The walk today started at the historic town of Burford and followed the River Windrush through to  the hamlet of Widford with it's wonderful church in the middle of a field.

St Oswold dates back many centuries in fact 13th century Gothic. The murals are 14th century.

It was a lovely spring day although a keen and cool westerly breeze was blowing

Into the churchyard of Swinbrook church where the Mitford sisters lived for many years. An extraordinary family and are worth researching (any search engine will do) If OK or Hello magazine was published in their time they would have filled many pages. They were quite unique.

Swinbrook is one of the most beautiful villages on the eastern side of the Cotswolds

On into Fulbrrok with the Blossom on the trees the modern shepherds hut and the restored and working village pump.

Met this fella on my return to home who has escaped the annual shoot. Season finished end of February.

Early start Burford 07.50

Barrington, some idiots left gate open. Pregnant ewes everywhere.

Quiet Woodland

Oh dear!

Not a native species!

Nice to see cattle occasionally

Thank goodness for The National Trust

These two looked happy

Ancient bridge

Just need to get the top of the next valley.

Daffs and snowdrops - Spring is coming to the Cotswolds

Deep in thought

St John the Baptist church Great Rissington

Still in winter coats


Just some photos from my 5 hours of walking this morning. Enjoy

Woke up this morning to witness the arrival of the Fieldfare, they arrive every year during the winter to strip as many berries from the tree outside the house as possible. There are approximately 60 birds at the moment but that will increase as the message spreads!

The Fieldfare is 22-27 cm long, with a plain brown back, white underwings, and grey rump and rear head. The breast has a reddish wash, and the rest of the underparts are White. The breast and flanks are heavily spotted. They are members of the Thrush family

Just thought I would share this with you all.

Good morning all.

Just a short stroll around the area this morning down towards farm building unchanged for several centuries. To prove time really stood still there is an old clock on the building in the background stuck at 8.30 probably stopped many years ago.

Some sheep on the hillside were quite startled by our presence.

Snowdrops appearing through the receding snow just need a bit of brightness to perk them up (don't we all!)

Last year's nest sitting in the hawthorn bush. If you zoom in you can see what look like chicks crying for food but are actually seed kernels.

With the cold wind blowing from the NE Old Father Time standing stoically in the very cold conditions.

Not much to report really with the weather being indifferent (rain and murky). However woke up this morning to a beautiful clear sunny bright morning. Unfortunately have to work all day so I am not going to be able to walk. But the weekend is nearly here.

A photo taken from my bedroom window

Walked about 8 miles today in freezing conditions. Countryside still looks good though with frost on the ground. Saw the animal below at a distance initially thought it was the notorious wild cat of the Cotswolds, but as you can see looks like a poodle!

Went down into the National Trust owned watermeadows at Sherborne where there were rabbits aplenty. Also falcons, red kites and buzzards could be seen.



Returning via Great Rissington saw these fellows in a field and although they would not look at me created quite and noise.

Meanwhile in the adjacent field these two could not have cared less.

To round off the walk this little primrose was showing its head

The New Year Ramble

Jenny and myself went for a walk around Cold Aston and Notgrove on Saturday 7th. It was a bright and windy day and we set off from the village of Cold Aston walking initially on road before diverting through woodland. After a mile or so we were on a ridge and spotted from about 300 yards a pig in a field. A BIG field!

We had a few minutes with the pig (seemed to be a cross between a pot bellied and Gloucestershire Old Spot) I later found out his name was Bumble. We continued up the other side of the valley only to be alerted to the sound of the hounds charging through the valley

The sight of the hounds and horses is always a wonderful thing. We could hear the dogs barking and the horses clip clopping on the road for about 20 minutes afterwards. Something about that noise...

Our walk continued on the road between Notgrove and Turkdean and about an hour after seeing the hunt they suddenly reappeared.

Soon after leaving the road we were back in open countryside and we saw Buzzards and Red Kites.