Saturday, January 24, 2009

A walk.......

My Leki pole and I went for a walk this afternoon. See? There we are. It has been a beautiful if freezing day.

Early this morning, I was woken by a call from a dear friend far away in the Land of Opportunity, and after I gathered my wits about me, and shot upright in the bed to try to speak in a logical fashion, I have to say, it was a lovely way to start the day. I was grinning as I hauled myself out of bed 45 minutes later. "Early" happened to be 8.15am. I was not quite with it. At all. I have become a slug.

Anyway, it was a great start. Then Peter and Glynis popped round to kidnap me and take me to Olney for coffee. I did not need much persuasion. This is a lovely old town fairly nearby, and we had a great time wandering around the shops. There was coffee, of course, and lots of chatter too. And the craft shop. The Home of the Cuttlebug. It was sitting there, but I turned my back on it. This time. I just love craft shops, and they had a SALE on. Sigh.

So this afternoon, I decided that instead of doing the boring old exercises, I would go and walk along the pathways at the lakes at Castle Ashby. The sun was shining. There were plenty of people about angling, and places to rest, so it was a good choice. Please tell me why men like to go angling? They sit there all day with fishing rods, catch a fish, and then put it back in the water. Why?? I do not get it at all. Maybe it is just to get some peace and quiet. Hmmm. Weird.

The light was soft, and it was perfect. So here you go. Be relieved. I took 152 photos, but you do not have to sit through them all.

The path along the lake side....


This is Castle Ashby. Years ago, I went to an Elton John concert in the gardens. It was stunning.



This swan was happy to pose. It turned around slowly and was a perfect model.


I walked across this little bridge rather hesitantly. But it stayed in place, and the other side was just beautiful. I will talk more of that another time. It is worth taking chances!

Now, how English can you get?? Sheep, horse riders, and rolling green countryside with a castle in the background......

I loved this broken old boat. And the arch of the tree framed it so beautifully. That tree, I think an oak, must be hundreds and hundreds of years old. I wonder who has sheltered beneath it in centuries gone by? How much has it seen??

And these pairs of ducks, (do NOT ask me what kind!) all swam away from the path as I hobbled along it. They look like 3 married couples!
So there you go. Some of the photos on my walk this afternoon. I stopped for coffee at the babes on the way home, after paying the rent for the allotment for the year. £6.00. Yes. About $9 for the year. Unbelievable. We have great plans for it this year. Apparently there is now a long waiting list for allotments too. People all want to grow their own vegetables. The economic climate is making everyone plan more, I think.
A lovely day. I have done the exercises too, just to make sure I don't slip back. Now, I do believe I have earned the rest I am going to have with my book on the couch.
I hope you are all having equally lovely weekends!

16 comments:

Susan said...

Love, beautiful pictures, Linds.
Susan

Chris said...

Beautiful, m'dear. Just beautiful. And so green! Would that it were so here!

Now, off to take the nap I so deserve after staying up so late to chat with you this morning. :0)

Much love,

C

Anonymous said...

Beautiful :-)
I am going to GB to visit Roz at Autumn Cottage in a couple of weeks. I look forward to leave the snow here behind.

Vee said...

Have been dreaming (in the literal sense) of walking along green paths that meander through trees...this was like that dream come to life. Thank you for taking such a lovely walk and for taking such wonderful photos and sharing it all with us. It was lovely...must call John in to see that massive tree. It's pretty wonderful and amazing.

Now I'll just linger about to see if you're going to say more about paragraph one. Terribly intriguing is paragraph one.

Barb said...

Such nice photos, Linds. That castle is amazing. Can you imagine living in such a place?

I took a closer look at your ducks. It looks like a family of mallards to me, including perhaps a mother-in-law. :-)

What a nice day for you. How I would love to take a walk like that.

Lisa Marie said...

Absolutely stunning pictures Linds! Glad you are having some decent walking weather in your parts. I have to settle for the new Treadmill that hubby bought me yesterday. It's too nasty/cold to walk outside. Have a wonderful day!

someone else said...

Those pictures took me to England and some of the wonderful walks we've taken there. It's so very, very pretty.

Crystal said...

Thank you for sharing the green grass, the open water and the lovely trees with us! In these parts, it's frozen ice, snowdrifts and -25 degrees C again! When I come to visit, can we walk here?!!

I love weekends for the slower pace, the unexpected visits and the meandering that one can do. Enjoy your book!

Diane@Diane's Place said...

Lovely photos and narrative, Linds. I enjoyed this so much. Glad you had an enjoyable day out of the house.

As Barb said, your ducks are mallards. We have them here literally by the thousands. Some migrate through here and some live here year round.

Have a lovely Sunday, my friend. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

Karen said...

Lovely photos! You made it sound like we were walking with you.

Susie said...

Hi Linds,
Lovely photos! Just wanted to stop in and say hi.
xo

Needled Mom said...

It does look like it was a lovely walk. I had heard that there was so much rain over there, but was happy to hear that the sun was shining for you.

I will have to forward to you a funny post on men's fishing that I received from a friend of mine today. It explains everything.

Enjoy your weekend.

her said...

beautiful pictures of a beautiful quiet countryside...such peace!

I am a friend of Laurie's in California...you can check out my blog if you like...to me you sound like you have an interesting life!

So please forgive me for coming into your blog but just wanted to blog-surf tonight!

Joy, DeeDee

Dawn said...

I would so love to take that walk with you - the tree framing the boat is so artstic. How wonderful that such a place is close enough to walk t and walk in and on. Lovely!

BritGirl said...

Thank you so much for taking a homesick,heavily pregnant and fed up woman for a walk like that.
That was wonderful,although I think we should have had a scone with that coffee just to make it perfect! Lol!

Mary said...

Out of all the photos I definitely like the first one the most. You look regal. Very tall and elegant - just like a true duchess should look like.

The swan was lovely. I liked the boat. I also rather liked the one on top of that(with the green limbs). The third photo comes a very close second to the first photo as my favourite.

Really, I like them all. Actually you have inspired me - not to walk (necessarily) but to capture the beauty all around us.

so I will stop raving and go do something a little more productive.

C.Y.S