Fungi – I Walk Alone

Counting time in hours, not minutes

The final Friday of February took me on another Eastleigh wander. This time there was no mist, so I risked the Monks Brook Meadows route. This meant I could walk off-road for most of the journey once I’d left the centre of Eastleigh behind. In no time at all, I’d reached Lakeside Country Park. Instead of skirting the edge as I’d done on my last misty walk, I crossed the tracks of the Lakeside Steam Railway and headed across the centre of the park. At this time of year, the little steam trains only run at weekends, so crossing the track was perfectly safe. If you want to see them, they run daily between 31 May and 1 October, and if you’re wondering what they look like, here’s a post I wrote back in 2017.

Invasive fish, poisoned water and the environment agency

My second Friday walk of February was mostly about getting inspiration for my next book. Half a plot was whirring around in my head and Miller’s Pond, Botany Bay and Sholing played pivotal roles. Well, they might have, if I could get all the twists and turns untangled in my mind and persuade the characters to speak to me. For some reason, I imagined sitting watching the ducks and coots on the pond might start them chatting or at least inspire me in some way. The first obstacle came when I reached the Miller’s Pond pub.

Where is my bench?

Friday 13 January may not have been the most auspicious of dates for my inaugural 2023 walk, but it was the first non-stormy day that I felt well enough to risk venturing further than the local shops. It was still cold and windy, so I planned a route that gave me plenty of chances to cut things short if the weather turned nasty or my post-Covid tiredness got the better of me. I began with a slow stroll along the cut way beside the old St Mary’s College playing fields. I wanted to see if building work had started on the site since the College closed.

Following Monks Brook through Fleming Park

Monks Brook has been a feature of my walks for many years. Regular readers of this blog will have followed me more than once as I walked beside it from Woodmill to Swaythling or Eastleigh. I have mentioned it in passing when I’ve been at running events in Eastleigh or crossed it, heading from Lakeside to Stoneham Lane. Originally, it was called Swaethling Well, swaethling, being an old English word meaning misty stream, and the modern area of Swaythling took its name from the brook. In the fourteenth century, the water upstream of Swaythling was renamed Monks Brook after the monks of Hyde Abbey near Winchester. The stretch between Swaythling and Woodmill was still known as the Swaethling Well. This is the part of the brook I know best, but I have long wanted to explore more of this seven-mile stretch of water. On 28 September, when Commando said he was going for a run at Fleming Park, I grasped at the chance to follow the course of the brook further upstream. How far I’d be able to get remained to be seen.

A fresh start

There’s something to be said for starting the day off with a nice walk. When that day also happens to be the first day of a new year, doubly so. It helped that the first day of 2022 dawned crisp and cold, a truly golden start to the year. After all the madness of the last two years, I hoped this was a good omen for the year ahead. I’m fairly sure I wasn’t alone in being tired of all the panic, rumour, conspiracy theories and restrictions at this stage. Commando and I strolled across the Common, admiring the layers of gold, grey and blue through the bare branches of the trees. The wonderful Gareth had already been round putting out his signs and the set up crew were on the flats putting out the poles and chains of the parkrun finish funnel. The sky was the real star of the show though. It looked like being a beautiful morning, which was just as well, because drizzle would have put a dampener on my plans.

A very long, short walk

When we left Manor Farm we were still at the start of our four, or so, mile walk to plot marshal points for the upcoming race. The sky was bright blue, the sun was out, so it was a nice day for a stroll, but with all the stops and starts, I was beginning to think it would be dark before we got to the end. As it was Halloween, I wondered if we’d see any ghosts and ghouls if that happened.

A fungi filled copse and a road that thinks it’s a trail

12 October 2017

We’d come to the end of the trail alongside Spear Pond. The footpath sign we saw by the first gate told me there must be a way through, just not where it would lead us. We could have taken the easy route and gone back through the gate and onto the Strawberry Trail. There’d be no chance of getting lost that way but it wouldn’t be as much of an adventure and I hate retracing my steps. Ahead I spotted two trails going off into the trees. Neither was marked. Continue reading A fungi filled copse and a road that thinks it’s a trail

Spear Pond Gully

12 October 2017

Today’s walk came with a proper plan for once. On the outskirts of the city there is a trail I’ve been meaning to explore for some time and, last night, I finally got around to mapping it out. In fact I even downloaded the route to my phone so I could follow it as I walked. Of course, not all of the trail was visible on the map so I filled in the missing bits as best I could and hoped there would actually be a way to get through. What could possibly go wrong? Continue reading Spear Pond Gully

Trapped on the butterfly walk

20 September 2017

Bridge or slope? We dithered for quite a while, weighing up all the pros and cons. The slope was steep but there were steps and it would take us onto Archery Grove a shortish Walk on pavements to Millers Pond. There’d be no mud and, after the initial climb it would be easy going. The bridge would take us onto the butterfly walk. There’d probably be mud and obstacles to negotiate but it would be prettier. Continue reading Trapped on the butterfly walk

The fairies of Archery Woods

20 September 2017

We left the sea and the tall flats behind and cut through the buildings to Archery Road. At this stage my plans were vague. Maybe we’d walk back towards Woolston and wind our way through the streets there. Maybe we’d head along Swift Road or Weston Lane towards Sholing and Millers Pond. Then again, we could walk through the woods, if they weren’t too muddy. Continue reading The fairies of Archery Woods

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