Sinful Sunday: Glade

One of the best discoveries we’ve made since moving to Croydon is just how easily we can access wide-open spaces and sprawling woodland. From Riddlesdown Common to Farthing Downs, Croham Hurst Woods to Banstead Wood, we can jump into the car on a Sunday afternoon – or indeed a Wednesday – and be out in what feels like the middle of nowhere in less than 25 minutes. Given that it takes almost exactly the same amount of time to get the train into Victoria, we seem to have found (quite by accident) the perfect midway point between the hustle and bustle of the city and the (relative) wilderness.

As longtime blog readers will know, I love finding excuses to strip off in the great outdoors (or, well, anywhere), and have gleefully taken advantage of opportunities to get naked in Epping Forest and Boxley Wood over the last few years – and even in the great, primeval Białowieża Forest in the east of Poland. Something about a treetop canopy, piles of moss and leaves beneath my feet, and the particular quiet that descends on you once you penetrate the first few rows of trees…well, I can rarely resist at least looking out for potential photo spots.

So when Liv and I went for a wander in an almost entirely empty Banstead Woods on a rainy weekday afternoon, in the middle of lockdown, it was pretty inevitable that one or both of us would end up getting our kit off. A small, sunlit glade and a fallen tree-trunk provided the perfect opportunity to strip off, step up…and stretch out…