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Tag: Forests & Woods

How not to plan a trip

How not to plan a trip

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I planned a trip for today. I was going on my own because Amanda thought it might be a bit too strenuous for her. Amanda went off to a Coffee Morning (sounds pretty strenuous to me) and I left the house about 20 minutes later. I hadn't got very far when I realised that I was still wearing ordinary shoes so I rushed back and changed into walking boots and set off once again.

I still made it to the bus stop 5 minutes before the bus was due to arrive. I was planning to go to a place called 'Dolley Green', which is in the middle of nowhere, and walk back to Knighton. When the bus arrived the driver told me that the bus doesn't go through Dolley Green anymore and I was so surprised I got off.

It was only as the bus disappeared around the corner that I remembered that the driver did say it now goes directly to Norton instead of the round-about way through Dolley Green. So what's significant about that? Well, when I planned the trip originally I had planned to start in Norton and then discovered that Dolley Green would be a better place to start from. So, if I had my wits about me, I could have stayed on the bus and travelled to Norton and used my original route. Doubly irritating.

I will do that trip on another day and I'll tell you about it when I do but for now, in the afternoon, we did a short walk instead.

We went up onto Garth Hill and saw this lovely view over Knighton with lots of Bluebells.

Further along the path there were more Bluebells.

We had been along this path before but not during Bluebell time. A little way back we spotted a path going up the hill which we certainly hadn't traversed and Amanda said that she wanted to explore that on the way back.

So, on the way back, we explored. It was moderately steep and went up, and up, and up. We finally arrived at a little lane which afford us this view.

I wonder what that large lumpy hill left of centre on the horizon is? As we are looking toward Ludlow it could be either Brown Clee Hill or Titterstone Clee Hill. Can't say for certain.

We made our way down the lane and eventually to home.

 

Squaring the circle

Squaring the circle

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Another sunny day. Another dash for the car. Another zooming off to somewhere.

This time it was Radnor Forest which is 10 miles (or 20 minutes) from home. The nearest village is New Radnor and it’s called ‘New’ Radnor because it was new when it was built in Medieval times to replace Old Radnor.

We passed through New Radnor and travelled on the A44, heading south-west, for about 1.5 miles until we saw a car park signposted where we turned off. We followed the rather bumpy track for about 0.6 of a mile and parked the car.

We walked along the track until we saw a path and stream going off to our left and followed it. Here is the intrepid Amanda following the stream.

We are both keen to see what’s around that bend ahead and, when we got there, this is what we saw:


It wasn’t quite as high as we expected and it certainly wasn’t impressive but it is pretty. It is fairly dry at the moment and we can always pop back after some heavy rain when it should be carrying a lot more water. There is no way in other than the path that we used and there’s no other way out.

The path is easy to navigate and it has been supplemented with boarding in places where the bank would otherwise be too steep to walk on without falling into the stream and, to prove it, Amanda didn’t fall in.

When we arrived back at the junction we turned left instead of back towards the car and carried on. We soon found ourselves climbing a very steep slope. So steep that had it been a bit steeper it probably been a hands and knees job. We got to the point where we were wondering whether to turn back when we saw the top not too far up and decided to continue.

On the way up we met this chunky little chap.

That is a Dor beetle. They are not uncommon and are of a type of dung beetle which all have the rather unattractive habit of eating dung. I thought that you might like to know that. We left it to its business, so to speak, and finally made it to the top of the slope.

We were rewarded with this sight after we realised we were being watched.

It was a Roe Deer. It watched us for a short time then trotted away. We joined another path and headed downhill. This time the slope was reasonable and at the bottom we were greeted with this view:

We rejoined the track and were soon back at the car.

We hadn’t quite finished yet and although we were headed back home we were looking for something on the way. How would you like to see a stone circle? Well unfortunately for you there isn’t one but we might manage a stone square. A stone square?

What can I say? Apparently these groups of four stones are not uncommon hereabouts and they are more common in Scotland but nobody has any idea what they are for.

Amanda had also noticed, on the map, another item marked ‘standing stone’ which was on our route back so off we went. We found the right area and found a place to stop the car and get out. We looked over a nearby field but couldn’t see anything remotely like a standing stone. We moved to the gate of the next field which had a lot of sheep down the far end and spotted a small stone near the sheep. There was no public access in that field but there was a public footpath in the next field so I thought I’d walk along it to see if I could get a photograph.

Now this is where it gets embarrassing. I found a gap in the hedge which enabled me to get a clear view of the stone.

Then one of the sheep spotted me and started bleating which started some of the others bleating as well. That soon moved through the whole flock. I realised that they were all looking at me and going baaaa. Time to move, I thought, and headed back to the car. I was horrified to see them start to follow me. Remember that I’m not in the same field but in the next one and there is a stout hedge between us.

By the time I got to the car the sheep had reached the gate of the other field and we noticed that there were some small metal troughs on the ground with some of the sheep putting their noses in them. It suddenly dawned on us that they thought I was Mister Food and were waiting for the goodies. We didn’t have any, of course, and as we drove away we could see dozens of little faces watching us through the gate. I felt really mean.

We went home.

New place, First walk

New place, First walk

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Today was a sunny day although the temperature this morning, early, was below freezing but we couldn't miss this chance to have our first walk since we moved in. We have, until now, done nothing but unpacking and settling in so this will make a change.

It wasn't far to the start of the walk, namely our front door and so we set off uphill. It was quite steep and we gained height quickly and I took my first photograph before we had even left the town. We were heading west to walk around Garth Hill and this view was of Knighton from the very western edge of Knighton.

Garth Hill is just over 1100 feet high but we weren't intending to go to the top but to go around it's flanks. The first part of the walk was along Glyndwr's Way which is well signposted and we were now heading north-west along the Teme Valley ( on our right) and on the other side of the valley is Panpunton Hill.

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We soon entered the wooded part of the hill and, as you can see in the next photograph we were still climbing occasionally. This view is looking back along the path and the slope shown on the left is as steep as it looks. You wouldn't want to fall down there.

On the way through the wood we spotted some wild flowering currant which was rather pretty and colourful.

We were about halfway into the walk now and the sound of sheep bleating was quite common. There are a lot of sheep round here.

The total walk was only 3 miles and when we arrived at the 2 mile mark we saw this Blackthorn blossom and there was quite a lot of it. Very pretty.

A little further on we saw this little bracket fungus on a fallen tree.

Having walked full circle we finally joined the path that we had started out on and descended into the Cwm in Knighton – very near home now.

That was an enjoyable little walk and we were back in time for lunch.

 

Following the stones

Following the stones

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We started today with a little trepidation because 4 weeks ago to the day we were also going on a day trip, although to a different destination, and immediately after finishing breakfast I had a heart attack and was carted off to hospital where I spent the next 4 days. It turned out to be a minor heart attack but it is, apparently, going to take 6 weeks to get back to normal (another 2 weeks to go from now).

We were not really expecting any problems today, and there weren't any, so we set off for the railway station.

We were headed for London, change at Stratford onto the DLR for Woolwich Arsenal then just two more stops on South-Eastern Trains to Abbey Wood Station. A short walk and here we are. But where exactly?

This is Lesnes Abbey Woods in the London Borough of Bexley just two miles south of the River Thames at Cross Ness or two and a half miles east of Woolwich Ferry. In the picture above the pointed skyscraper of Canary Wharf is visible near the centre line of the image with the top of the Shard showing more to the left.

The ruins at the bottom of the picture above is one of the features we've come to see. The abbey was built during the 12th century and  the first inmates probably came from the Holy Trinity Priory in Aldgate.

Although there is not a lot of structure left above ground the ruins are quite extensive. The area below was obviously the abbey church showing the bases of the columns in the church nave and the second picture shows its position relative to the other parts.


There are some parts with a significant amount showing above ground as shown here.


The inhabitants were known as Augustinians or Black Cannons and they used to meet every day in the Chapter House to discuss the business of the day and here Amanda is trying to pretend to be one of the  Cannons sitting on the bench. She doesn't seem to have much of an audience (perhaps they were warned that we were coming). smilies

It is interesting to speculate how they aquired, and organised the delivery of, all the stone needed for such a large building especially as there is no stone like it locally. The River Thames, as I said previously, is 2 miles away so the stone could have been delivered by sea – but from where? How would they have contacted the people who could supply the stone.

The abbey ruins are situated next to a wood which we wanted to explore next. Just bear in mind that it isn't flat around here and you will, like us, be going up and down some hills but the wood is really lovely and covers some 217 acres.


We were also looking for some geological deposits known as the Blackheath beds which are very fossiliferous and which I visited about 55 years ago. They were easy to find then, I have the fossils to prove it, but we couldn't find them this time. That was a little disappointing but I'd like to try again sometime.

The abbey was demolished around 1525, partly because of the dissolution of the monastaries by Henry VIII and partly because it was then already in a rather neglected state, and some of the stone was used to build Hall Place (Tudor) about 3 miles away measured in a straight line. We decided to follow the stones to Hall Place and so jumped on a number 229 bus which would take us very near Hall Place. The journey took around 50 minutes because the bus goes a rather long way round but it does make the journey simple.

The walk from the bus stop to Hall Place, which is still in the London Borough of Bexley, was quite short and we had our first glimpse of Hall Place from the road.

It certainly looked interesting so we hurried round to the entrance. Entry to the grounds is free and there is a lot to see but to go into the house requires an entrance fee of £8 per adult, £6 pounds for oldies (us) and a further discount of 50% for National Trust members (also us) so we paid £3 each for the house. If you have a National Art Pass from the ArtFund then entry to the house is free.

However it was now lunchtime so before we got to the house we found their cafe by the River Cray and had some lunch. I had seen some reviews of the cafe on the internet and they tended to be rather disappointing so we were not expecting much. However things must have improved as my soup and bread roll was really tasty and Amanda's bacon sandwich, she said, was exceptionally good. We also had no complaints about our coffee and tea. We sat outside on the river terrace and could watch the ducks and geese swiming about including Mrs Canada Goose and family.


After lunch we crossed the river over the bridge next to the cafe to see the Rock Gardens and it was certainly worth the short walk. You can see the house, with the cafe this side of it, in the second picture which will give an idea of distance.

There was a great variety of plants including some that were of particular interest to Amanda and lots of different colours which made a really attractive display.



Back across the river we turned away from the house towards the greenhouses where we found a large conservatory which was free entry so we went in. There was a rectangular path with the centre taken up with a pond surrounded by lush vegetaion and around the outside of the path were benches covered in various plants, flowers and cactuses.



We then made our way towards the western end of the grounds which had some beautiful areas of parkland together with lots of colour from numerous Azaleas which are in bloom at this time of year.


Walking towards the colour we were soon to realise just how many Azalea blossoms and colours there were and these pictures show just a few.


There was another bridge here over the river which was partly festooned with Wisteria.

The only downside to this part of the grounds is the traffic noise from a very busy road nearby. We turned round here and started to head back towards the house passing through the 'Really Useful Garden' on the way. Yes, that really is the name. It appears to be a herb garden with, yes, really useful herbs and I must say the Box hedges look really neat.

Next we went into this garden with flower beds divided into compartments by rather neatly trimmed wavy hedges. We expected to walk out the far end but discovered that the way in was the only way out.

As we neared the house we encountered the Queen's Beasts – a set of ten brilliantly executed topiary heraldic animals which were planted to celebrate our current queen's coronation. They've grown into big beasts.

At the far end of the Queen's Beasts is this turret on the house demonstrating some pretty impressive flushwork.

In architecture  flushwork is the decorative combination of flint and stone on the same flat plane. Flushwork begins in the early 14th century, but the peak period was during the wool boom between about 1450 and the English Reformation of the 1520s. Flushwork, and flint architecture in general, is usually found in areas with no good local building stone. Although the labour cost of creating flushwork was high, it was still cheaper than importing the large quantity of stone necessary to build or face the entire structure. The dark squares are flint and the light squares are stone.

The same technique has been used on the front of the house to good effect.

We finally went in to this Tudor house built in 1537 although the brick part was added in the 17th century and started our visit in the Great Hall with the Minstrel's Gallery.

Just off the Great Hall is the Kitchen.

One of the other rooms has this ornate ceiling.

Hall Place is one of London's hidden gems and, in our opinion, one that shouldn't be missed. I'm surprised that it isn't better known but I'm glad it isn't. smilies

I am supposed to be taking things easily but I don't think that I did that today. Consequently by this time I was feeling tired and so was Amanda so we decided to call it a day. We caught a bus, from the same stop from which we alighted when we arrived, to Bexley Station and then a train to London Cannon Street and thence to Liverpool Street Station and home.

 

More of the same but more of the difference.

More of the same but more of the difference.

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A week ago I said we planned to return to Hampstead one day; well this is one day! Same place – different bits.

It all started so well. Today (Tuesday) was forecast to be this week's sunny day and, surprisingly, that is how it turned out; right to the very end. We went to Hampstead Station (Northern Line) via the tube and emerged into the sunlight.

We turned south along Heath Street (You can go north along Heath Street as well) and then right into Church Walk. A very pleasant street with lots of Georgian Houses. It turned out that this part of Hampstead was mainly Georgian so not very old at around 200 – 300 years.


And it wasn't called Church Walk for nothing you know.

It was a Georgian church and we didn't go inside as it was about to be invaded by a large party of what appeared to be visitors on a tour of Hampstead. We didn't see them again.

We turned right further along into Holly Walk which runs alongside a separate piece of ground used as the churchyard and you should notice a couple of large memorials just behind the railings in the next picture.

That lane led us up to Mount Vernon where we noticed this house together with another rather nice little lane called Holly Berry Lane. The plaque on the wall says:

"The Watch House – In the 1830s the newly formed Hampstead Police Force set out on its patrol & nightly watch from this house"

It was an arresting sight and so was looking back down Church Walk from the top.

There are plenty of nice little corners in this part of Hampstead and it is hilly.


One of the things we had planned to do on our next visit to Hampstead was to see two National Trust properties – 2 Willow Road and Fenton House. We discovered before we left home that they are both closed Mondays and Tuesdays and, of course, this weeks sunny day was Tuesday so we didn't even go near 2 Willow Road but Fenton House was in this area so we caught a glimpse of it behind its rather fancy gates. Next time perhaps?

We saw the Holly Bush Inn which is Georgian and a mere 200 years old. It did, however, have a menu posted outside and the various dishes did sound nice but it was too early for lunch so we passed by.

We were on top of a hill here and we wanted to head for Flask Walk and Well Walk which were on the other side of Hampstead High Street so we needed to head down the hill. From High Street we turned into Back Lane

which led us into Flask Walk. Flask Walk displays two distinct aspects. The top alleyway part with its shops and the lower part with its leafy residential aspect.


Why 'Flask' Walk? It recalls the centuries-old practice of Londoners climbing up to the two villages, Hampstead and Highgate, to fill leather flasks with pure spring water rather than risk the cholera-riddled infected waters of London.

On the way down Flask Walk we came across this building. Since many of the worker's homes in Victorian Hampstead had no running water, this public building provided both drinking water and facilities for bathing.

I don't need to tell you the date because it's on the building.

On our route we were going past Burgh House and Hampstead Museum and we thought we'd have a look round but, no, closed Mondays and Tuesdays. They seem to have a thing in Hampstead about closing on Mondays and Tuesdays but we did at least see the outside. It is, like a lot of Hampstead, Georgian.

We joined Well Walk and went past one of the original Chalybeate wells originally promoted for the medicinal value of the chalybeate waters (water impregnated with iron). Keats, the poet, and Constable, the painter, both lived in this area for a time.

We eventually joined East Heath Road on the edge of the 791 acres of Hampstead Heath. We were headed for one of the places we missed last time because we became lost on the heath and eventually ran out of time. So will we get lost this time? Of course not. *cough*

We started off along a well marked path in a wooded part of the heath.

We were looking for an obvious junction which we found and where we turned left arriving, eventually, at Viaduct Pond. See, I told you we wouldn't get lost.

The viaduct carries another path across the pond. We made our way up the side of the pond onto that very path then took a smaller path through the woods ahead and finally emerged onto a larger path. We knew where we were now so turned left and headed for our next destination. Just to be safe we asked some people coming from the opposite direction who told us that we were indeed going the wqrong way. Whoops! Lost again. If you do go to Hampstead Heath no matter how many maps you take you will get lost. It is a nice place to get lost though.

They did gives us some directions which we managed to follow and finally arrived on the path we wanted.

That's Amanda on the path and just ahead of her is a right turn which we need to take. This is what we were looking for.


It is Kenwood House run by English Heritage and, best of all, entry is free. They have a place for refreshments called the Brewhouse Cafe which is where we now repaired to have lunch. The food turned out to be very good. I had poached salmon with roast new potatoes and cous cous and Amanda had free-range pork sausages with apricot chutney and roast new potatoes. Can't you just picture those little sausages gambolling around in a big field? Lovely! The main courses were just £9.50 each. Good value.

There is also a very nice outdoor area where you can choose to eat your meal or refreshments if you so choose.

After lunch we went into the house which, you may remember, is free.

The original house dates from the early 17th century and the orangery was added in about 1700. In 1754 it was bought by William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield who commissioned Robert Adam to remodel it from 1764-1779. Adam added the library (one of his most famous interiors) to balance the orangery, and added the Ionic portico at the entrance. In 1793-6 George Saunders added two wings on the north side, and the offices and kitchen buildings and brewery (now the restaurant) to the side.

The house does not contain much furniture but it does have an extraordinary collection of paintings including a self-portrait by Rembrandt and paintings by Vermeer, Gainsborough and Landseer to name but a few.


The first picture above is the Library, added by Robert Adam, and the second picture is the Upper Hall with Amanda sitting at the table waiting for dinner. I didn't have the heart to tell her it probably wouldn't arrive.

Out in the grounds is this rather grand bridge.

Except it isn't anything of the sort. It's a fake. Just a wooden facade painted to look like a real bridge. The back looks quite different.

It was created around 200 years ago. Don't believe everything you see.

That was our Hampstead trip for the day but we had a little more time so we went, via the tube, to Lancaster Gate and into Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. Just inside the gate is the Italian Gardens.

I was looking forward to photgraphing the fountains – but – no fountains. Sorry fountains are closed on Monday and Tuesday. I don't actually know if that is true but they definitely weren't running. Not one little drop. I don't know why but it was disappointing.

However there was something unusual.

No not the non-fountain but what's behind it. Oh! You can't see it? I'll move round a bit then.

Can you see the Heron perched on the edge of the bowl now? This one is obviously hoping for a fish dinner and, because it's so used to all the visitors, it hasn't taken fright as it would do normally and flown away.

So that was the end of our day – or was it?

We caught the Central Line to Liverpool Street Station for our train home except that there wasn't one. No trains running on the main line to Norwich. There were hundreds of people standing around on the main concourse all looking at the departures board. I've never seen so many 'Cancelled' and 'Delayed' indicators. Who do they think they are – an airport?

We had planned to get a train somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30. So much for planning.

We eventually learned that a train had damaged the overhead power lines which supply electricity to the trains motors and that this was just north of Chelmsford (one of the places our train goes through). This left just one track operating for trains going both ways so all trains were having to take turns to share this section.

Then just before 7:30 there was an announcement that a train was leaving for our neck of the woods but that induced a torrent of people and by the time we got to the train we would have needed a shoe horn to get in. We didn't bother.

Then, shortly after, another announcement said that a train going to Harwich International (north of our station) which wasn't going to stop at our station was having two additional stops which did include our station. We got to the train to find that there was room but only if we were prepared to stand. We had no idea how long we'd have to wait if we didn't get this one so we decided to take a chance.

It did actually leave on time, about 7:40, and we crawled for 30 minutes to the next stop. When we started again we picked up speed and we going quite well for some time until we stopped and waited – and waited – and waited. We must have waited there for about an hour then started a stop-start journey through various stations until we finally arrived at ours. After we'd been standing for 1 and a half hours two younger people offered us their seats and we collapsed into them before they changed their minds.

That journey took a total of 2 hours 45 minutes instead of the normal 55 minutes.

We were very glad to arrive home especially as it was 10:30. What an end to an otherwise nice day!

Better late than never.

Better late than never.

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Spring is late this year.

And so are the Bluebells. These, in Blakes Wood in Danbury, should have been out two weeks ago when we went then but they weren't. They are now.

I do like Bluebells. You wouldn't have guessed would you?  smilies

What’s the rush?

What’s the rush?

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Well, I'm glad you asked me that because I can now tell you. It's the Greater Woodrush. smilies

Scrappy looking flower head init? That is not a good photograph. What it really needed was for the flower head to be sunlit but the background to be in deep shade. That would have shown it up nicely but not something I could arrange. smilies It is a woodland plant, often an indicator of ancient woodland, and not common in Essex. So  where was it?

That's in Danbury near Chelmsford. Have you noticed the white flowers beyond the sign? There were a lot more of them.

They are Wood Anemones so that must be good mustn't it? Well no it wasn't. We had gone to Blakes Wood to look at the Bluebells but because of our recent dreadful cold weather, lasting well into Spring, all the plants, including trees, are well behind. Wood Anemones should be over by now but they appear to be at about their best and Bluebells should be in their prime but all we could see were some leaves. Looks as though we'll have to back in a couple of weeks. On this visit, however, we did hear a Nightingale as soon as we stepped out of the car. That was nice!

That is not to say that there weren't some picturesque views to be had.


Those trees in the last picture should be showing an obvious green haze formed by the appearance of new leaves but there's nothing.

Spring is late this year. smilies