Sunday 16 November 2008

A somewhat wet walk . . .

I am trying to keep my nose to the grindstone over my daily walking as it makes me feel SO good afterwards (as well as helping me to shed a few pounds). Today I decided I would walk the old Medieval hollow-way from our valley across to the next, one I used to sometimes ride up on Fahly. I knew it would be wet, but not QUITE so wet as it was - a choice of mud and long grass in the middle or else bedrock and a stream running down it - I chose the latter. 100 yds in my feet were saturated and my trousers wet from mid-calf downwards.

It is lovely to view a familiar landscape from another angle though, and to relax, and think, and take photographs - all very drear-looking because of 10/10 cloud cover, though the sun did break through a little when I was a mile or so from home.



A neighbour's goat - one from some semi-feral ones which usually live on a farm up the valley. I could have one at the drop of a hat, but . . . The white marks are rain, I might add.

It was just beginning to rain as I began the first climb. Don't be fooled - it was wetter than it looked, especially wading through the long grass!


As you can see, it got VERY much wetter higher up. Did I mention we've had rain recently?

I enjoy seeing a familiar landscape from a different angle.

Onto the "dry" bit where I changed from one farmer's land to another. What a difference . . .

This view was about 1/3 of the way round with the weather improving very slightly.

Did I mention I got a bit wet? I was like this from a hundred yards into the walk and squelched with every step . . .

The skyline here is very familiar to me. Above the gorse covert you can just make out the embankment of an Iron Age hillfort, a square one, which is better viewed from the other side of the hill and slightly above it.

Looking up our familiar valley.


The lane heading down the valley towards home.

7 comments:

Cheryl said...

I know you got very wet and it was muddy....but it was worth it....beautiful photographs....so open and green......i love the pic with the narrow pathway, made me want to follow it......

MrsL said...

Nice goat, BB ! LOL Some of thsoe pictures look like bits of my garden..........

MrsL
xx

A Bite of Country Cupcakes said...

I just loved that walk...I could feel the cold crispness and my wet soggy shoes and that scenery...
Lovely wandering along with you:)

Bovey Belle said...

Glad you enjoyed it with me. It's a nice walk, better in summer obviously, but I like to think of all the people who must have trodden that same path over the past hundreds of years. On the Tythe Map of 1840, it is shown as the major route from our valley to the village in the next valley. I guess they'd have had wet feet too!

Kim said...

Lovely pictures, BB, and so good of you to keep going regardless of the mud and water. It looks a bit like that around here at the moment!!! Go on and get a goat, you can tell they're a bit feral, but you could soon sort them out! Your OH would never notice ;)

Kim x

Rowan said...

How lucky you are to have such a beautiful walk right on your doorstep. Like you I would think of all the people who have trodden the same path over the centuries as I walked along.

Bovey Belle said...

Kim - I knew I was going to get wet and did deliberate about doing the walk in reverse, but that meant going UP the steepest of steep hills instead of down, so I reckoned wet feet were a small price to pay!

Rowan - I think too of the family who used to live in a house on the hillslope, with their two little girls, and who would have walked across the field to join this trackway. That was 1881 - today, only half a brick is left to show there was ever a house there.

Tomorrow - I am getting new walking boots - no more wet feet for me! We have a couple of pairs in the house which fit me, since mine went belly-up, but they aren't comfortable, so . . .