A walk around Lindfield

As I mentioned in my previous post, we've all had a sickness/tummy bug over the festive season so on Sunday I felt I needed to get out the house and get some fresh air.  I drove down to Norma's (about 20 minutes from us) and we went out for a walk around Lindfield.  It didn't feel too bad as we started out but after walking for a while we realised it was actually quite nippy!  

 

Lindfield is a very pretty village in West Sussex and more importantly, it's fairly flat which is a big plus (as far as I'm concerned) as East Grinstead is quite hilly which ever direction you go in.  I'm not sure how long we walked for but we went through the residential area ...

 

 Still decorated for Christmas - lots going on here ;)

 Into the High Street where there were some lovely doors (and wreaths)

 We headed up towards the Church

 then spotted this path across the road, so crossed over

 which gave me a chance to take a photo of the church

  and then spotted these toadstools as we went up the path.

 Up round the back of the Church to see ...

 The Crooked House ;)

 We could hear the organ playing as we walked past the Church and round towards the main road again.

 I do have a thing about doors ;)

 Down through the village and out towards the pond and the Common.

 As soon as we neared the pond the ducks started swimming towards us hoping for food - unfortunately we didn't have any with us :/

 The little black and white "duck" in the middle was the only one like that.  The reason I say "duck" is because we're not sure if it is one or if it's something else.  If anyone knows I'd be interested to hear.

 So pretty!

 Looking back towards the village

before walking through the Common to get back to Norma's house (which is one of the cottages you can see on the other side of the Common). 

I felt so much better after the fresh air had blown the cobwebs away :) (and the coffee when we got back to the house was most welcome!)

xx

On My Walk

 

On 01 August 2013, Norma and I joined Weight Watchers (again ;) ).  I'm happy to say it's going well and I'm still sticking to the plan and have lost weight each week. However, I realised I need to get more exercise too.  I'm not a fan of the gym so have been doing some walking instead.  We're lucky where we live because we have a footpath (for want of a better word) a couple of minutes from our house called Forest Way. It's an old railway line which has been built up and smoothed out and runs from East Grinstead to Forest Row through countryside.

 

Norma has done quite a bit of walking but I'm afraid I've not been that energetic.  We started out walking together (with Norma encouraging me ) but now that Norma has started teaching I tend to walk on my own.  I walk for 15 minutes down the path then turn and walk back again. A half hour walk seems fair enough to me.  A lot of people use Forest Way - dog walkers, joggers and people just out for a walk, so I feel quite safe. Today my walk seemed easier and I walked a bit further than normal in my 15 minutes - I'm taking this as a sign that I'm getting a little bit fitter ;)

 

Here are a few of the photos I took with my phone along the way.

 



 Aren't these berries a stunning colour against the green leaves.  I didn't realise until I uploaded the photo that there was a fly in the photo too ;)

 

 Today I walked to just past this sign

 

 Then turned round and started back again.

 

 I love this bridge and there is actually a road over it, though you seldom see cars on it.

 

 One of the little paths leading off the main track. There's a little gate at the top and I think one day I need to follow the path and see where it leads to.

 I love looking over this gate and seeing if any of the animals are in the field.

 

 Today it was empty.  The cows had been in a different field when I walked down but by the time I walked back they'd gone - milking time perhaps?

Nearly home - the main road is where you see the light at the end of the path.

 

This afternoon I was able to have my lunch outside on the patio.  It's been a while since I've done this because we've had so many wasps and as soon as you sat outside with food, they'd arrive.  Now that it's cooler they're not there any more.  I wonder how much longer I'll be able to do that.

 

Tomorrow's walk will be in to town to meet friends for coffee. Even the hills are getting slightly more bearable ;)

 

xx

Our walk down Forest Way

 Norma and I have started Weight Watchers this week and are going to attempt to walk more regularly for exercise.

 We were about to go for a walk down Forest Way and got Emily to take a photo of us before we left. And yes, believe it or not, we are in the middle of May all bundled up for the cold!

The Forest Way path is really close to where we live and a popular walk for people in the area. This particular day this dog was ambling along and quite happy to walk with us a lot of the time.  That's her owner up ahead on the left :)

 We really are so lucky to have this walk nearby as it feels like you're in the countryside. Anyway, as we carried on down the path, the dog's owner was waiting for her and had obviously seen us stopping to take photos. He asked if we'd seen the bluebells in the woods just off the path and explained where he was talking about. As we neared the spot he had stopped to point it out to us and we're so grateful he did.

 We had to go down a little path off the main path to get into the woods where there was a carpet of bluebells. Absolutely stunning!

 And the deeper in we went, the more bluebells there were.  Standing in the middle of them the scent was beautiful.

On this walk I took about 100 photos. Each way you turned was as pretty or prettier than what you'd been looking at. Here are a few more ...

We also saw a badger set - this was just one of the many holes in the area.  There were also, what we presume were, deer hoof prints where the ground was quite soft and a tree which had been gnawed by something. All signs of the wildlife so close to where we live.

As we left the area we were on a high. One to tick off the bucket list ;o)

Homeward bound again.

xx

Our first walk

One of the things I've been looking forward to is going for little walks in the neighbourhood with Alice. Today we had our first little walk.

 We didn't go far. I didn't know how far Alice would be able to walk before getting tired and I didn't want to end up having to carry her long distances to get home again ;o).

 We walked to the end of our road, up a small hill and then she had a short carry until we got to the top of our path again before she walked back round and home. She enjoyed stopping to look at little rocks and stones and the twig in the photo above must have been quite tasty ;o).  The only thing I hadn't thought through was how I was expecting to take photos on this walk while holding Alice's hand or reins and keeping her upright when she wobbled!  These two photos were all I got, one near the beginning of the walk and the other when we got home :o)

 Once inside again Stripey Horse got some attention (she likes the Stripey Horse books too)

and not long after, the postman arrived with her new peg hammer bench. I'm quite impressed with this one - it's sturdy, the pegs aren't too stiff to hammer and the hammer is a nice size.  It may be a little while before she's got the hang of it but she enjoyed pushing the pegs and playing with the hammer for now.

Alice has been asleep for about an hour now and soon I'll have to go and pick up Claire and then take Cloud to the Vets (for a nasty absess :o(  )

xx

Photos from a dog walk

To get a change of picture at the top of my blog, I decided to add a few photos from a recent walk Cloud and I went on. I love the autumn colours in some of the photos.

One of my favourite photos

Home again :)

xx