Tag: Deer

Return to Dorney Lake

Back in 2015, Commando ran a pre-London Marathon twenty mile event at Dorney Lake, a sporting venue built for the 2012 Olympic rowing events and now owned and used by Eton College. I’d had a wonderful few hours wandering along the Thames towpath to Windsor and back. When he said he had a race there on the last Sunday in August, I was excited to tag along. It was only a 10k this time, not twenty miles. I knew I wouldn’t have time to walk to Windsor, but I looked forward to another walk along the towpath.

Continue reading Return to Dorney Lake

Winchester mills and flowers in the rain

3 September 2017

Sitting on a bench by the river in the rain is not the best of ideas. When I noticed mosquitoes buzzing round my legs I thought it was probably time to move, even though I hadn’t really thought of anywhere else to go. The nettle stings were enough to contend with without mosquito bites adding to the itching. Besides, sitting still was making me cold as well as damp so I began to march towards the entrance to the park. As I passed the last of the trees and came to the area of cut grass that had tempted me right at the start I found myself face to face with a deer.  Continue reading Winchester mills and flowers in the rain

Quacky races

21 April 2017

In our house early starts usually mean races and it was certainly early when CJ and I left the house. We were heading for Mansbridge and a race but any similarity to a normal race day ended with the early hour. For one Commando was still at home in bed sleeping off the night shift. There were no trainers, no race kit and there would be no medals at the end. My camera was in my bag though. We’d been reliably informed there would be a whole lot of ducklings to see and I didn’t want to miss them.  Continue reading Quacky races

Care For a Walk Ashurst to Totton, limping home

18 March 2017

Thankfully, I didn’t have too far to hobble on my bashed up knee before we reached the New Forest Pub at Ashurst. This gave me a chance to nip off to the loo and examine said knee. It was bleeding, but not as much as I’d expected. More worryingly, it was already quite swollen and red. A little gentle prodding told me this was almost certainly bruising, by the looks of it under my kneecap, which, thankfully felt intact.  Continue reading Care For a Walk Ashurst to Totton, limping home

Care For a Walk – Totton to Matley, ponies dogs and a deer

18 March 2017

Care For a Walk day has come round again and, with it, the joy of a walk in the New Forest with zero chance of getting lost or ending up somewhere other than where I meant to. The annual spring walk for Macmillan Cancer Support is planned by Pete and Mike, experts on all the trails and paths because they are lucky enough to live in the forest. This means I don’t have to worry about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other and enjoying the scenery. Actually, this time, I did have to worry about not losing CJ, who has discovered he loves a walk too and wanted to come along.  Continue reading Care For a Walk – Totton to Matley, ponies dogs and a deer

The final boundary stone, or is it?

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6 October 2016

After my fifteen minutes of radio and video fame I’d hoped for some clues about the whereabouts of the final two boundary stones. What I actually got was people asking if I’d found any more stones and a lot of comments about stones I’d already found. There was one cryptic comment about Bassett Green and Stoneham Lane but neither was anywhere near where the last stones were meant to be and I couldn’t get any more information so, for now, I’ve discounted it. Even so, it seemed about time I went in search of the final stone I knew really was there.  Continue reading The final boundary stone, or is it?

Poppies, pill boxes and pipelines

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30 June 2015

Away from the shore breeze the heat made walking a chore as I made my way through Netley to Victoria Country Park. The coffee shop was tempting but the detour to get to it proved an obstacle too far so I hurried across the open field towards the trail through the woods where there would at least be shade. Hot and sticky I may have been but I couldn’t resist a stop to look at a beautiful poppy sculpture that has appeared in front of the chapel since my last visit. The small flower bed beneath it was planted with real poppies, fat buds not quite ready to open. It will look stunning when they do. Continue reading Poppies, pill boxes and pipelines