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Bradford-On-Avon – 21.6.15

June 22, 2015 at 5:19 am

Bradford-on-Avon

A relatively easy walk for the longest day of the year. Although it was the first day of summer, someone forgot to tell the clouds which were present most of the time.  Starting from the station car park in Bradford-on-Avon the walk was along the river towards Avoncliff and back down the canal. The canal was busy with boats and some ducklings and a lot of people were out and about both on foot and bike.

village

Walkmeter Map

(oops – left the tracker going on the drive home – so ignore the straight line from BoA to Bath – that’s not part of the walk!!)

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ducklings

ducklings on the river

the-cross-guns

a handy stop about half way around

 

 

 

 

 

Chipping Sodbury – 31.5.15

May 31, 2015 at 2:26 pm

Old Sodbury

Walkmeter Map

This very pleasant spring walk started from the Church in Old Sodbury and went along parts of the Cotswold Way, Frome Valley Walkway, Monarch’s Way and back onto the Cotswold Way. On the way we saw masses of wild flowers and an assortment of animals. Walking through the Iron Age Fort was fascinating – trying to imagine what it would have been like to live there. The views were far reaching although the cloud did make them somewhat blurred.

The theme of today’s walk was buttercups

fields of golden buttercups

fields of golden buttercups

    Animal highlights
A very curious Llama

A very curious Llama

three friendly donkeys

three friendly donkeys

Baby cows

Baby cows

 

Question for today – can you identify this crop?

wheat or barley?

wheat or barley?

Kingscote – 12.4.15

April 12, 2015 at 1:28 pm

Kingscote

Somewhat further afield then usual but it was well worth the drive. The walk took us from Kingscote through lovely wooded valleys and the Ozleworth estate. The signs of spring were everywhere – baby lambs, trees coming into leaf and wild flowers in abundance. It was a truly lovely spring time walk.

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lamb1

lamb2

 

Question for today – can you identify this flower?

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**UPDATE** A handy botanist has been able to identify this plant as a ‘butterbur’

 

Dyrham – 1.3.15

March 1, 2015 at 5:21 pm

Dyrham and Doynton

Rain on the way but the skies cleared and the circular walk from Dyrham via Doynton took us through open fields giving spectacular views across Bristol and it was just possible to see Wales in the distance. Varied landscapes of open fields and shaded paths with plants and trees starting to wake up. Very muddy in places but a most enjoyable early spring ramble.

click here to see the GPS map

The theme of today’s walk was MUD!

mud

Today’s animal highlight was Llamas (Alpacas?)

llamas

Box – 8.2.15

February 8, 2015 at 3:45 pm

Box

The Garmin watch is not playing at the moment but luckily I had this back-up http://walkmeter.com/8545f681394d9fe0/Walk-20150208-1030

Screen Shot 2015-02-08 at 15.26.49

Today’s walk started in Box at the Box Rock Circus – a funny little mini stonehenge.

stone circus

 

It was a really gorgeous day for walking, even though it’s still cold enough to have to scrape ice off the car in the morning there are signs of spring all over the place, snowdrops, wild primroses even a very optimistic daffodil:

_0002_IMG_1581 snowdrops _0005_IMG_1590 _0003_IMG_1578

The walk is nice and varied – some bits through fields, some through woods.  There are some lovely views at the high points:

 

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Widcombe – 18.01.15

January 18, 2015 at 1:05 pm

Widcombe area of Bath

This is a short easy walk to do if you want to explore nearer to town.  There are some lovely views at certain spots and various buildings of historical interest.  The whole route is on either roads or pavements so no danger of mud etc.  If you fancy a stroll and don’t want to travel too far this is perfect.  If you like a good garden centre then at the bottom of Forefield Rise turn right and you will find Prior Park Garden Centre – a fantastic place with an amazing deli shop.

view2 view

widcombe-manor forefield-rise

Bath Skyline – 10.01.15

January 10, 2015 at 10:55 am

This is the route of the Saturday morning Bath Skyline parkrun but it’s also really popular with walkers.  Like most of the Skyline routes it has some great views of the city below.  It meanders through ‘Fairy Wood’ and ‘Long Wood’ and can get pretty muddy during wet weather.  There is one set of  steep stone steps but other than that it’s fairly flat and easy.  The route is a pretty accurate 5k having been measured for parkrun.

Newton-St-Loe – 4.1.15

January 4, 2015 at 4:14 pm

This is a really varied route – through woods, bridle paths, country lanes. It’s quite hilly so there would usually be good views but today the weather was dank and foggy so we couldn’t see very far. For the first half mile we were joined by a sweet little black kitten who seemed to think we were headed somewhere interesting. There wasn’t much else in the way of ‘wild’ life – probably all sheltering from the cold.
After we finished walking we popped in to the lovely farm shop where everything looked delicious on account of being hungry after the walk – came away with some blackcurrant shortbread which lasted about 5 minutes after getting home.

Newton St Loe – the first ramble of 2015.

Charmy Down – 14.12.14

December 12, 2014 at 5:25 pm

Charmy Down

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Stourhead – 19.10.14

October 19, 2014 at 5:17 pm

Stourhead is, of course, well known for its landscaped gardens but this walk took us away from the crowds and into some beautiful countryside. It was a glorious day for walking despite the wind on the top of the hills. Lunch was eaten in the shelter of castle hill overlooking the small town of Mere which was looking lovely in the sunshine. The walk over we collapsed with a lovely cuppa in the NT cafe at Stourhead.

deer

goats