doorstep and today I am really appreciating the river for what it is,
For what it's given me and for what it continues to give me.
It is an extraordinary resource in my life.
And we both looked at the river and I loved what she was saying and I saw it again with fresh eyes.
The river that is constant is always there with fresh eyes,
With new eyes.
I just saw it with a sense of gratitude and love that it was constant in my life too and it was the most beautiful of rivers with wonderful memories attached to it.
And I realised that I too walk up the river sometimes lost in thought,
Just assuming it's there,
Not paying attention to it and taking it for granted.
As we walked on the conversation broadened and we explored that maybe it's a great way of reminding ourselves not to take friends or family members for granted.
So today is just a reminder to not take people for granted,
To not take your environment for granted,
Is to explore what gratitude and love feels like for you and what it is like to express that in the moment.
Let me know your reflections on this and don't forget to join me again tomorrow for another Five Minutes in Nature.
