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Category: walks
A Winter Walk
We had a break in the snow this afternoon, the sun came out, the sky was blue so we ventured out for a walk across the road into the fields alongside a wood and then down to the river.
- In the garden at the start of our walk
- Field edge path
- View across the field
We climbed over a ladder stile and then went down a narrow path towards the River Tweed
- Path above the River Tweed
and then looked down on the ice flows on the river.
- River Tweed
The views were spectacular.
- Sun going down on the River Tweed
Then the sky darkened and snow began to fall and so we made our way back home through the woods.
- Into the wood
- Woodland path
For more photos see Flickr.
A Saturday Stroll – Saturday Scenes
On such a beautiful sunny day, even reading The Madonna of the Rocks by Marina Fiorato (her new book due out in May) couldn’t keep me indoors, so D and I went out for a walk. Although it’s still only February it feels and looks as though spring is here. We went down a narrow uneven footpath near opposite our house to an old country lane and then across fields to the edge of a lake.
There were plenty of birds, including this heron perched on a fence in the distance.
And a swan:
As we continued on our walk overhead a red kite soared above the trees, chased away by the rooks making a terrific racket. The path home is over more fields rather wet and boggy after the wet weather and snow.
The cattle were also noisy, waiting to be let out into the fields.
Back over the fields. This is a well-used path but today we only passed one other walker.
Signs of spring along the way – snowdrops
and croscuses.
Home with muddy boots.
Just a Glimpse of the Orient
On Monday D and I went for a walk with a friend alongside the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we enjoyed these views. This is the start of our walk.
The Wendover Arm was first constructed in 1797, but as sections of it leaked it was “de-watered”. From 1989 onwards it has been restored and this is what it looks like today.
Kingfishers can be seen along the canal, but we didn’t see any on Monday. There were lots of other birds though, ducks, moorhens, coots and dabchicks (otherwise known as little grebes), busy diving and collecting nest material.
The ducks were in fine form, taking off a high speed and then landing with legs flailing before splash-down.
Further along the canal we saw a swan sitting on a large nest over on the other side.
The canal opens up into an area known as the Wides, with areas of grass and shrubs with a tiny island on the far side. Trees have invaded what was once open water and without management the canal would disappear in a few years.
Then came a surprise – a pair of mandarin ducks. I’d never seen these before; they looked very different from the other birds on the canal, but just so beautiful. The male has very distinctive chestnut brown and orange fan wings sticking up above his body, whilst the female is a duller brown with white spots. They were swimming together in and out of the trees. When I came home I looked them up in our bird books. Originally from China these ducks like streams and overgrown lakesides in broad leaved woodland and they nest in tree cavities. The canal is the perfect place for them.
A Country Walk on Public Rights of Way
Being a bookaholic means that I spend a lot of time inside, as I don’t really like reading outside even on sunny, warm days. But I do love walking and maps. Although we haven’t got nearly as many maps as books we do have quite a large collection of maps because every time we go to a new place we buy a map and explore the countryside and towns. The photo shows a small selection of our maps.
I’ve been meaning to write about walking since I started this blog. England is criss-crossed by many, many miles of public rights of way and my husband and I spent many years working as rights of way officers dealing with the maps, landowners, walkers, horse riders and cyclists, and not forgetting the trail riders. We love walking, although now we don’t walk as much as we used to do. We went for a walk today and although the sun wasn’t shining it was a perfect autumn day. The trees are just turning bronze, yellow and gold and the views were beautiful. The fields have been ploughed and the new crops are just showing through. It was so peaceful; we were alone in the countryside, apart from the birds, cattle and sheep and not another soul in sight.
These are some of the views from our walk.
When we go out walking we can’t help looking at things from a Rights of Way point of view. The public footpaths are all open and easy to use, but the photograph below is a good example of what I mean. It should have been marked out at least 1 metre wide by the farmer as it is a cross-field path. But it’s really narrow and because it’s only been walked out through the crop by people using the path it is only just wide enough to walk along in single file. Anyway, as we’re retired now we just moan about it to each other and carry on – it’s still walkable after all. We can’t help noticing when paths are not quite in the right position either and that’s another little gripe.
There were cattle in the next field. They weren’t the slightest bit interested in us and carried on munching the grass as we walked by.
Further on our walk we left the fields and continued down a little enclosed path, the ground covered in fallen leaves.
This led to a another narrow footpath fenced in between two fields – sheep in one and more cattle in the other. Looking at old maps I can see that it was originally an unfenced path across a larger field. At some time after 1930 the field was divided in two and the path enclosed between the two fences. 
This is an awkward path to walk along as it is on a slope and is stepped, one side being slightly higher than the other and is uneven – you have to watch where you put your feet. But I’m just being picky now, it’s not hard to walk along and many people use it every day with little difficulty.
As we walked along the cattle ignored us but the sheep were very interested and came to see us.
This Land is Our Land by Marion Shoard is about the history of the British countryside and has some interesting information about the origins of public rights of way. Now the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 has made more areas of the countryside open for public access, but rights of way still provide the main access available for the public to use.
Good places to find information on public rights of way are Defra and the Ramblers’s Association. The Ordnance Survey publishes a series of Pathfinder Guides for walks in the British Isles. They’re excellent and give details of walks of varying lengths and difficulty ranging from gentle strolls to quite challenging routes over rugged terrain.
Cotswolds Break – Minster Lovell
We’re in the Cotswolds again for the third time this year – we like it. Today we walked from Minster Lovell, a beautiful little village through the fields alongside the River Windrush to the ruins of Minster Lovell Hall.
We did get our feet wet as the path was still flooded in parts.
After this section the path left the river and we climbed up through woodland to fields, eventually reaching Crawley, where we stopped for a drink at the Lamb Inn, still with wet feet and muddy boots!
Back along the footpaths to Minster Lovell church.
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