Those Cows are Small......

01.01.21
Today was a bit of a bluuuugghhhh day. 
No-one wanted to come out for a walk with me. 
I didn't really want to go out for a walk. In the rain and mud. But today is day one of the Walk1000miles challenge and I didn't want to start with a big fat zero!
Last year I clocked up 1,066 miles. Less than the 1,420 I did in 2019 but I was so proud of myself because during Lockdown I was hardly walking at all and thought I had no chance at all of getting anywhere near 1000 miles. When I started walking again after Lockdown I worked out that I needed a daily average of just over four miles a day. Impossible I thought, but I'll just try and get as close as I can.
And I did it. Yay!!!!
So I forced myself out today into the rain and mud. I was a bit grumpy that no-one would come (after all it's a new year and aren't things supposed to be different.........) 
There was no room to park in the layby I normally park in round the back of Stowe. Stupid New Year getting people out walking!! I was feeling grumpy and didn't want to go home to listen to all the squeals of laughter and craziness from the Little Misses and Mr K playing Dragon Warriors so I parked on a random grass verge and set off along a public footpath towards Stowe. It went across a golf course I realised half way across but thankfully by now it was chucking it down and there was no-one fool enough to be playing golf. Archie loved it, running around like a loon!
I walked across another field and got to the walls round Stowe. There were some sheep in the far end of the field I noticed but miles away. 
It was funny being on the other side, looking into the Secret Garden rather than out of it.
I went round the outside for a bit, handily discovering a bit where you can get in so some days I can walk up to the cafe to make it a super long walk. 
Freezing by now I decided to head home. And eat more cheese and crackers. Despite saying I'd start eating healthily today. Because, well, there's so much still to eat. And what else is Monday for?!!!
When I got back to the field before the golf course I was disappointed to see that the sheep had come down from the far corner and were between us and the stile I needed to get to on the other side. (The very top left hand side of the hedge in extras)
Archie's fine with sheep it just meant putting him on the lead and having to have my hands out in the cold and wet.
I was even more disappointed to discover as I got closer that the sheep were in fact cows.
And when I say disappointed I mean beyond horrified because I can't - actually can't, not even if my life depended on it - walk through a field of cows. 
There I've said it.
Also I was confused as to how the cows had looked so little like sheep and then morphed into giant killer beasts as I got a bit closer.
This is something Mr K and I quote a lot and it never fails to make me laugh.
Obviously it didn't make me laugh this afternoon because I was nearly in tears, stood in the pouring rain, a herd of killer cows between me and my car, wondering just how far I was going to have to walk to find an alternative way back.
The cows were steadily walking towards us so I thought I could stick to the hedge on the right hand side and see if there was another footpath out. Ready at any second to leap into the hedge if necessary. It's a huge field and even I thought it unlikely they'd stampede the best part of a hundred metres to get to us.
So I edged my way round the whole massive field, all the time relieved to see the cows ambling their way up to where I'd been stood in the first place. Phew!
The Little Misses and Mr K were still playing Dragon Warriors when I got home so I headed up to the bath still feeling grumpy.
The Top Gear Africa special  cheered me up a bit. Along with apricot Wensleydale and fruitcake which came in my amazing Wensleydale hamper from Nanny. Cheese is delicious, fruitcake is delicious, together, oh my goodness!!!!!