Rushden and the Great Bubble Olympics!

We were thrilled to meet up once again with our group who have been undertaking the Wellbeing Walks with us.  But instead of meeting at Corby train station as usual, this time we met in Rushden, Northamptonshire.  The group's organiser Carolyn had put together this walk, so it was a surprise to us this time and we were intrigued to know where she might lead us.

Following the old rail track, we turned into a long, wide road, the rail line to our left.

Suddenly, and as a total surprise, our leader turned left and took us up a steep track into beautiful woodlands.

When we came out of the trees, we came to a clearing, the remnants of something in concrete and what seemed like an industrial stonehenge of slabs.

Further along, we came to a large area overgrown with grasses and strewn with bushes, a wonderful place for picking berries of all sorts!

Our walkers were fascinated by the idea of free natural food and how many types of berries that could be identified.  One of our walkers said to Jo, "well, there are things to learn everyday.  Why sit at home feeling miserable when there's all this to come and find out about?"  We couldn't agree more!

Not only were there elderberries and apples, but blackberries, damsons and

sloes and Carole couldn't resist the opportunity to do a bit of foraging.

We picnicked on the grass amongst the hedges.  Carole had brought along her bubble wands, and John suggested that bubble blowing would be a great Olympic event!  So we decide to hold the first ever Great Bubble Olympics right there and then!

Longest bubble gold medallist

Most bubbles in one breath gold medallist

 

It was a happy / sad moment in the car park at the end of our walk, as through walking we have shared some great conversations and have explored different terrain together and now we had reached the end of this particular project.

Everyone was given a set of the maps we made which record the memory of our walks in Corby in both words and images. We hope to walk with the group again in the future.

Visit our Wellbeing maps page to see the maps.

Here is some of the jam Carole made from her foraged fruit after the walk!