It is said that a walk in the woods is a great way to recharge your mind and revive a weary soul. I think we’ve all needed a little more of that during the last few months.

These two pictures were taken at the weekend, just outside of the market town Hexham, in the county of Northumberland, England. And when I say just outside, I mean less than a ten minute walk from the historic Abbey in the town’s market square – there really isn’t much by way of suburbs here.

The forest is managed; parts of it are felled for paper at the right time, while other sections regrow. This means that the trees are planted roughly in rows, with paths of varying difficulty throughout it’s floor. However, on the day we wandered around, our only companions were the birds flying overhead in the July sun, and the ants busying themselves in and out of the enormous ant hills in the forest.

Access to experiences such as this on my own doorstep are a reminder of how lucky we are in this part of the world, especially during the last four months of lockdown here in the UK. It has certainly helped ease my anxiety and frustration at not being able to move forward with the music projects I had planned for this summer – but more on those soon…