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? 
Well, I'm glad you asked me that because I can now tell you. It's the Greater Woodrush. 
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. 
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. 
After breakfast we are walking, not driving, out of the village. Weather is cloudy but dry. I do like scrambled egg with smoked salmon for breakfast – yum, yum!
We set off along one of the numerous footpaths around here heading north parallel with Scandal Beck (a beck in Yorkshire speak is a stream) intending to go as far as Smardale Viaduct and returning via the old disused railway track which has been converted into a footpath.
We hadn't gone very far when we saw this lovely group of Meadow Cranesbill (blue) and Meadowsweet (white) and a little further on there was a view of part of the village including the church tower.
We were walking uphill, not a particularly steep incline, and we could see some reddish brown cows on the brow. As we got higher and nearer we could see that there were also plenty of calves and we were going to have to disturb them because our route took us right through them. The cows and calves that were laying down stood up as we approached and moved to the side. We didn't want to come between a cow and its calf as the mothers can get a little uppity under those conditions and will sometimes charge.
Just as we were nearing the far side of the herd I noticed a very muscular beast staring at us and that was when I realised that it was a huge bull. It watched us for a while then lost interest. I couldn't help wondering which of us would be able to run the fastest.
Coming down the other side of the hill we had a good view of Smardale Bridge; a 17th century packhorse bridge.
Just beyond the bridge we reached a junction where various paths meet and turned east for a very short distance until we reached another path which continues along Scandal Beck towards Smardale Gill Viaduct (not to be confused with Smardale Viaduct).
We took that path and after a short time caught a view of Smardale Gill Viaduct.
As we made our way along the path above the beck we saw this butterfly; a fritilliary of some sort. As soon as I had taken a picture it flew away so I wouldn't like to say, with any certainty, precisely which species it was.
This is the path we've been walking on, in single file as it's not very wide, looking back the way we've come. You can see the old disused railway track over on the right.
The path has been climbing slowly for some time and we are nearly level with the top of the viaduct with the beck now a long way down.
We finally reach the old railway track and walk along the track towards Kirkby Stephen looking at the flora and fauna on the way. I managed to sneak up on this butterfly, a Common or Holly Blue, before I frightened it away.
We turned round and started back along the railway track, across the old viaduct and on towards Smardale Bridge. But before we left the railway track we saw a lot of orchids of which this is just one.
Then a final look back as we set off towards Ravenstonedale.
That was a nice day's walk. Tomorrow we go home. 
We started from Peterborough and went north on the A1 as far as Scotch Corner where we turned west onto the A66 as far as Brough. Here we turned south through Kirkby Stephen.The Google estimated time was wrong once again and after a straightforward journey of three hours and thirty minutes, instead of the forecast four hours, we arrived at Ravenstonedale in Cumbria but very near the border with the Yorkshire Dales.
We are staying in a nice little hotel called the Black Swan Inn in what they rather grandly call a suite, consisting of a bedroom, bathroom and sitting room, on the second (top) floor which gives us a nice view across the surrounding countryside. Note the low cloud even though the sun is shining.
After settling in and having some lunch we didn't have a lot of time left in the day but we wanted to see some of the local features. This area, and the Yorkshire Dales, is on Carboniferous Limestone which can create some very dramatic scenery.
Not far from our village is Great Asby Scar, a hill of just over 1200 feet, with a large area of limestone pavement on it. Amanda is standing on a section of this limestone pavement and, as you can see, she is well wrapped up. Well it is July in England so it must be cool and raining and, as it happens, it was cool and raining.
Carboniferous Limestone is very well jointed so that over time water percolating down the joints slowly dissolves the limestone and can form a distinctive feature called a Limestone Pavement. The grooves between the blocks are known locally as Clints and the blocks are known as Grykes. Walking on this stuff is fun as long as you don't put your leg down a clint by accident and break it (The leg I mean not the clint)!
The clints can become quite well developed and often have plants growing in them which would not otherwise survive without the shelter provided by the limestone. Amanda was hoping to find something interesting and found a number of ferns which are typical of limestone pavements.
We did return to the hotel without any broken legs and we are going to look for some more limestone features tomorrow.
We were up at about 7:30 and down to breakfast just before 8:00. Amanda chose a standard cooked breakfast but I had smoked salmon and scrambled egg – yummy. Soon after breakfast we were off once again towards Avebury. We were told that the Olympic Torch was passing the hotel at about 11:00 this morning but they were going to have to do without us as we had other plans
There is a long earthwork called the Wansdyke consisting of a ditch and bank, 45 miles of it, which runs from Savernake Forest on the edge of Marlborough to somewhere near Bath. We were going to have a look at the section that passes about 3 miles south of Avebury.
There is a small car park between Knap Hill and Milk Hill which we used as the starting point of our walk. Having crossed the road from the car park we set off along the central path of three diverging public footpaths which went steadily uphill. This is the ridge we are making for and just look at all those buttercups – lovely.
After a short distance we could look back and see the car park we'd started from (just below the horizon on the right) together with yet more buttercups.
Onward. After (puff) some more (puff) uphill (puff) walking (puff, puff) we reached the Wansdyke. This is looking east towards Savernake Forest with the bank and ditch curving off to the right to a visible promentory where it bends left out of sight.
This, surprisingly, is not a pre-historic earthwork but was built around 500 AD. Now tell me why someone, using primitive tools, would want to go to all that trouble to build 45 miles of this? Why, I wonder, did they think that they needed 45 miles of defensive earthworks? This is one of the largest linear earthworks in the UK.
On the right hand flank of the bank is a small patch of yellow flowers – they are cowslips.
This is the Wansdyke running off into the distance in the other direction towards the west.
We started walking east along the Wansdyke accompanied by the songs of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. Meadow Pipits behave a little like Skylarks in that they flutter up high and then drop whilst singing but the song is not quite as nice as Skylarks. There was nobody else around up here and it was very quiet apart from birdsong.
We were quite high up here and I chanced to see this cow motorway down below us.
I don't know where they've come from and I don't know where they're going. That's going to remain one of life's mysteries.
A little further along the top of the dyke I spotted these.
They are Chalk Milkwort and those flowers although small really are a brilliant blue and should not be confused with Speedwell which, although broadly similar, are of a much less intense blue.
We reached the point where we were leaving the dyke to go back towards the car park but we also had a good view of the Wansdyke as it wandered into the distance. Notice how it curves round to the right and finally disappears off the right edge of the picture near the top. Although it was a warm sunny day the visibility was not very good and it did look a bit murky in the distance.
Time to clamber over the stile to get onto the new path.
We could see from the map that the next section of path formed an 'S' and the lower part of the 'S' was a curve round the top edge of a bowl giving us a good view over the surrounding landscape.
The top section of the 'S' was where the path curved round to avoid a small wooded enclosure and soon after that we came across this.
The lumpy area in the foreground is apparently known as 'ant hill grassland' and I'll let you guess how it's formed.
This next picture shows a white horse and our path, which you can see if you look carefully, crosses just above the horse then curves down to where we are now. When we passed above the horse it was easy to see the construction because it was so large but difficult to discerne the shape with any clarity because we were so close.
Once we were here it is easy to see the shape.
Now we are on the final leg of our walk, on a different path from the one we started out on, and you can see the path heading roughly in the direction of the car park in the distance.
We got back to our car, which ended a really lovely walk, and headed off to our hotel – tomorrow we go home.
We wasted a half-day today! It was, however, unavoidable. We left home at 9:30 AM and arrived at 12:30 PM after 3 hours of driving. That's the problem with travelling it has to be done to get anywhere but it could be better spent exploring.
The weather of late has been constantly cool, and raining for a lot of the time, but then last Monday, 21st May, good weather was suddenly forecast for at least 3 days so we booked some accommodation and left home on Tuesday, 22nd May for Wiltshire.
We had a clear run as far as the M25 and although there were no visible problems we started to see electronic signs displaying a message 'M4 junctions 6 to 10 long delays'. Guess what road we were planning to use for the next part of our route? We kept going past these signs and eventually decided that if we could see traffic queueing on the M4 slip road we would try an alternate route.
There was no queue on the slip road so we took a chance and went on to the M4 at junction 4. There were no signs of problems by the time we reached junction 6 and to cut a long story short by the time we passed junction 10 traffic was still flowing freely. There were no problems at all and I can understand why drivers tend to ignore such signs which seem not to be turned off once the problem has been cleared.
We arrived at Avebury under a clear blue sky with temperatures forecast to be around 75F. We didn't come for the stone circle but we did come partly for the stone West Kennett Avenue and partly to see inside Avebury Manor which has recently been restored. The restoration of Avebury Manor by the National Trust was the subject of a series of programmes on BBC television and it was very, very interesting so we were here to see for ourselves.
However, first things first! West Kennett Avenue starts from Avebury stone circle and winds across the landscape to the Sanctuary. It was originally lined with large stones of the sort which are to be seen in the stone circle but only some now remain.
This is a picture which I took on our previous visit in October 2011 which does not really show it to best effect.
So after lunch we walked along West Kennett Avenue to the lower end. This is what we saw this time.
Don't those buttercups make a difference? They show up the path along the Avenue very well apart from looking beautiful in their own right. There are also daisies in there somewhere but they aren't easy to see at a distance.
There is an old english folk song called "Strawberry Fair" of which the first two lines are:
As I was going to Strawberry Fair
Singing, singing, buttercups and daisies
Mid-June is probably strawberry time and buttercups and daisies are still in flower at that time but the first flush of Buttercups and Daisies appear towards the end of May.
Having reached the bottom of West Kennett Avenue we had also reached the path that went up and over Waden Hill to Silbury Hill so we just had to go to the top of Waden Hill to see the view of Silbury Hill.
We are just above the top of Silbury Hill at this height and looking a little left of Silbury Hill we could also see West Kennett Long Barrow which we have already featured on the web site. Even the standing stones which mark the entrance are visible at the left-hand end.
We went back down Waden Hill to the end of the Avenue and passed one of the locals looking a bit sheepish. Well you'd probably feel sheepish if you were seen wearing a thick wooly coat on a hot sunny day.
From here we went back to Avebury to look inside Avebury Manor. For the restoration it was decided to restore each room at a different time in the Manor's history, from the age of Queen Elizabeth I to the eve of World War II, and it is one of the few National Trust properties where visitors can touch, handle, sit in and lie on the furnishings.
This shows the Dining Room, with hand painted Chinese wallpaper, in the Georgian era.
The Victorian kitchen with one of the visitors, whose name shall remain anonymous but which starts with "A", leaning nonchalantly on the Dresser and she didn't even do the washing up.
This is a rather opulent bedroom, part of the Queen Anne Suite, and,yes, you could lay on it if you wanted although it would be nice if you took your shoes off first.
Then, of course, some of us have to start taking liberties on the Chaise Longue in the Withdrawal room.
We finally decided it was time to head for our hotel in Marlborough but, on the way, as we were passing the Sanctuary we were going to stop for a look.
This is where the Ridgeway starts and heads off to Ivinghoe Beacon in the Chilterns which I wrote about in the Blog – http://localhost/deoprrssw/?p=170
This is the signpost at the start of the Ridgeway, and it's a long walk to Ivinghoe Beacon,
and just across the road is the Sanctuary which was begun in about 3000 BC. The the site was constructed and modified in a number of phases, with eight rings in total (six wooden post rings and two stone circles) but, sadly, it is now just a set of concrete markers.
We went off to the Castle and Ball Hotel in Marlborough, where we were staying, for an evening meal and to prepare for our expedition tomorrow which features a lesser known historical monument and even more buttercups.
The Prologue.
Just back from a five day trip to here:
Any ideas? 
No ideas eh? You've now seen one of the big buildings so here's the second big building:
Any more wonderful ideas like the previous ones (0)? 
You've now had both big buildings so now for the third clue – the Steep Hill:
There are two clues there, one in the photograph and one not. 
Annecyborn finally got it but not until the 'give it away' clue.
The clues work like this:
First picture shows a cathedral on the hill which immediately limits the number of towns to 30.
The second picture shows a castle which must limit it even more. You are looking for a place with a cathedral and a castle.
The third and final picture I described as 'the Steep Hill'. Note the capital letters on the words. That is because it is the name of the street and there is a further clue to that effect in the picture in the address painted on the right of the shop.
A judicious search might then have provided the answer but only for those bright enough to work it out. 
The give away clue was, of course, Abraham Lincoln.
The Trip.
We left home on Saturday morning heading north up the A1 for Lincoln but we were intending to stop overnight in Stamford and that is what we did. We arrived at our B&B at 11:30 AM so we had the rest of the day to wander round Stamford again (we had been there before).
When we were there last I photographed a street called King's Mill Lane in what was very gloomy weather so I took some more this time in the sun.
This is the original in cloudy weather:
and these are the new ones:
I did the same with Cheyne Lane. First the original cloudy weather one:
then the new sunny one:
Do you think that the sunny ones are better?
I also took a new view this time which I rather liked. I think it's the jumble of rooves which make it interesting. I could do without the parked cars though. 
We also found time to re-visit the Barnack wildlife reserve, a few miles from Stamford, where we saw this Burnet Moth on a Pyramidal Orchid. Amanda decided, looking at the photograph, that it's a Narrow-Bordered 5-spot Burnet so if the identification is wrong it's all her fault.
Then later we saw a better specimen of a Pyramidal Orchid:
In the evening we had dinner at Mr. Pang's Chinese Restaurant in Cheyne Lane. We 'discovered' it on our last visit and thought that it was easily the best chinese restaurant that we had visited from the food, service and ambience point of view. We haven't changed our minds.
Next morning, after a good night's sleep we set off for Lincoln.
Sunday saw us back on the A1 heading north for an hour to Lincoln. So where did we stop first? Our hotel? The cathedral? The castle? Nope none of those! We stopped, naturally, in the local crematorium. We didn't stop there because we felt that one of us might be needing it soon but because we could get a good distant view of the cathedral on the hill and that photograph will appear in the main web site in due course.
Lincoln is like most modern cities with an old central part surrounded by a more modern area of housing and industry. It's no better or worse than any other city in this country but we, and probably you, won't be interested in anything other than the old central part. The old part was built around the hill and, consequently, going from the cathedral level to the river level is quite a stiff climb.
Luckily there is a little bus which shuttles between the two levels at 20 minute intervals to make it easy for the wimps out there. We didn't use it.
The main part on top of the hill consists of a large, cobbled market square with the cathedral and its precincts on one side and the Norman castle on the other giving the area a distinctly Norman feel.
The popular route up and down the hill is via Steep Hill and it is aptly named. A narrow cobbled road, mostly devoid of motor vehicles, leading into High Street at the bottom which is a pedestrian precinct. Lots of shops from the quaint and curious at the top to chain stores at the bottom in High Street.
A little further on, through the Guildhall Arch, High Street crosses the River Witham where steps lead down to the waterside. There are a lot of swans on the river as you can, perhaps, see from this picture.
There are plenty of things to see in Lincoln including museums, an arboretum and, of course, the castle and cathedral plus the occasional oddity:
Full details of Lincoln will appear on the web site proper in due course.