Beginnings

Someone I met last week told me that they had to write a poem titled ‘Beginnings’ for their school paper. This came back to me yesterday while giving my sisters new wellies their initiation walk. We tried to give them every new experience possible in preparation for a lifetime of beating, hiking, sweet chestnut collecting and stream damming.

The first obstacle for the wellies was a puddle. This was a true farmyard puddle, a mixture of water, oil, sheep dip, black plastic and rat poison. It’s amazing that our labrador is alive given the amount of water she drinks from these puddles.

We forgot to photograph the first stile but I can assure you that the wellies were successful in safely depositing their owner onto the other side of the fence. The next excitement was leaves and then I spent the next twenty minutes of the walk trying to teach my mother, sister and grandparents Dalcroze Eurythmics. After describing pulling pieces of lycra around we moved onto stamping and clapping which almost made everyone fall over in hysterics.

After terrifying several houses and fields of horses with our vigorous 7/4 conducting, to a random song about all good (or awkward depending on who is singing it) children going to heaven, we skipped all the way to the top of the hill to improve our leg strength and then introduced the wellies to sheep poo.

They were surprisingly clean by the end but I’m sure by the end of a week of dog walks they will have the same air of experienced country walkers as the previous red pair did.