Welcome

It’s a rare couple that shares all the same interests. In fact in my experience, some difference of aptitude, inclination and opinion is vital to keeping your wits keen and getting the jobs done. For example, I’m capable of stepping over a crater in the floor for months, so much do I abhor DIY; my wife can’t tolerate a date in the diary unaccounted for. She can fill an idle hour productively. I become restive and reckless after eight minutes alone. Left to me, we would live in squalor and constant jeopardy; left to her… well, okay everything would be just fine. But you get what I’m trying to say. I like hills and she doesn’t, and that’s alright.

We’ve had some fantastic valley, beach and fenland walks that have completely cured me of my snobbery about altitude. We’ve seen some incredible views she was happy to concede were not to be had except at the cost of some sweat and swearing. And that’s what this month’s lead feature is a celebration of. The fact we’ll all of us disagree on the components of an ideal walk or weekend. But it’s in accommodating those differences, not allowing them to polarise us, that we discover more to enjoy in life and each other. It takes all sorts to make a walk and a world.