Silent Sunday Stroll

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Silent Sunday in Thorncombe Woods

Walktober

Inspired by Eliza’s post, I set off with Miss E, Master R and Little Miss M to record our walk yesterday, a glorious October morning.

This Autumn is truly deliciously spectacular.

Little Miss M reminded me to put Strava on so that we could record our distance to add to our target of 500 miles.

This is one of our favourite walks and we have been doing it since they were all babies, but it has been a long time since we were here  ….

….. imagine their delight when they spied the river and remembered the swing!

Miss E was first to get there

But of course they all had a turn  I think we could have stayed there all day

whilst they explored in their own inimitable ways

walks are never dull with this lot!

But we had to cover some ground if Little Miss M and I are going to reach our goal – onward.

and upward.

Whilst they were looking at the cows and chatting together I went up ahead

wait for us Granny!

There is something magical about sunken lanes lined with old knarled trees, contorted by their history

is this one a camel?

or a hare?

Fairy fungi everywhere – we had to look up the name of this one – Fly Agaric

and do you think this one might be the rare: Iodine Bolete

It looked the perfect home for an evil elf!

At the top of the hill we found coconut-scented gorse flowers to nibble and were treated to some glorious views

Here we sat for a drink and a snack. We all thought of three words each to describe our walk so far, and as we walked on the children composed little poems using the words – it all got very giggly as they created weird and wonderful rhymes.

And then we found ourselves in a prickly gorse tunnel where the path had become overgrown

I was hoping it would end and we would come out on clear path so we battled on for quite a way getting stabbed with prickles and feeling like badgers in the undergrowth. We sent Master R ahead to see if there was light at the end of the tunnel – but no – we had to turn back and make our way back the way we had come.

Our batteries fully recharged by the wonderful views, the sunshine and that blue sky

Oh the joy of autumn sunshine through trees and walking the sunken lanes.

Happy sigh!

Back to the car and Little Miss M and I checked Strava. We had added 2.4 miles to our total. We have now done 54 miles – only 446 to go!

I hope you enjoyed scampering along with us.

I’m joining Robin at Breezes at Dawn for her annual Walktober Gathering

Winter walk

Seeing the world through the eyes of children is pure joy, especially when making the most of the Winter sunshine on a December weekend. I’m lucky to have this lovely walk from my house

this south facing hedge catching all of the warmth, with the oak trees still holding onto their leaves

My daughter and I took Miss E, Master R and Miss M for a lovely walk with their cousins big bro and little bro  – 5 grandchildren all together – happy Granny!

Ages ranging from 2 to 7 – precious! They all took little containers out with them to collect things to make a picture when we got back, and were delighted to find Oak Apple Galls. We never did get to make the picture as other things took over, but it was a fun focus for a while.

Grannyism: How to recognise an oak tree …….

An oak tree has a bark like an elephant’s skin and is all knees and elbows, accompanied with a demo of knees and elbows all bendy and and sticking out.

Spotting tracks:

and we even flushed a couple of deer out of the bushes and watched them bound away bouncing over the maize stubble.

which the boys pulled up for a sword fight, whilst Miss E helped big bro’s little bro look for interesting things

and found some amazing fungi

 

just sitting there on the bare earth (Edit 30.Dec.14: just discovered that it is Orange Peel fungus and apparently edible although not tasty – I won’t be trying it – it is still there, saw it again yesterday)

and masses of enormous mole hills, great for stamping on

all in a row following the lines of stubble

onto a track, then

 

a race to the top

 

when 2 year olds needed a ride

before turning for home

under the fairy arch

 

looking for Granny’s house in the distance

and home for hot chocolate – glorious!