Blogs from England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 3

My wife and my son had booked to do some sourdough bread making in London, so I thought I would go in as well for a morning of photography. It was an early start as we needed to be in Borough Market ready for the breadmaking to start at 9.30am, which meant leaving home well too early for a Saturday morning. We were treated to a stunning sunrise, but it was just a shame that the setting was the railway tracks heading off towards London. I left my wife and son at Borough Market, but as soon as they were out of sight, I sneakily diverted to Humble Crumble. It's a favourite of ours, as you can choose your own tailor-made fruit crumble, but even I would admit that it's not really what I should be ... read more

A snippet of wisdom from my daily dose of Eastern philosophy today told me that "The more I know , the less I need " I am definately sure I don't agree with one word of that. For me the more I know the more I want to know. It is never too late to stop learning or seeing things. Whether that is at home in the locality or further afield . When you think you know enough then it is rather a sad time . I wonder if what I have just written reminds you of the film Short Circuit where Robot number 5 also known as Johnnie 5 gains intelligence and demands input. I wake up each morning and need input. Whatever that input will be depends on so many things. Today it was ... read more

By 7am I had left the comfort of The Ram behind and made my way across fields to Meeting, from where I headed back into the forest passing the ruins of Weeting Castle on my way out of the village. Wide forest tracks led me on into Mundford, thankfully as well as written directions I also had gpx files and although I tried not to use my phone for navigation those files came in handy on this section! A stretch of footpath alongside the A1065 followed until I turned to head towards Ickburgh. Here I felt the first spots of rain. The church porch made for a convenient dry spot to get into my waterproofs. While here a churchwarden came and asked if I wanted to look inside the church. In honesty I wanted to get ... read more

To rejoin the planned route I first had to walk a couple of miles along a quite busy road with no footpath between Haverhill to Withersfield. Not the ideal start and as it turned out road walking although on quieter roads than this would be the order of the day. In Withersfield as it was still early I was surprised to find the church unlocked. After a quick look around I headed out of the village and apart from one short and very muddy track I was on minor roads all the way to Hundon. Here I took a break at the church which seems to still be used regularly as it has a book exchange and also a table of food donations that anyone who feels the need can help themselves too. As was often ... read more

Buoyed by my enjoyment of the previous day's walk I was out of the door by 7.30am and soon out of the village heading along field tracks to the unfortunately named Ugley. Soon after I passed underneath the M11 motorway but thankfully it wasn't long before I had left the traffic noise behind and was once again listening to the skylark's distinctive call as I made my way across fields of crops. Between Widdington and Newport I joined the Harcamlow Way, a waymarked long distance footpath which along with the Saffron Way would lead me to the picturesque town of Saffron Walden. Here I visited the church - another St Mary's - whose tall steeple rises way above the old half timbered buildings of the town centre. Many of these old houses have patterns moulded into ... read more