Your Countryside Wrapped: Hampshire Countryside Service Highlights 2020

From discovering new walking routes to cows roaming our gift shops, we hope this email makes you smile.

Have a great Christmas and we will see you next year!

The Countryside Team x

#walktherightway

Back in April, we launched our #walktherightway campaign which was about exploring the public rights of way near you. It was great seeing so many of you discover the fantastic walking routes that cover the county. To this date, there have been over 600 uses of the hashtag on Instagram and we hope you all continue to enjoy walking throughout Christmas and into the New Year.

Staunton goes viral

Back in March, we had to shut our farm and country park visitor centres. While we waved goodbye to our visitors for a while, we welcomed a few of our other residents to explore. A video of Staunton Farm’s cows certainly captured the imagination with over 2.5 million people viewing the clip. To continue to get your animal fix over the winter, be sure to give Staunton Farm’s Facebook page a like.

Thank you volunteers

With so many more of you out enjoying our rights of way network this year, it meant plenty of work for our volunteers to maintain footpaths. It would not be possible to enjoy the countryside like we do without our volunteers and access teams so a big thank you to them for all their hard work replacing gates, fixing fences, and putting up signposts this year. They really do make our service what it is! Find out how you can get involved.

Mindfulness podcast

As we look towards new beginnings, it’s a good time to get on top of any stresses and anxieties we may have going into 2021. Being more mindful can help us feel more relaxed. A good place to start is with meditation and other breathing exercises. Back in June, we launched our Mindfulness with Jo podcast which is the perfect introduction to these topics. It’s been a great success so far so why not give it a go? Have a listen here.

Countryside survey

There’s still time to take part in our survey and be in with of winning a £50 John Lewis gift voucher. We’d love to hear from you about how you use outdoor spaces and connect with nature, and any thoughts you may have about Hampshire’s countryside. Fill in our survey here. There are five £50 John Lewis vouchers up for grabs. Good luck!