OnVaSortir... or not?

It's now the demi-saison, that lovely time of year with vivid autumnal colours and ideal temperatures for outside activities.

This morning I went for one of my favourite walks in the park of Restinclières. There were few people about, the sun was shining, and as it had rained yesterday, drops of water glistened on every plant. The warm air brought out smells of wet earth, herbs and pine. I took this photo of herbes de Provence growing wild. They look very dry because we've had so little rain, but walking past, they smelled wonderful.

Wild herbes de Provence (rosemary and thyme)

I ambled along and thought how delightful it was to be there, alone, and thus able to think, stop to admire the views and really look at everything.

Walk through a pinède carpeted with herbes de Provence

A group of three people came towards me talking and moaning. They were not appreciating the views or walking 'in the moment'.

It made me think about the website OnVaSortir.com where you can either organise an outing or sign up for one organised by someone else. It's a good way of meeting people and not doing stuff alone all the time. As you can see from the screen shot below, there are lots of different types of activities.

from onvasortir.com 

At 14:00 'Randter' has organised a walk at Restinclières, although no one has signed up for it (1/10) so why didn't I want to go with her this afternoon? Because when you walk with others, especially people you don't really know, you have to talk to them. When I go for a walk, I like to walk in peace. I like to concentrate on smells, sights, sounds and think about how lucky I am to have such splendours on my doorstep.

Call me an unsociable old bat, but I don't want to have someone yakking at me barely pausing for breath, or me realising that I don't like the person and then feel bad for a) thinking uncharitable thoughts; and b) wasting my time being there.

What I would enjoy more is a mountain-bike outing. Not the super enthusiast type that has you going up nearly vertical slopes and slogging over 20km+ of rugged terrain, but a more leisurely ride without too much up and down. Then if you get into trouble, you've got help at hand, and it's quite difficult to talk to people on a bike, so you'd have to do all that during rests. Yes, that is more my thing. My youngest's VTT (mountain bike) club organise family bike rides twice a year so that parents can join in, and they are always very enjoyable. That.

Someone told me this week that people also use OnVaSortir as an unofficial dating site. I suppose this is to be expected because one way of meeting other people is to be active, so you're bound to meet like-minded types, especially if you target your activities wisely.

So, I haven't signed up for anything yet or thought about organising something (no thanks!). There's a time for everything, and I do like to take plenty of it.

A Mes Souhaits

I don't know what's pollinating at the moment, but whatever it is, I just wish it would get on with it and then stop. My head is all full of allergy woolliness; I'm sneezing, or trying to, and blowing my nose every 23 seconds. The thought of going outside has been banished as a Bad Idea.

Yesterday, happily unaware that WhateverItIs was sending pollen out to wreak its havoc, I took my youngest and his bike to Restinclieres. The park is huge, but he was focusing on a particular earthy mound near the picnic area.

We arrived to find the parking area transformed. No longer the huge open space by the playground. Instead they've created a camouflaged car park amongst the trees. Not only that, but they've made the stony, rocky track to the picnic area pushchair- and OAP-friendly by concreting it over. It looks really good and my youngest was able to cycle down it without risking life and limb and a broken nose.

We got to the mound and found it set in a field of very long grasses. It looked a lot less dramatic since Nature had been at work covering it with encroaching fingers of coarse grass. Off went my son to try and cycle up it, but the vegetation either side of the narrow track was too distracting and he couldn't pick up enough speed to hurtle himself up the last metre or so.

By this time my nose was starting to run. I had followed him onto the mound, but beat a hasty retreat to a picnic table under the trees. My youngest had beckoned me over to show me what looked like a scout project to create a little cabin out of sticks and bits and bobs tied up with string amongst a group of small trees. I remember trying to make little cabins out of straw, bracken etc. in various holiday locations, so I could understand his joy at seeing this. He was keen to improve it so hunted for extra sticks he could add, and reworked a bunch of metal planks to make a super wall.

When the mosquitoes started gathering en masse, I called it a day. He was able cycle back up the path with no problem which made a change from having to push it over the rocks and pebbles previously.

Such exposure to Nature did me no good at all, I'm sure. It ensured I got a good blast of pollen to set off the allergy, making me sensitive today more so than I'm sure I would have been otherwise. I've had to spend to day shut in the house; windows and doors closed.

To compensate, I watched 'Keeping Mum' with Rowan Atkinson and Kristin Scott Thomas. Quite delicious, it was - recommended for some beautifully-written, archetypal British black comedy. Lazy Sundays do have their uses.