Others Walking

February 2026

It is snowing.

I wrap up, take my stick, stand outside the house.

I try to follow the first walk, tracing ghost steps in the snow but my paces don’t quite align.

I turn to the right and walk 116 paces, Scrunching snow under my feet, my stick whacks down.

I turn to the right again and walk another 150 paces to Gate 1 – a small t-junction. A wiggle round.

This is a walk looking down. There are dark prints, traces of bicycle wheels, car tyres, footprints and paw prints.

A car turns towards me in the narrow lane. I step aside to let it slip past.

Sound is deadened in the white, only the squeak-squelch of my boots against the snow. 

I am thankful for my stick.

I turn to the right again for another 70 paces. Is this Gate 2? Is this my street of possibilities?

In the white any criss crossing of direction, any mark is possible. The snow is flurrying, thickening in the air.

leaving damp spots on my scarf to trickle down the back of my neck as they meet my warmth,

Walk along following the edge of the houses. I come to Gate 3 a post at the beginning of a gunnel, an alleyway, a cut through, a turning back. 

Here a greater quantity of footprints. 

I follow the gunnel path for 130 paces, take a short dogleg across and along the street to the entrance to the next gunnel.

Gate 4. This takes me past the wild garden on my left.

and out through Gate 5 right on to the street and back to the house.