Last week Radio 4 Woman’s Hour devoted an entire programme to loneliness.  In this era of instant connection via social media platforms it seems that people have never felt more isolated.  Of the 66 million people crammed onto this island of ours about 9 million report often or always feeling lonely.  

How many layers to wear is the first topic of conversation on almost all our walks, especially during winter.  

On a cold and blustery day we huddle around hopping from foot to foot in a freezing car park convinced we need multiple thermal layers, plus hats, gloves and scarves.  I chant my mantra ‘Be bold start cold’ in an effort to persuade myself as much as anyone that we’ll be hot in no time.  But right now no one fully believes it.

The biggest recent advance in Nordic walking poles is the advent of the folding Nordic walking pole.  Leki, one of the leading manufacturers of Nordic walking poles, now has four different types of folding pole on the market.  

They are used by trail runners as well as Nordic walkers and are currently the most popular Nordic walking pole on the market.  But are they any good?

What do they look like and how do they work?

This week was National Tree Week.  An annual celebration which was originally established by The Tree Council in 1975 to replant trees lost to Dutch Elm disease.  Tree planting campaigns go back before this though and many of you may remember the slogan ‘Plant a tree in ‘73’. 

Since last Autumn we have been putting on regular events visiting places of interest in and around Bristol.  Our most recent trip was to GENeco, part of Wessex Water, a multi-award winning business which processes both sewage and food waste.  

I knew this visit required sturdy footwear and a high-vis jacket but I hadn’t fully appreciated that we’d be walking around this big outdoors site seeing the different processes transforming raw sewage into treated waste water, bio gas and compostables.  

Much is written about what it means to be physically fit, but what does it mean for you?  I’m guessing it might include things like:

We know vitamin D is essential for healthy bones, teeth and muscles.  But the benefits don’t stop there.  There’s been a steady stream of research indicating that the ‘sunshine vitamin’ provides a host of other health benefits including boosting the immune system, preventing a range of cancers, protecting against multiple sclerosis, preventing rheumatoid arthritis, and acting as an anti-depressant.  Wow – that’s quite some list.  So it’s worth making sure that we are getting enough. 

Last month the UK’s chief medical officers published new guidelines on physical activity to reflect the latest scientific evidence.  Their previous guidelines were published in 2011 but since then the evidence to support the health benefits of regular physical activity has become more compelling. Their key messages are:

I am shortly heading off on holiday and top of my reading list is the recently published In Praise of Walking by neuroscientist Shane O’Mara.   The publisher’s blurb could have been written by any one of us Nordic walkers: “Walking is good for our muscles and posture; it helps to protect and repair organs, and can slow or turn back the ageing of our brains. With our minds in motion we think more creatively, our mood improves and stress levels fall. Walking together to achieve a shared purpose is also a social glue that has contributed to our survival as a species.

We’ve a fun charity quiz night coming up in October in the events room at the Gloucester County Cricket ground and we’d love to get as many of the club together for it.  The room can seat up to 125 people and the views of the ground are excellent.  You can either bring your own team of five or just book on and we will allocate you a team. Friends are welcome but our only rule is if you have a team of five there must be at least two Bristol/Bath Nordic Walkers per team.