Walking Forward, Looking Back by Dinah Latham

Author:Dinah Latham
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781784627447
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2014-10-12T23:00:00+00:00

8

HARRIET AND ME

A lovely walk today. Only two weeks after all the snow and very cold weather, it’s really mild. As we enter Jacob’s Ladder Wood, there is the drumming of a woodpecker right above us. I look and look from all angles round the bottom of the tall tree that I know he must be in. I can hear him so clearly but I can’t manage to catch even a glimpse and Harriet is running back and forth, desperately telling me to move on and watch her carry sticks instead. As we turn left onto the bridleway at the bottom and begin the long trawl, slowly climbing up the slope, there, on the right, I suddenly see the sharp, dark green spikes pushing through the old fallen leaves on the bank – the very beginnings of the wild crow garlic. I can’t be quite sure what it is until I crush two of the baby, spiky, grass-like leaves between my fingers… and, yes, it really is. Last year I looked forward every morning to reaching this bit of the walk; the fragrance of the garlic would greet me before I could see the bank, calling me on with its heady scent, until suddenly, there it was, a mass of tiny white flowers bathed in this glorious perfume, so sweet, so much more gentle than its cultivated brother.

I love this wood, especially on a really hot day. It’s cool and shaded within. It is said that the steps down – the ladder – were once at the beginning of the garden of Mr. Jacob of ‘cream cracker’ fame. This was all his garden I understand. I silently thank him for sharing it with Harriet and me.

This time last year, Harriet had struggled to make it up the bank, whereas today she bounds up there, sniffs around in the young shoots and then gallops off to investigate another smell; one much more interesting to her nose than simple wild wood garlic.

* * *

I think about this last year with Harriet. I am still amazed at how much a part of my life she has become, just how much joy she brings me and how much we share.

What has she taught me, this four-legged friend of mine? What are the gifts she has given me? I began to think about her loyalty. I can always count on her welcome. Whether it be when I arrive home or when I return to the car from a shop, her focus will be entirely on me, even when I can’t see her clearly because of the picture painted on the windscreen by the reflection of the trees. Her gaze will not falter. Whatever sort of day I’m having, she will overwhelm me with her enthusiasm; she never fails. As I think about how people change, relationships fail, and friends let you down, she is my constant; my dependable companion. As I grow older and the world moves faster, her quality of steadfast loyalty and trust is humbling.

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