It's been a real effort to get walking this week. I've been very busy at work - snatched lunch breaks and home late. However, yesterday I had a successful morning and celebrated by walking into town and buying 5 new teeshirts (the sales were on, honest!). That put my steps over the 10000 - hooray!
Today I went to Castle Gardens with my lunchbox clutched in my hand. For once, I had made sandwiches - some very nice organic ham and salad. Unfortunately, the bread had a few blue spots on it, so I dug down and found a couple of slices that looked OK. They tasted vile - I just hope the mould cures my chesty cough. The pigeons seemed to like it, though. Very amusing watching a male be cold-shouldered by a succession of females!
I was still a bit short on my target steps (8200 this week) so I strolled down to the Deeps (the nature reserve) in the evening, when it was a bit cooler. The Clustered Bellflower is just coming into flower - should make a delightful picture if the Dyers Greenweed lasts. I ended up with 11983 steps - pretty good for a working day.
I've just finished reading Wild Seed by Octavia Butler. She's an excellent but little known writer who has very strong female characters, often in alternate history-type settings.
I think it's going to be too hot for much walking at the weekend. Oh well!
I am concerned about whether I am going to be able to achieve much walking over the winter - it's hard enough in the summer and the long evenings. Do I need one of those treadmill things?

A couple of nice relaxing strolls this weekend - well, that was the plan, anyway! On Saturday I managed to persuade my partner to accompany me on a stroll. He didn't want to do any more than 4 miles, so I chose a short walk from one of my books - Walking Close to the Welland near Stamford, by Clive Brown. This was to be a pleasant stroll around the village of Ketton.
The walk started well enough, but we soon ran into trouble with the signposting, and took the wrong track. I got my compass out and we managed to regain the route as it passed through some old abandoned quarries. This is an SSSI and a geology site, and looks worth another visit. I saw some Common Spotted Orchids (see photo above), but one of the signs said that Bee Orchids can be found on the site.
We left the reserve at the top of the cement works road, and followed this back to the main road - not too pretty! On the other side of the road, the path suddenly narrowed to less than a foot across, with rampant nettles and thistles on one side and a high chain-link fence on the other - yes, we were making our way past a sewage farm. This really is not the way to get company on my walks!
9572 steps. And I've lost 2 pounds this week!

Today it was rather muggy so I waited until the evening before I went out. I did a one hour circuit from home - along the main road, down the hill, across 3 fields and up a track to the nature reserve. Should I speak to people who let their dogs off the lead in the reserve? Perhaps not a good idea when I am alone, but it does seem the right thing to do.
11942 steps.

Gardening is hard work - but it doesn't count for very many steps!
I had a day off to try and clear a patch for the young leek plants that arrived this week. The vegetable garden has disappeared under a healthy crop of weeds so it was down on my hands and knees, ripping up the verdant growth and consigning it to the compost heap. The earth is as hard as tarmac, and turns to dust when I stir it up. Must be a bit like the American prairies!
Every year I remove around 10 compost bags of stones, and every year they come back again. The phenomenon of Homing Stones is little understood and would be a good PhD project, if anyone is so inclined.
Anyway, back to the steps situation. Only 6609 today - a bit short of the target. I went into town in the afternoon and parked at the opposite end to where I wanted to be, so a bit of a walk there and back. I'm still feeling very tired and post-viral, so I don't feel too ashamed. It's the weekend tomorrow and I can catch up a bit then.

It was a disappointing day for walking. I was stuck in a meeting from 9 to 5, with a very nice but not very healthy buffet lunch. The sky was a bit black when I got home, but I decided to chance it and go for a quick walk - otherwise I would only have done about 2500 steps.
I set off for the local nature reserve, about 10 minutes walk away. It's only the second time I've visited, in 10 years of living here! See http://www.wildlifebcnp.org/reserves/reserve.php?reserveid=94
The reserve is on the site of some old quarries, and is grassy and undulating. I was delighted to find several colonies of Pyramidal Orchids and quite a few Knapweed Broomrapes. My father was excellent at identifying wild flowers and taught me a lot, so although I wasn't sure of these flowers I had a good enough idea to find them easily in the book. I used Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland by Blamey, Fitter and Fitter. There was also a beautiful big clump of Viper's Bugloss - one of my favourites, which sometimes pops up in my garden.
This short walk took 30 minutes and added 4000 steps.
Target 7800, Steps 7067
FitBug have just texted me to say why don't I go for a power walk to get up to my target. I don't think so - it's pouring with rain! I'll do extra tomorrow instead.

Target steps: 7700 Achieved: 8434
It's been really dark and gloomy most of the day, so I'm pleased that I was motivated enough to get out at lunchtime. The other day I called in at the local Tourist Information office to ask about places to walk in my lunch hour. The woman looked at me as if I was mad and offered me a bus tour of the county. I persevered and got some leaflets about parks and the canal/river towpath, and today I set out to explore.
To my surprise, Castle Gardens was only 10 minutes walk away from work. I took a sandwich and a bottle of water and sat on a bench overlooking the River Soar to eat. It was a bit chilly but much better than sitting in the tearoom at work. The park is close to the university and there were quite a few young people around, including two who appeared to be having it off on the grass on top of the Motte - or perhaps they were just trying to keep warm.
There's a statue in the park of Richard III - apparently his remains were chucked into the river just about there. You wouldn't get away with that today!

So.....10000 steps a day is good for you, or so we are told. I'm going to try to achieve at least this many steps, to help prevent middle-aged spread and keep my blood pressure down. I've joined Fitbug, www.fitbug.co.uk , which for a small fee provides an electronic pedometer and a motivation service. You plug the pedometer into the USB port on your computer each night and it sends the number of steps you have walked to the website, then you get a text message telling you to get off your bum and do a few more steps. Sometimes it tells you how wonderful you are if you have achieved your target!
I've also joined Stamford Steps , www.stamfordsteps.co.uk which has a kind of league table for the number of steps over 7 days, and I'm top of the league at the moment. This really motivates me as I am very competitive and determined not to let anyone past me. As some of the members only seem to achieve a few hundred steps a day this shouldn't be too hard!
10000 steps apparently comes from Japan but has been adopted by the British Heart Foundation as a way of getting us all to behave in a less sedentary fashion and keep our hearts healthy.
My average at the moment is 8399 steps, but on 2 days last week I only managed about 3500. You do have to make an effort to clock up the steps - it doesn't happen by magic, and a day of sitting in meetings without even changing rooms is a disaster. Rain is bad too - it's no pleasure walking when you're getting soaked.
These are some of the things I have been doing to increase my daily steps.

• I try to walk the long way to work from the multi-storey carpark - around 10 minutes to and from the car (I can't walk to work as it's 30 miles!).
• I use the stairs instead of the lift at work (I work in a 5-floor building).
• I am trying to go for a walk at lunchtime.
• Sometimes I go for a short walk in the evening.
• I try to do a long walk at the weekend.

Yesterday I went for a longer walk than I had intended. I peered at the map (Explorer 224) for ages and worked out a circular route, which I measured with one of those dinky little map measurers. It looked like about 7 and a half miles.

I drove to Bulwick and parked the car near to the church, under a tree to keep cool. Then it was on with the rucksack, walking pole and map in hands, and off I went.

1. I walked down the road and turned right, then took the signed footpath on the left. I crossed some parkland and went along the side of a field. There were many bright blue dragonfly-type insects - not sure what they were, but quite beautiful in the sunshine. Then the path went through a small wood and came out on the A43. Cars seem to go really fast along here - scary when you're a pedestrian!
2. On the other side of the road, I crossed a footbridge then plunged into waist high undergrowth. Loads of nettles and thistles, so I was glad I wasn't wearing shorts! After another couple of footbridges there was a very boggy place, and I tested the waterproofing on my shoes - very good! Then it was across some fields to Deene. There's a huge park here which is privately owned by the Brudenell family, and I saw a strange pillar with what appeared to be a teapot on top - must have some significance!
3. I walked through the village and turned left to a farmyard. The path was not clearly marked but I followed a track downhill which passed between two lakes. There were some lovely white waterlilies on the right-hand lake. Then it was over a stile, up some steps and across a big field full of cows and calves to the edge of a wood - Icehouse Spinney. This was a bit of a disappointment, as the path on the far side was completely impassable - head-high weeds and grasses. I found a way round and came out on the A43 again.
4. The track opposite led to Deenethorpe, a village with some very nice houses. I found my footpath and struck off across the fields, and this was where it all started to get difficult, as the waymarks were either non-existent or hard to spot.
5. It was my intention to work my way back to Bulwick via the edges of Holey Brookes and Cadge Wood, but I ended up having to navigate using my compass and field edges, as the path disappeared. However, I miraculously rejoined the path, albeit much further away than I had intended!
6. Then it was a hard slog across various fields with paths through the crops in baking heat. I was glad of my Platypus - a water bottle and mouthpiece system in my rucksack. I was well tired when I got back to the car, with aching back and shoulders, but I had walked about 22000 steps - that should boost my average!

Today it was gardening. I have a number of compost heaps, and chose to take the weeds to the one furthest away to get some steps in. I think I will need to take a stroll this evening to top up the count though!

Anyone want to join me as I struggle towards the magic 10000?