Meeting up with Maddie

 

On Sunday morning we did our best to maintain our fitness regime by going for a walk round the centre of Worcester.  The city has quite a green heart because there's a race course between the river and the Victorian streets on the north side of the city.  We parked the car and walked along the back of the race course.  This was the view to the south as we turned and picked up the river bank.

 

 

I love the way the trees create a 'green cathedral' by the river at this point.  It's really popular with dog walkers from all over the city.

 

Suddenly we met a familiar doggy face...  This is Maddie, one of our neighbours dogs.  It would be fair to say that we are her number one fans!  Our neighbours have always had Bernese Mountain Dogs and Maddie is a particularly gentle and freindly example of the breed.  She's been a show dog in the past and has also had puppies that have been shown in Crufts.  Now she is enjoying retirement as the most senior dog in a menagerie of two dogs, three young cats and several rabbits.  My neighbours are seriously animal mad and L. has made a business out of 'doggy day care'. 

 

After enjoying a cuddly fuss with Maddie (and a chat with her Dad) we continued our walk down the river and over the footbridge into the area of the city known as St Johns.  This is the main university part of the town and there were lots of 'freshers' wandering around.  Quite a few of them didn't look old enough to be starting an independant life!!!

 

Soon we got to my favourite part of the river bank where you can catch some pretty views of the cathedral.  This is the point between the Cricket Ground and the river where the swans frequently gather, hoping for food.  It's one of the best viewpoints to the cathedral buildings - especially when there are plenty of leaves on the trees.

 

 

We finished off the walk by crossing the river again at the new footbridge to the south of the city.  We probably did about 4 miles in total. 

 

In an attempt to stay fit through the winter we are trying to maintain a weekly average of about 10 - 12 miles of walking (plus a Wednesday Pilates session for me).  Given that we leave the house at 7.00 am and get home at 5.45 pm (Monday - Friday), it's quite a challenge to spread this amount of exercise through our schedule on a regular basis.  We've found that the best thing is to pop something in the oven then go out for a 30 minutes walk as soon as we get home.  It's not really ideal when the evenings get darker but I guess it's better than nothing at all...!