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A March march

A March march

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On the 20th December last I posted about a short walk I did entitled 'So, was it muddy' and mentioned an Iron Age structure called 'The Rampart' that I passed. I didn't have time to take pictures of it on that walk as I was in a hurry to get back before lunch and, of course, Marie wanted to see a picture.

So I decided to march the same route again today in March. The Meteorological Office weather forecast for this morning was cloudy so I walked out of the house under sun and blue sky. They haven't a hope of getting it right in this country.

I set off across two fields and just before entering a wood I stopped to take a photograph of my boots at the same point that I did last time as a comparison. Now let's be honest – you do like seeing pictures of my boots don't you?

Mud? What mud? Then onwards into the wood.

Out of the wood, through the farm and up the lane. Walking along the lane I was accompanied by the song of a Skylark way above me in the sky somewhere the notes drifting gently to earth like a musical waterfall. Wonderful!

Marie has been on this part of the walk with us when we took her to Layer Marney Tower one year. This time I bypassed Layer Marney Tower and went off along the lane in the opposite direction. Back onto the footpath across the fields in the dull cloudy weather that the Meteorological Office had forecast and near the centre of the picture you may notice a clump of trees on the other side of the field. That's where the Rampart is hiding.

Having crossed the field and reached the Iron Age Rampart you can see that it comprises a very large ditch with a bank on each side. That must have taken some digging by hand and with primitive tools. I took these photographs especially for Marie, the first standing on the bottom of the ditch and the second standing on top of one of the banks. The things I do for some people


 

A few thousand years ago, when it was built, it would have been devoid of trees and probably much deeper than it is now.

So it was now just a matter of continuing my circular route back home.

Just in case you wonder why Amanda wasn't with me, she fell over in the garden about a week ago and wrenched her knee and although it is getting better she didn't want to risk it.
 

England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Tuesday.

England’s smallest and England’s oldest – Tuesday.

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After leaving Oakham yesterday we soon arrived at Woodhouse Eaves, a village in Charnwood Forest, which is where we awoke this morning on another beautifully sunny day. But first let's get one thing straight shall we? 'Forest' is not synonymous with 'Woods'. 'Forest' is an ancient term for a hunting area which consisted of both wooded and open areas.

Charnwood Forest is an area in Leicestershire which consists of wooded areas and open areas. It is also known for the rocks. Yes, the rocks! The rocks around here are Pre-Cambrian or, if you prefer laymans terms, they are among some of the oldest rocks to be found in England at around 650 million years old. To put it into context they are older than me!

We each brought a pair of legs with us and it is those that we are going to use today. We left our B&B and walked along by the road (there was a pavement) until we found a footpath which would give us access to Windmill Hill on the edge of the village.

We would be walking over a rolling agricultural landscape which is similar to Rutland but the hills are more obvious and it looked beautiful in the sunlight. There used to be a windmill at the top of Windmill Hill, no surprise there then, but unfortunately it burned down in 1945 so I'm told. The circular stone base is still there and the local authority has added a viewing platform on top so that the view can be seen over the tops of the trees but the platform wasn't accessible when we were there.

We went back the way we had come, down to the road which we crossed, and we were then on the lower slopes of Beacon Hill. This part of Beacon Hill is wooded as was Windmill Hill and there were patches of Bluebells here and there. We met an old chap by the path and he agreed to have his photograph taken with us although he had a rather wooden expression.

To avoid confusion because we both have beards – I'm the one in the middle. Wait a minute though – Amanda, the old chap and me are all in the photograph so who took it?

I did say earlier that we kept seeing patches of Bluebells and this is one.

We made our way towards the top of Beacon Hill (puff, wheeze) and eventually came upon the outcrops of precambrian rocks. Amanda took this photograph of me, from my best side of course, taking a photograph of whatever it was I was photographing and surrounded by precambrian rocks. I'm sure you'll notice the stupendous view showing on the right-hand side.

There were other visitors here taking in the view and generally lolling about in the sun and beyond them on the right is Broombriggs Hill. We are going to have to go back down Beacon Hill and up and over that one before we finish our day's walk.

When we'd had enough rocky excitement we started back down and headed for Broombriggs Hill. Lots more Bluebells scattered around as we went through and past various little woods and as we slowly climbed Broombriggs Hill (puff, wheeze) we were treated to beautiful views of the landscape once again.

On the way down we stopped to look at this view.

We were particularly interested in this because the hill in the distance is Bradgate Park where we plan to go tomorrow – more precambrian rocks. That slim edifice on the open ground to the right is a war memorial. We continued our descent into Woodhouse Eaves village passing some more interesting locations on the way but you can wait for those until the full version appears on the web site.

Back to the B&B until tomorrow morning then.
 

Down among the tulips something stirred.

Down among the tulips something stirred.

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Monday 18th April saw us heading off to London on the train, on our first trip of the year, to meet Marie who was over here from America and who was leaving for home the next day. We had arranged to meet at Holland Park Station so that we could start our day by visiting Holland Park.

Marie was waiting for us and we duly set off on the short walk to the park. Holland Park has a number of entrances and the entrance near the underground station was called Sun Trap and looked quite imposing.

We went through the gateway and found ourselves in a wooded area and, as we progressed, we started to see Bluebells. There were also lots of Daffodils but they had just finished flowering and were looking rather sorry for themselves but the Bluebells looked rather nice.

We eventually came across the statue of Lord Holland, after whom the park is named, and the two ladies are, reading left to right, Marie and Amanda. They seem to be heading for me quite purposefully so it may be time to beat a hasty retreat.

There were a number of paths lined with Japanese Maples which looked very attractive.

We next found the Kyoto Garden which is a traditional Japanese garden created in 1991 by a team of Japanese gardeners sponsored by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in association with the Japan Festival of London. You can see Amanda is about to dive into the pond and Marie has turned her back in disgust.

We also saw Mrs Moorhen with three mini-moorhens looking for food along the edge of the pond.

All in all a very attractive setting including a waterfall.

Someway further on there was an area of formal plant beds which were very colourful and pretty and it's quite surprising what one can find in some of these plant beds.

Yes it's a Peacock trying to disguise itself as a tulip but not quite managing it. There were other peafowl around and some of them perched quite high in the trees. Holland Park is, apparently, the only London park to have peafowl.

We decided at this point that we'd seen most of what there was to see and made a dash from West London across to the east to Greenwich via Canary Wharf in Docklands. We stopped in Docklands to have lunch at the Turkish Hazev Restaurant which is the building on the right beyond the trees. Pretty yummy food, no, make that very yummy food and to be recommended.

After lunch we got back on the Docklands Light Railway and headed to Island Gardens Station where we walked to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and under the Thames to Greenwich and I won't even mention all the steps down and all the steps up.

It is possible to meet some very strange people down here as evidenced by the photograph (mentioning no names of course).

Once on the other side we visited the Painted hall in the Old Naval College which is already featured on the web site but I'll incude another photograph here.

Then across to the Chapel.

From here we climbed the hill up to the old observatory where we were treated to this view across the Old Naval College to Docklands beyond.

Time was running out and we had to make our way, by DLR and Underground, to Liverpool Street Station where we had a meal together. Then we caught our train home and Marie went back to her hotel to pack for her journey home tomorrow. All in all a very good day was had by all.
 

Snaking through Epping Forest

Snaking through Epping Forest

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Today was a lovely sunny day so we took ourselves off to Epping Forest. We went to an area known as Almshouse Plain and after a little walking we arrived at Cuckoo Brook which snakes its way along the bottom of its shallow valley. The rather tortuous route is known as meandering and the individual curves as meanders.

If you look carefully you should be able to see two complete U-bends in the picture.

After following the stream for a while we moved off to the Cuckoo Pits. Why ‘Cuckoo Pits’? Gravel was extracted here many, many years ago on a small scale and the pits left by the extraction were near the Cuckoo Brook – so …

Some of the pits are now water filled and have become established ponds. We were walking near one of these when Amanda said “Did you hear that noise – it sounded like a snake going into the water” and then we saw a small Grass Snake swimming away from the bank and into the cover of some reeds. Then, about a hundred yards further on, we came across this:

How’s that for another set of meanders on a fine specimen of a Grass Snake (Natrix natrix) and not at all venemous.

We had an enjoyable day altogether and returned home in the late afternoon.

P.S. After lunch, post snake, we went to another area of the forest known as Mount Pleasant and walked through Little Monk Wood to Court Hill and this old tree rather caught my eye – I think it must have been that root system and I just had to add a picture of it.

We walked back to our car via Bell Ringers Hollow and Great Monk Wood. All these ecclesiastical terms won’t surprise you when you realise that this area of Epping Forest was used as a major route by monks travelling to and from Waltham Abbey.

The Chilterns: A woodland interlude – Day 3

The Chilterns: A woodland interlude – Day 3

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Another beautiful sunny day saw us back near Aldbury but, this time, on top of the nearby ridge. This is the Ashridge Estate – a large area of woodland and downland forming part of the Chiltern Hills. We parked near the Duke of Bridgewater monument which we hoped to go up but were out of luck as it didn’t open until April.

We didn’t do a lot here – just a pleasant wander around the woods until we decided it was time to go home. Our return journey was straightforward so I’ll leave you with these woodland scenes.

Until next time.

Messing about

Messing about

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Yesterday afternoon was nice and sunny with a little cloud about so we thought a short walk would be in order. We drove to ConyField Wood where we intended to walk through it to a little village on the far side. Cony, or Coney, is the old word for Rabbit in case you didn’t know.

At this time of the year the sun is getting quite low in the afternoon which does give some nice lighting effects.

Messing

Messing

Messing

Near the far side of the wood is a tumulus which we saw although I didn’t take a photograph of it because the Bracken growing all over it together with the wood all around seemed to make it look rather insignificant.

Having emerged from the other side of the wood the footpath continued across fields with the village, especially the church tower, now visible below. The shadow from the hedge on our left is quite dark and noticeable because of the height, or lack of it, of the sun.

Messing

We soon arrived in the village which, believe it or not, is called Messing and here is a photograph of the village sign to prove it.

Messing

Just opposite the sign is the village inn, The Old Crown, which has a reputation of providing good food although, as yet, we haven’t sampled it.

Messing

I took this next view from the edge of the village because it was a nice view but primarily because of the clouds. They form rows and are sharply cut off at the bottom giving the lower edges a very flat appearance. They might even interest the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Messing

We walked back the same way, across the fields and through the woods, to our car and drove home. A short, but very pleasant, walk.

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

Yellow Spikes and Purple Haze

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It was such a lovely morning with a clear blue sky we thought we’d push the old legs into motion and give them a whirl.

We followed a public footpath across some fields and through a wood with the sunlight streaming through the trees.

Out through the other side, through a farm and, just as we were leaving the farm, we caught a glimpse of a Munjac Deer crossing the lane into cover on the other side. A little way along the lane we came across a field of Borage. In the next picture you can see the lane with the field of Borage on the right and the wood on the hill at the back is the wood that we just walked through.

A little further along the lane and I was able to get a better picture of the field of Borage – the purple haze.

We took a right turn off the lane onto another public footpath which took us across two more fields. If you look carefully at the picture just underneath the outer part of the overhanging tree branch you can see the square shape of a church tower which is where we are heading.

It wasn’t long before we reached Layer Marney Tower. Layer Marney Tower is a Tudor gatehouse built for a proposed Tudor mansion although the mansion was never built. There is also a really delightful Tudor church which is part of the estate.

This church was built in the early part of the 16th century, on the foundations of an earlier church, by the first Lord Marney and is very interesting inside as well as out.

This is the tomb of one of the Lords Marney. How’s that for some fancy decorative stonework?

From the edge of the churchyard we caught this view of Layer Marney Tower.

We turned homeward and, on the way back, saw some spikes of Agrimony, of which this is one, that we had missed on the way out.

That little jaunt of just 3.5 miles turned out to be a lovely walk and here you have it hot off the press with us having returned home only 3 hours ago.