HELLO, folks, its 'mazin' what you see when you are out and about travelling up and down the country roads from Hatherleigh at a speed a toddler could overtake me at.

Some of you might have seen me at some time during my travels; I am unmistakeable in appearance, a bit of a "Road Hog"

I am about 29 stone with a straw hat and I sit about four feet off the ground on my mobility scooter, I have my binoculars around my neck, my walking stick and my umbrella sticking out the bag at the rear of the scooter.

I bought the scooter from a chap in Somerset, who told me I could travel up to forty miles before re-charging the batteries. Now the last scooter he sold was to a chap living in Norfolk who weighed all of eight stone, now as you know the only hills in Norfolk have moles sticking out the top of them.

Still never mind, I can reach a distance from Hatherleigh of approximately ten miles out and the same to return it depends on just how many mountains my batteries can withstand.

I like to travel in the sunshine and warm weather but I also brave the wind, rain and snow although the latter tests the spirits.

Car drivers who travel the lanes and byways see pleasant green borders lined with trees and bushes and think nothing of it.

I doodle along at 4mph and tend to notice a lot of discarded junk thrown out of the car windows, on one small stretch of road between Hatherleigh and Monk Okehampton, I counted approximately 50 plastic bottles, ten plastic supermarket bags full of rubbish, all tied up neatly in a knot at the top, Kentucky chicken bargain bucket, various papers, beer cans, used nappies, building rubble, old tyres and broken furniture.

Now a lot of this discarded waste is not detectable at 40–50mph, but it can be seen at 4mph. Maybe if we all dumped our rubbish in this manner we could do away with landfill sites.

On a more positive note the other thing you notice at toddling speed is how beautiful the lanes look with every variety of wild flower such as Primrose, Red Campion, Bluebell and Forget-me-not to name just a few, and of course all these colourful borders are lined with such a huge variety of trees and bushes with such sweet fragrances filling the senses.

On Sunday I stopped at the side of the road in the woods on the way to Jacobstowe and waited for the noise of six large motorbikes travelling at 80mph to disappear into the distance,

I looked up into the canopy of leaves and branches and heard a choir of bird song, I also seen a fox and a couple of squirrels and at the same time through the branches I observed a Buzzard being harassed by a couple of crows. All of this took place within a period of three minutes, before the next vehicle disturbed the solemnity of the natural choir.

I always say hello or good morning to people I meet along the byways and sometimes they stop and chat for a while which is a bonus for me, people should stop and talk to each other, even though you are strangers, being stuck in a car all the time you get out of the habit.

If you see me toddling along the lanes, stop and chat, or just say hello, you can see me most days somewhere between Hatherleigh and one of the following places; Exbourne, Iddesleigh, Okehampton, Meeth, Highhampton, Sheepwash or Northlew.

I spend a lot of time looking through binoculars at all sorts of wildlife and I like to identify mushrooms and wild flowers.

I also enjoy the occasional pint of beer and I make sure that all my routes have a pub along the way, I hear all sorts of strange and funny comments near or in pubs and see some funny sights, I heard two Americans: one saying to the other 'It's amazing how they get that grass to stay on top of the building,' followed by 'How do they build a wall out of cow poo?'

It's time to disconnect my charger and take to the road, and remember folks, slow down when passing my scooter.

Monty Montgomery

Morris Close

Hatherleigh