Walk 49- Bluenoses on tour- Birmingham City walk

Iron: Man

Floozie

Jane’s office

Lacework

Mandy joins protest

Golden Boys

Tom, Geoff, Enid, me, Tony Taylor, Mandy

The Cube

Bullring

Selfridges

Here we go!

Library of Birmingham

We’ve been back from Crete for just over a week now but it feels like ages. Shame. Last Saturday we did another walk that I’d been excitedly waiting for. Birmingham is Jane’s beloved home town and my adopted city. It seemed only right that we should include in my walks this year a little spin around this historic city and it was Tony Taylor’s idea to combine it with a trip to see ‘The Blues’ – the local football team.

I planned for us to do a walk I’d found online called ‘Walk the World’ which is something the National Geographic Society set up last year for the Olympics. Basically this a case of walking around some of the historic and iconic sights of Brum and finding out their links with countries from around the world. Being a geographer this obviously ticked a lot of boxes for me!!

I managed to persuade quite a group of fellow enthusiasts to join me. Tony Taylor (not sure why but Jane always calls him that rather than just Tony!), Mandy, Tom, Geoff and Enid. All of them keen to learn more about their city. Or at least to go to the football in the case of the boys and Jane.

Much of the walk covered the same route in the city centre that I do when I work or go shopping in Brum. Yet again though, it was interesting to see the city through the eyes of a tourist. It opens your eyes to new things and makes you very much more appreciative of the city we are lucky to live near/in. Jane has always been proud of her city and of course loves Birmingham City Football Club.

Our walk started at one of these iconic sights, Iron: Man by Antony Gormley, the same guy who did the huge Angel of the North and the mysterious figures on Crosby Beach near Liverpool. The statue is meant to represent the manufacturing heritage of the city. This is a good meeting point and from here, off we set with me as tour guide. I really should have been a tour guide as I always love it on holiday. In fact we have a little song that we sing ‘Julie’s tours are the best, Julie’s tours are the best’. It doesn’t really have any other words and mostly its me that sings it.

Moving on…we walked up and past another Brummie favourite – the Floozie in the Jacuzzi. This is a statue in a fountain with a lovely cascade of water down the steps. Again, its a popular meeting place, particularly at Christmas when the German Market comes to town. Not long now…

Next we walked up the steps and through the old library passing a sitting sculpture of Birmingham’s first MP Thomas Attwood. This is definitely something I’ve walked passed a thousand times and never really taken any notice of but today we actually learned something about who he was and what he did.

Next we came out into Centenary Square and specifically the office where Jane works- Baskerville House. This building sits on the site of John Baskerville’s former home from 1726. Today there is another sculpture outside called ‘Industry and Genius’. This commemorates this chap who is most famous for his work in printing and he invented a very fine typeface called ‘Baskerville’ which is still used today. Check it out – you may even have it on your laptop!!

Around here there seemed to be lots of students with tables set up asking us to support their cause. Whilst most of us just said ‘no thank you’, Mandy meanwhile, took an interest in what they were all protesting about and signed everybody’s petition. Well done Citizen Mandy!

Next stop is the new Birmingham Library which had only opened the week before and truly is an iconic sight now on the cityscape. I think it will divide opinion as to whether its an attractive building but it certainly stands out. The outside of the building appears to be covered in metal ‘lacework’ which I think is meant to represent the city’s Jewellery manufacturing tradition. The architect for the building was Francoise Houben from the Netherlands and its intended to bring in visitors to the city which I’m sure it will.

On our way through to the International Convention Centre we passed some more famous 18th century industrialists. This is a statue called ‘The Golden Boys’ and they certainly were shining very brightly today. The ICC itself was opened in 1993 and also contains the Symphony Hall. I love going to concerts here as the acoustics are better than anywhere else I know. In addition, they have extremely comfy seats which at my age is very important!

Next we walked along the canals and I believe it’s said that Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice itself. They looked very attractive today with the little flower covered bridges as we walked through to The Mailbox complex and another new building called The Cube. Jane and I would be eating here later that night in the glamorous rooftop restaurant. This area was absolutely packed with people on this Saturday lunchtime. The main attraction is all the restaurants and bars. One of the only shops remaining here is Harvey Nicholls. Jane and I went in here when it had first opened. Its a funny shop as it doesn’t really seem to sell much. We went into the ladies ‘department’ (exaggeration) only to find that they didn’t seem to sell anything in a size larger than 6. I said to Jane ‘Come on Bab, this place is not for us.’

As we walked and stopped to grab a Sarny, Tom, Jane, Geoff and Tony Taylor started to talk about the match. Blues have not been doing very well this season and hadn’t won any of their home games so far. It looked like it might be a bit of a grim afternoon. However, there were high hopes for the new boy Jesse Lingard on loan from Manchester United who would start today.

We crossed the main Bristol Road towards the Bullring and passed the Pagoda Island. This was a gift to the city from a chap called Wing Yip who you may have heard of. Wing Yip arrived by boat in 1959 from Hong Kong at the age of 19 with just £10 in his pocket. He opened a Chinese restaurant in Clacton-on-Sea and went on to open more restaurants and take-aways in East Anglia. Ten years later he opened a grocery shop here in Birmingham. From these small beginnings he has grown a food empire that now employs 400 people and supplies more than 2,000 Chinese restaurants around the country.

Right, we’re starting to pick up the pace now as the footy fans meed to be in the ground way ahead of time to savour the atmosphere. They also need a pint. We pass by the Bullring Shopping Centre which is celebrating its 10th birthday and then down past St Martins Church and the next iconic building- Selfridges. Round here it is incredibly busy and this cannot even be people Christmas shopping yet, surely? As we walk around we hear a wide range of different languages being spoken and it seems to me that Birmingham is making a big success of creating itself as a destination city. There’s a buzz about the place and not much sign of recession.

Before we say our goodbyes to the non footy fans we go through the more traditional outdoor markets where they’re selling fruit and veg by the bowlful. The traders shout out their bargains and its a very colourful and noisy scene. If this market were in Mexico or India we’d take loads of photos and so we did today!

We said goodbye to Enid and Mandy and the Bluenoses walked on up to the BCFC ground- St Andrews. Gone are the days when we were in the Premier league and there’d be thousands of people swarming towards the ground at 2pm ahead of kick off. But Tony Taylor took us to one of his favourite pubs where the Blues fans were gathering. By now we were very hot as it had turned into something of a muggy day and actually by now we’d walked quite along way. A couple of halves of cider soon did the trick although I really felt like I needed a bit of a lie down. We seem to be a bit out of practice after our lazy time in Crete.

We made our way into the Main Stand and got ready to cheer on the boys. Well, what an amazing afternoon. We were playing Sheffield Wednesday and we beat them…wait for it….4-1! The new signing, Jesse, exceeded all expectations and scored all 4 goals leaving everyone thrilled and smiling from ear to ear.

When we came out we walked all the way back home chatting excitedly about the spectacle we’d just seen. Tom and Geoff caught the train home and by the time Jane and I got back to our car at the flat we’d walked a total today of 6 miles.

It really is a great city with lovely friendly people and that leaves me only one thing left to say…
Keep right onto the end of the road, keep right onto the end!!

Walk 48- Limnes Dog Walk

Julie2’s house

Waiting

Julie’s grapes and onions

Me and Baby Dog

Limnes dog walkers club

Beneath windmills

Dramatic view

Julie2, Jane, Baby Dog

Me and Gracie

Old doors and shutters

Pretty pots

School house feast

This would be our 2nd Cretan walk and this time we’d be walking with Julie2 up in her village Limnes, near Neapoli in NE Crete. Julie2 has lived in Crete ever since I’ve known Jane so at least 15 years and soon after I met her she bought her house in Limnes and I remember going to see it for the first time. We were all very sceptical about her plans to develop this fallen down wreck of a building, with no roof and no windows. However, she’s a determined and creative lady and she did exactly what she said she would do and now has a lovely, cosy house in this traditional Greek village.
She has an eye for rescuing old stuff and her house is full of fascinating artefacts from Cretan life. I also love her roof terraces where, today I could see huge bunches of grapes hanging from the vines. Apparently a bumper crop this year. It was here that we met Julie to go for our walk.

We’d had a hard day sunbathing on the patio and snorkelling in the heat of the day but by 5pm when we met Julie, it had started to cool down considerably.In fact at the end of the day it had clouded over and become very windy and the sea dramatically choppy.

The idea today was to take Julie’s dogs for a walk. She now has 4 dogs each of whom she has rescued somewhere along the way. So now we have Patch, Baby Dog, Gracie and the latest arrival Aris. They were all excitedly waiting for us in Julie’s courtyard and as we arrived they all started barking and howling. In such a quiet village, where you can practically hear the man right at the opposite end, sneeze- this is quite a noise. The sooner we were on our way the better!

It was a treat for them all to be able to go out together and it was also a turn up for us to be doing a walk with quite so many dogs when both Jane and Enid are allergic! Joyce was put in charge of Aris, Julie2 had the lively puppy Gracie and I soon became responsible for the little one- Baby Dog. Patch meanwhile was allowed to lead the way on her own.

Our walk took us round the little back lanes of the village. Over the years we’ve seen it change here and many of the old buildings have now been renovated. However, there are still incredibly picturesque corners with flower filled pots and old weathered doors. The Greek villagers, who like to sit outside their houses in the evening, eye us with an air of suspicion although when we smile and say “Yassas”they smile back and say hello too. Sometimes they add some extra words and I’m never quite sure whether they’re friendly words or rude!

As we leave the village we pass some rough arable land and it’s strikes me that they make use of every little bit of land around here. There are sheep and goats and little plots of veg growing in every spare corner.
The walk then joins a dusty path covered in pine needles running upto and then under the main road between Heraklion and Agios Nikolaos. Its lined with Eucalyptus and pine trees whose fragrance can just about be caught on the light breeze. It’s lovely walking in the evening sunshine and everything now is starting to glow. There are still some threatening clouds around but somehow that just makes it more dramatic.

As we walk Julie tells us about some of the history of the dogs she’s now looking after. She’s not exactly an official dog refuge but people seem to know that if they dump a dog with Julie she can’t bear to do anything but look after it. And when you get to know them a bit you can see why and I soon became very found of my little charge Baby Dog who walked like a princess (according to Enid)!!

As we walked further on we started to walk through the olive groves belonging to the villagers. Some of these trees must be hundreds of years old and some of the paths are ancient donkey tracks as well. We make it to Julie’s land where we find yet another dog- Nikki. She’s very excited to see us but doesn’t get on with the other dogs and so the rest of us stay outside the padlocked gate as Julie goes in to feed Nikki. Julie owns this piece of land which has olives trees on it and she also uses it to grow various crops through the year. It’s a bit late now but this year she’s had courgettes, onions, potatoes, cucumbers and corn on the cob. The views from up here to the mountains and across the olive groves to the village of Choumeriako are stunning.

We walked back the same way but did a little detour at the end past an old church. Baby dog needed to be carried a little on the way back and so now I was put in charge of Gracie. This lively pup was lovely but practically pulled me all the way back! Even Enid was now put in charge of Aris. He’s not a well dog but Julie is trying to look after him and get him medication to sort him out.

When we get back to Julie’s the dogs are all worn out and in need of some water and a rest. We meanwhile have worked up an appetite and go out to one of our favourite restaurants. This is the Old School House in Limnes itself. It literally is the old school house complete with the old school desks and some wonderful old photos of the school kids on the wall. The surroundings are very atmospheric with Cretan music playing as we sat in the school playground enjoying our meal.

The guy is friendly but apparently he isn’t from the village so no one seems to visit his restaurant. We last came here 2 years ago and had the place to ourselves then. The same was true today. Its such a shame because the food is some of the best we’ve had in Crete.

He has a lovely menu with worry beads attached to it to help you think as you choose! Today we ticked that we wanted:

-Dakos – crispbread roll thing with olive oil, feta and tomato on it
-Fava – split peas with onion and olive oil
-Creamy garlic potatoes – the best anywhere
–Greek salad – of course
-Grilled belly pork
-Village sausage – tangy and herby
-Cheese pies
-Beef burgers – meaty and herby
-Stuffed courgette flowers – aromatic

It was all absolutely delicious and you’d have thought that would be enough. However, like many other places here, and perhaps because we are with Julie2, we then get different freebie puddings! So along comes watermelon and honeydew melon, melt in the mouth, orange cake and just cooked, fudgey chocolate cake.

What a walk. What a feast!

Walk 47- Cretan Coastal walk

Me and driftwood

Setting off

Sooty and Fifi

Olive grove

Wild beach

Jane and me

Fisherman’s chapel

Lovely bunch

Fishing boat

Nearly back

The Stonehouse

George in best vest

Yes, as if I wasn’t spoiled enough for my birthday we are now in Crete enjoying a relaxing holiday with our friends Joyce and Enid. As with everything this year this destination was my choice of location to celebrate my birthday. Did I mention already that it was my 50th?

We are staying at a place called The Stonehouse which is on Karavostassi Beach near Agios Nicolas in Crete. Jane and I have stayed here before when we came to Crete one April and the Stonehouse is pretty much my idea of perfect. The house itself is probably 3 old fisherman’s cottages and we have one of them. There is a wonderful large patio outside overlooking the bay and beach and mountains beyond. My favourite part is that there are steps down from the end of the patio straight into the sea. This year the bottom here is sandy and it is like stepping into our own private swimming pool. There is a small sandy beach just inshore but only about 6 people ever sit on its incredibly peaceful.

Normally we would pretty much spend our days lying about reading, swimming and sunbathing but this year is a little different. Of course we have to fit in some walks! I had investigated doing the Samaria Gorge which is a world famous walk but it is just too far away and we are on the wrong side of the island. Instead I have two simple walks planned for us the 2nd of which will involve our friend Julie2 who lives and works out here.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, we did our first of these. This involved a little coastal walk around the bays to the village of Istron. We set off at about 11am which is pretty crazy when the temperature was apparently 35 degrees but we had plenty of water with us. It was stiflingly hot but as we walked along the first bay a slight breeze did pick up thank goodness.

The walk starts from our front door and takes us first of all along a road beside the beach of Karavostassi itself. It’s mostly a stony beach and just a few Greeks come to sit here or fish in the shade of the pine and juniper (?) trees. Hidden in the olive trees we passed the little Kantina where they serve the best souvlaki, chips and Greek salad (washed down with Mythos beer) , anywhere.

At the end of the bay the road heads inland a little to avoid the headland. Julie2 told us later on that there are archeological ruins on this headland but we didn’t know that so we just followed the road. The road now goes through some agricultural land belonging to the local villagers. I’d enjoyed walking through here in April as the farmers were very friendly and popped over to give us freebie beans so I hoped the same would happen today. However, September is very different and no one was really to be seen in the heat of the day. We could see what they were farming though and it included olives, beans, potatoes and goats and chickens.

Next we walked down to what we always call the Wild Beach. This used to be our favourite place to come as again its very uncommercialised. There used to be a small Kantina here too but this is now long gone. It’s again a bit of a stony beach but it is sandy as you get in the sea. The water is crystal clear and we walked along the beach itself and then around to the tiny chapel at the end of the bay where they were launching little fishing boats.

We then had to backtrack a bit to the road up to the village. We passed some pretty cottages and at one of these a chap in his best white vest came running out to say ‘Yassas!’. This turned out to be George who was a very friendly chap who gave us each a sprig of Oregano as a gift. He also gave us each a kiss, offered to take us fishing in his boat and to take us dancing on Friday night. I am sure there was a proposal of marriage in there somewhere too! After a couple of minutes chatting to George we carried on upto the village.

Here we came out right opposite our destination which was the Friends Internet cafe. This is a lovely air conditioned cool place and a chance for us to get a technology fix! We also ordered coffees and fresh orange juice. Perfect. Next stop the village bakery where we stocked up on essentials of bread and baklava.

Business end done we then retraced our steps (avoiding George) back to the house. We then walked along the lane at the back of the house to the harbour behind. It’s only small and we ignored the naked man having a wash. Instead we stared into the deep, clear turquoise water looking at the fish. Wow it looked tempting and I couldn’t wait to get back and get in the water. Then we spotted several really horrible looking jellyfish which was slightly off putting and would make me a bit more wary than I’d been previously whilst swimming.

When we got back to the house we’d walked 2.95 miles so to make this count as a 3 miler I gave myself a challenge of swimming around a rock some distance away. I put on my snorkel and mask (useful for jellyfish spotting) and set off. Luckily today the waters were quite calm and I easily made it to the rock and then stood up and waved back at Jane. I must admit I was quite impressed with myself. I then swam back again and this time it was a little harder swimming back out against the tide.

As I got back to our steps I stood in the water talking to Ruth, who is staying in the end cottage, until I got a bit cold and then came in. It had been a lovely walk and swim but now it was time to get down to the serious hard work of sunbathing. I cracked open a cold one and promptly fell asleep.

Walk 46- Burford Birthday Bumble

My birthday cake

Family group

Stylish walking

The girls

Stroppy cows

Pre pooh sticks

Clare, Dave, Jayne, Nick

The Swan, Swinbrook

Mum and Dad

Sunday lunch

Reflecting

Pete and Jane

To celebrate my actual 50th birthday last weekend I wanted to be with my whole family. I’d found us a lovely, big old house in Burford and on Friday night everyone arrived. The house was an old coaching inn called White Hart House. We enjoyed a great weekend together and toasted my niece, Sian, who was the only one who couldn’t make it as she was on an internship in Singapore (had a better offer!)

On Saturday everyone had done their own thing and most of us (Jane, me, Mike, Miri, Rowan, Pete and Clare) had gone to the Moreton In Marsh show. This is a wonderful country show and its huge. We’d enjoyed the tent with large leeks, prize cakes, beautiful flowers etc. Then we moved onto the dog show and watched the young handlers with their dogs. The poultry tent was a new experience for all of us and was full of all sorts of birds and then a table full of prize eggs. We roamed the food tents and everyone found something they fancied for lunch. We’d missed the parade of prize winning cattle and sheep but at the end of the day we walked around this part admiring the different breeds of cow, bulls, sheep and goats.

We had a full afternoon before returning to the house to meet up with the others. Mum and Dad had been to Burford Garden Centre and Dave, Jayne and Nick had pottered about Burford village itself. In the evening we’d had a brilliant feast supplied by Michael our next door neighbour. We had a lovely evening catching up with everyone. Dave and I plotted how we would conquer the Cotswold Way on 2 days in October, Nick told us all about his trip to the US and Rowan explained how he’s now getting well into computer coding. Clare, meanwhile was telling us all about her hopes to become a psychiatrist and which Universities she was looking at going to. We even managed to have 30 seconds of contact with Sian through the ‘Snapchat’ App.

So that brought us to Sunday and the day we’d planned to do our walk. Of course the weather had been great all weekend but today, as we got ready to go, it started to drizzle. The walk I’d planned today was one we’d done a couple of times before and it takes us out of the front door and then to the village of Swinbrook. We had to sort logistics in terms of cars as some of the family would be driving straight off from here.

The plan was for the Under 80s to walk and then meet up with Mum and Dad at the other end and the pub for Sunday lunch. Unfortunately the plan wasn’t very well executed as Mike and Miri left their coats in their car parked at the pub. This meant they had nothing to protect them from the rain which was now starting to come down more heavily. Luckily Mum and Dad came to the rescue as they had an array of waterproofs with them.

All geared up we set off and the walk initially took us along the road and under quite a lot of trees which offered us some protection from what was now a heavy downpour. After a while the path then dips down towards the river and then continues through the water meadows. This is the River Windrush which is a lovely river and the walk essentially follows the river valley.

The big group was led by Dave (eldest brother) who is the fastest person I have walked with so far this year! As a result the group became quite spaced out but we all caught up with each other when we came across a herd of cows coming towards us. They seemed in quite a lot of distress with a lot of mooing. It appeared that we were all stood where they wanted to go. Behind them, and apparently herding them towards us, there was another group of walkers and presumably the cows were a feeling a bit surrounded. It was a bit of a stand off before our group broke the trail and marched forwarded through the middle of the herd. This was fine although Mum told me later that there had been a lot of warnings to walkers this Summer about not upsetting cows. Phew, a lucky escape then…

Next the path crosses the river at a bridge in the hamlet of Widford. Here we all played the obligatory game of pooh sticks. Pete was v excited that he won with his very leafy twig. The path then moves away from the river and we walked through pastures which in Spring are covered in yellow wildflowers. The weather now cheered up and became quite warm as we walked towards Swinbrook. It’s a lovely village with some really smart houses and cottages which we all admired.

As we entered the village we saw Dad walking towards us and then we walked down to the pub together to find Mum. The pub is the Swan and its a lovely old building at another bridge over the river. It’s covered in Virginia Creeper and looks really old from outside. Our table for dinner wasn’t quite ready so we sat and had a drink outside by the river instead. It really was lovely and Dad commented, as he’d does, that this was a proper river as it actually flowed.

The Swan has an unusual landlady- the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire aka Deborah Mitford. She is 92 years old and one of the famous Mitford Sisters. I don’t think she’s seen around here very often pulling pints but her mark is definitely strongly felt in the pub decor and I particularly liked her fine collection of walking sticks on the wall.

Once our table was ready we all settled down for a delicious Sunday lunch which was very good. We also enjoyed another chance to view poultry as the pub had their own family of hens roaming the gardens including some tiny chicks which were very cute.

After lunch some of the family went off home and only Jane, Pete and I walked back rounding off the walk to a good 4.6 miles in total today. Back at the house only Mum and Dad were waiting and when Pete left it was just the 4 of us rattling about in peace on Sunday night.

It had been a memorable weekend and great to get the whole family together to help me celebrate my birthday the next day. This doesn’t happen often so it’s very special when we do all get chance to be together.

Walk 45- Draycott Water smells like Venice

Karen, me, Marcella

Feeding the Draycott ducks

Draycott Water

Silly sign

Monster catch?

Twitching in the hide

Great Crested Grebe

Saily boats

Me and Ex 7 Trenters

Last weekend we helped Pam celebrate her 50th in style round at her house. It was what I like to call a ‘classic party’ and it was just a shame that Pam only made it to 9pm before she had to retire to bed. It turns out that the mix of champagne and vodka shots is not a good one when you are 50. The rest of us all had a lovely time.

So much so that the next day I was a little sensitive to light and I felt it best to let Jane do the driving over to Rugby from Ashby De La Zouche where the party had been. I never let Jane drive me and I am an appalling back seat driver but today it had to be done. We’d already had a partial English breakfast at our hotel (well we’d paid for it) and by 11am I was eating an ice lolly as a preventative measure against dehydration. It was another scorching day and I’ve been caught out like this before this year! I heard the other day that this Summer has been the best since 2006. To be honest I think this has been the best Summer ever. I don’t recall 2006 at all- do you?

We met up with Karen and Marcella today at Draycott Water. Jane used to work with these girls when they all worked for Severn Trent Water. Now they’ve all gone their separate ways but they’ve kept in touch. I don’t think, therefore, that it was any coincidence that today’s walk, chosen by Karen, would take use around Draycott Water which is a reservoir near Rugby. It does, of course, belong to Severn Trent.

We met up with the girls in the car park there at 11:30 Sunday and it was already very busy. I hadn’t really known what to expect but I’d seen that the walk around the reservoir was 5 miles and mostly on good Tarmac tracks. There was a big modern visitor centre and all in all it seemed very well set up for recreation.

It was lovely and sunny and there was a pleasant breeze and it was nice walking around water again. However, when we got close to the water we all noticed a bit of a pong. To start with we thought it might just be the green algae in this corner but it soon became obvious that pretty much the whole reservoir stank. Karen, our resident SME (subject matter expert), told us that it was in fact a water treatment works.

Who would have thought that water would be quite so smelly. Then again, Venice smells bad in the Summer but was fine when we went in Feb. However, the crowds here didn’t seem to notice the smell much and perhaps I do have a particularly sensitive nose, like my Mum says. There were people cycling, walking, jogging, sailing and even one bloke standing waist deep in it fly fishing. Personally I think the ‘No Swimming’ signs were a bit of a waste of money, I’m really not sure anybody would want to.

Despite the pong we did have a very enjoyable walk and they’ve tried to add some points of interest along the way. We enjoyed the sign that said ‘No Fishing- Conservation Area’. Karen correctly pointed out that this was also a silly sign as people were allowed to fish in all the other parts of the Water and just not this corner. What did the fish do then she said- all cram into this one spot to save themselves?!

Next we came across the bird hide. Now this we were quite excited about as Jane and I have done a bit of twitching in our time (Puffins on Skomer). I’d even brought along my binocs today to see what I could see. The hide looked onto a reeded part of the lake and we saw some nice ducks and also some Great Crested Grebes which were a bit more impressive. I actually thought these were quite rare but it turns out that that was back in the 19th Century when they were nearly hunted to extinction because people wanted their head feathers to decorate top hats and ladies undergarments. Better news now though- they’re no longer that rare.
Later on Jane and Marcella watched some more birding action as a pair of male and female geese had a domestic and the female gave the male a right talking to.

At this point Karen and I had wandered on a bit and we were chatting about work. We both work in Financial services and we were comparing notes on the latest vernacular or management speak. It was good to hear that people are also considered to be ‘on point’ where Karen works (responsible) and that Karen now works in the COO (Chief Operating Office-  seems everyone organisation should have one!). However, she also gave me a new one to introduce which is a ‘fire drill’. I hadn’t heard this before and apparently it’s when an important person asks you to do something and you have to drop everything else you were planning on doing and do this. Yes, I’m sure we can use that, thanks Karen.

Jane and Marcella meanwhile, were comparing notes on Crete as Marcella had just come back and we’re about to go. Marcella was telling Jane about the fact that they’d stayed in All Inclusive but her two teenage sons hated the food so they ended up going out most nights to eat. In fact we talked quite a bit about teenage boys as between them Karen and Marcella have 6. Wow. There’d even been talk of two of Karen’s boys joining us on the walk but this was Sunday after all and they just couldn’t be bothered. Fair play.

As we walked around Karen explained that she used to live in one of the Severn Trent houses near here and that really is why she’s such an expert. The reservoir was built in 1969 and is the biggest stretch of water in Warwickshire holding 5 billion gallons of water. It is one of 111 reservoirs in England that hold drinking water. And yet so smelly….

The thing is though here, that it really is good easy walking and it was great to catch up on all their news before we said goodbye to Marcella who had to go and move her Dads greenhouse. The rest of us did the more traditional thing of going for Sunday lunch.

Walk 44- A Picnic with the Bears

Wave at the train

Neil, Joe, Maddie, me

Unwashed fruit

Thieving Brummies

Piqué Nique

Winners

Country fete

Village clown

Maddie, Jane, wombat

The ‘Bears’ on this walk are in fact Joe, Neil and Maddie. Their surnames not actually Bear but they do live at Bear Cottage – hence the nickname. Last weekend, having decided not to go to the Lakes, we got in touch with the Bears to see if they fancied that walk with a picnic we’d been talking about but not had time to fit in. Miraculously they were free and up for it so on Bank Holiday Monday last week they came over to our house.

I tried to plan the day carefully to include both a simple walk with some interest, a nice picnic spot and then a visit to a local village fete. Jane had already been out to Morrison’s and bought up there entire stock of picnic foods and we’d dusted off our picnic basket and so we were well prepared.

The walk today would start at nearby Toddington on the road to Winchcombe. We parked at the Pheasant Pub and then walked up to what was my first point of interest today. Toddington is home to the main terminus for the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway and as it was a Bank Holiday I figured that they’d be busy chugging trains up and down the line to Cheltenham. Eventually, they hope to extend this railway in the other direction to good old Broadway.

As we had a busy day planned we didn’t go down onto the platforms and instead went to the start of our walk. The path starts in a field alongside the railway line and I had hoped that we would be able to get a good view of the trains and wave at them (it has to be done). However, unfortunately we couldn’t really get a great view though the bushes and trees. Neil told us that his Grandad used to work on the steam trains and loved it.

It soon became obvious that this wasn’t a very well trodden path. There were thistles and stinging nettles all along the way. None of us were particularly well dressed for such ‘extreme’ conditions. Shorts, sandals and cut offs are not a great combination with stingers it turns out. Soon everyone was grumbling and trying to find dock leaves to calm their stings without much success. They were, as Joe would say, in a world of pain! Oh dear…it only seemed to be me that didn’t get stung at all….

By now it was becoming a very hot sunny day again. We found lots of blackberries along the way today and all of us tried to find the big ripe juicy sweet ones. Except Neil who seemed to think that we’d all regret eating unwashed fruit later on in the day when we were sick. We weren’t by the way.

After a while we emerged from the field onto a lane near some old railway workers cottages. The lane went under a railway bridge and we could hear the train whistle blowing but still no trains to actually be seen. Shame. We strolled down the lane until we got to the main road and as our route carried on on the other side of the road we had to dodge the speeding cars to continue. Then we had to climb over a stile into the next field. Unfortunately this stile was rather rickety and also covered in stinging nettles. Not good…sorry everybody.

Once in the field the path goes straight through the middle of the crop which today was corn on the cob. It was about 8 feet tall and went on for about half a mile. Not exactly scenic. We did have a laugh though as Jane and Joe couldn’t help themselves- each picking their own corncob to take home later. They had a plan that if the farmer approached us, they’d hand them to Maddie and blame her which is why she doesn’t look too impressed in the photo! Thieving Brummies.

At the end of this long field we emerged onto another rough track and then back onto a main road. Here we took the decision to miss out a bit of the route and walk back along the road. It really was too hot and we were all wilting a bit after ‘stingergate’. We walked 3 miles in total today although because of the heat it felt a lot further. We decided to reward ourselves with a drink in the pub. We thought we’d sit outside but this was another wasp world and so we retired inside. In here we got a fit of the giggles as we often do when Joe gets going. The pub really was a bit tired and there was a lingering smell of disinfectant which was rather unpleasant. Joe was not impressed.

We decided not to hang about and now drove to look at one of the other points of interest that we should have seen on our walk. This is Toddington Manor which is actually hidden behind gates but is the home of Damien Hirst the artist. We could just about see the house which is covered in scaffolding and polythene as he has been restoring the place for years.

Next stop was the picnic spot and we made our way over to Dumbleton where the fete was going to be. We drove into the manor grounds here and were totally amazed to see just how many cars had turned up for this tiny village fete. We love Dumbleton (or Dumbledore as we like to call it) which is a tiny, sleepy village with beautiful houses and one of my favourite cafes- the Art Cafe. Here you can get your pictures framed at the same time as having a cappuccino and a slice of coffee and walnut cake.

There were hundreds of cars parked up in the field and Maddie asked if the fete was going to be similar to Glastonbury. Possibly…..

It was hard to see where we could set up our picnic and not be surrounded by cars but we walked along a bit and found a nice spot near a big oak tree and overlooking the fete. We set up our rugs and chairs and got out our feast. Joe and Neil had even brought some bubbles and we had an early toast for my upcoming birthday! They gave me a present as well which was a book of photos Joe had put together as a memento of our previous Cornwall holiday. This made me laugh a lot and brought back very happy memories. It really was lovely and a perfect day for a picnic- once again exactly what I’d wanted it to be. We didn’t even get bothered by wasps out here. It was very, very hot though and soon the bubbles were going to our heads and we came over all sleepy. Neil and Maddie retired to the nearby oak tree to seek some shade whilst we had another mini battenberg to go with our Prosecco.

In danger of nodding off we thought it was time to walk down and have a look at what all the fuss was about at the fete. This was being held on the village cricket pitch. It’s a stunning spot with an amazingly posh pavilion and a wonderful backdrop of hills behind the pitch. Today, however, it was covered in people and stalls. There was everything from cream teas to a beer tent, a Punch and Judy to an archery display. There was an enormous queue for ice cream which we couldn’t be bothered with and Maddie happily settled for a bag of candyfloss. Maddie and Neil had a go on the coconut shy and Neil was a winner with his very first shot. This would go very nicely with our corn on the cob for tea later.

After this we wandered about a bit in a daze as we really were so hot. Joe said it was like something out of Midsommer Murders and that if we saw John Nettles we were to scarper. We’d soon had enough and again retired to the shade of a big tree. I decided to spice things up when I heard that stalls were now offering cheap deals in order to get rid of all their tut. I gave Maddie and Jane a pound each to go and buy the most impressive finds. Kind of like that antiques programme. Off they went immediately to the toy stall. We could see them eyeing up bargains, consulting and then negotiating with the stallholders. This was big business and they were taking my challenge seriously. After 15 mins they still weren’t back and I began to regret not just giving them a pound between them.

When they got back they looked very proud of themselves. Maddie had her arms FULL of games and had even managed to buy her Mum a nice ‘new’ handbag. Jane on the other hand just had a small soft toy. It appeared to be some sort of baby squirrel or rat with cross eyes. Poor thing. No wonder she felt she had to rescue it.

Now it was time to say our farewells and despite the fact that the walk had been a bit rubbish we’d had a lovely day and the picnic was a huge success.

Ps later on we discovered that Jane’s cuddly toy was in fact a cross eyed wombat. Such an upmarket village fete!