Speed walk

 Paul said he was going on a walk with Luke and it would be around five and a half miles around Wallington. I knew this village as I used to live in the next village along called Redhill. It is also the place George Orwell lived when he was first married. So at around ten we set off heading west out of the village on the main road before quivkly turning left onto the Icknield Way Path. Which curves gently uphill towards birds hill. 

It was around this time I discovered Luke and Paul liked to speed walk up hill. I not being used to this kept a steady pace behind! 

We headed south towards the A507 Clothall Road which takes some care to cross safely.

A quick assent for the other two at least up to Ashanger Hill putting the dogs on a lead to go past the sheep field and then we had a lovely view of Clothall Church.

We then sat by the church for a coffee from our flasks and let the dogs get some water. 

From the church we headed down to the main road across and up by the glebe house and past the tumulus and accroos the A507 again by Clothall Bury. 

We then followed the Hertfordshire Way through bush spring over some fields where the paths have been ploughed returning to Wallington by it's lovely church. 

A short walk around the village road took us past Orwell's cottage and back to our cats. It is a lovely walk and with these two very quick friends it was completed in two hours including a coffee break. 

Thank you guys it was really good. 

Flag Day

I spent today trying to raise money for Macmillan. We as a company have a target this year to try to raise 30,000 and our office arranged a day to support this. Kali Dowse one of our team had seen a climbing wall at another location and suggested this could be a good fund raiser. So we hired the wall which was duly brought to the market square at ten this morning and then we put on the safety harness and started to climb. I was really nervous to start with wondering if I would be able to do it but very quickly I had been up it four times. We then took a rest to give a group of children a chance to have a go on it and they were great climbing with no fear. All putting in some money for the charity. After a couple of hours we went back to it but my arms had gone hard and I slipped off half way up so I gave it a rest and let the fitter and younger ones carry on. 

Well by 3pm most of the children had gone and we had exceeded our challenge of 44 climbs between us and ready to bring it down. It was a good day and hopefully a good amount has been raised for the cause. 

The picturesque

I have now linked up some of the ways of displaying pictures and stories by the use of a new website called www.thepicturesque.co.uk named after the aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1792 by William Gilpin in observations on the River Wye. The beautiful and the sublime. So I hope these early morning images, the sun rises pictures and the dogs dancing around the field create some enjoyment for others as they do for me.