I’ve been going around the loop. The Loop being a circular walk in the village where I live. And it’s great. Honest, it is. There’s cows and ducks and geese to look out for. And an old phone box which has been requisitioned as a book swap so you can even pick up some reading material on the way. Plus, of course, the fields are now full of lambs. And it really is lovely. Really it is. People travel from all over the area to walk it. And I’m not complaining. Well, not much. It’s just that, like everyone else and their lockdown walks, I can now do the entire thing virtually in my head. All six thousand, three hundred and forty-six steps of it. And I think it’s probably time to ditch the wellies and walk somewhere new. Along a busy city street, for instance, or across a pebbly beach, or up some distant hill. And so, as soon as lockdown eased, we headed for the Malverns. And even though they’re only a few miles away, I realised it was the furthest I’d been from home for months. And it was amazing. It really was. As well as stretching my legs, I felt as if I was stretching my eyeballs. Sitting on the ridge with Herefordshire and Wales spreading out in front of us, I realised that these was the biggest landscapes I’d seen for what felt like forever. And it was good to remind myself that the world is bigger than a tiny corner of Herefordshire (as beautiful as it is). And it’s good to remember that it’s all still out there waiting for us. And, in the meantime, I’ll keep on going around the loop. Nicola Jones
BOLDtext Playwrights 