Warm Walk in the Country

April 1st – No joke, it is sunny and warm, with almost edge to edge blue sky and contrails from jets at high altitude supply the only clouds, and because I listened to the forecast for a chilly day, I was over-dressed and walking the circular route around Hexton near Hitchin with a camera bag and three cameras proved to be very warm.

There came a point in the walk where I arrived at a road and no marker of which route to take, and with the benefit of hindsight, I realise I chose wrongly so although I probably covered the distance, I think my second half was not along the correct route. However it did mean that the sun was no longer in my face, but on my back. I arrived back at where I parked the car, had a brief lunch and some orange juice, and spotted the entrance to Barton Chalk pits.

I decided that here might be a chance to spot local wildlife, but sadly these were not pits, just workings into the hillside, so no water, a very pleasant place to walk and admire the scenery, but with a high sun little in the way of picture opportunities, but I did have company; I met and chatted to someone who had hoped to find butterflies or birds, but like me was destined for disappointment.

I drove from there to Pulloxhill which had a charming cottage in its centre and on to Flitten with a splendid church, before returning via  Beadlow (where I spotted the bright yellow and pink blossom beside the road), to Ampthill Park. I wandered firstly to a small pond I had spotted from the main road, but was barely there a second before a single young coot disappeared into the reads and cover. So I walked back and over the hill to another larger pond that could just be classified as a lake where a few fishermen were still there, though I saw activity that suggested not for much longer! I managed to catch an equally fleeting glimpse of a squirrel that had made its mind up that I meant danger, and promptly scampered from one tree to the next to put a distance between us.

Certainly, this day was the longest day of exercise in the great outdoors since last year.