Showing posts with label Wild Garlic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wild Garlic. Show all posts

Friday, 14 May 2010

Balcombe Circular

Jane reports from Wednesday's 12 mile circular walk led by Pat Hully...

"A party of seven of us enjoyed a walk through very attractive countryside and the many wild flowers we saw even included some early orchids...




as well as dandelions, bugles...



blubells and wild garlic...



Our morning route followed quiet footpaths past Little and Great Strudgate Farms and Chiddingly Farm to the picturesque village of West Hoathly for lunch.





We then followed the High Weald Landscape Trail to the eastern shore of Ardingly Reservoir where a flotilla of sailing dinghies added dashes of colour to the revervoir's waters....





Upon reaching Balcombe Mill we had a short, sharp climb out of the valley and found ourselves back at Balcombe Station all too soon."

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Monday, 10 May 2010

Princes Risborough circular

Yesterday nine of us joined June Craig for a brisk 12 mile walk around some fine Chiltern countryside.



[June is pictured above, extreme right.]

Despite a profusion of signposts June led us unerringly through fields and beech woods.





In the beech hangers wild garlic and native bluebells still carpeted the ground.



The lunchtime pub had a most unusual water feature in the duckpond...



Everyone had an enjoyable day. Well, almost everyone-



We got back to the station 5 minutes before our train. Sadly it wasn't the one we saw earlier in the afternoon, but you can't win 'em all....



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Sunday, 3 May 2009

Gerald Colton Way, Part 2: Kentish Town to Mill Hill

This morning saw 21 Ramblers gather at Kentish Town station for the second leg of the Gerald Colton Way. This walk was devised by Gerald, the first Walks Organiser of the Hampstead Group. It goes from the South Bank of the Thames at Waterloo and travels all the way to Wendover in the Chiltern Hills. Originally named The Mandela Way, we have re-named it in memory of it's creator to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hampstead Group which Gerald did so much to promote.

Today's walk was 8 miles from Kentish Town to Mill Hill, led by Maija Roberts, pictured below, centre.


The walk went from Hampstead Heath, up through the Heath Extension, and onwards to the Dollis Hill Brook Green Walk.

On route we saw this memorial:




The ARWS stands for Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society, and Walter was a leading light in the Nineteenth Century. The RWS is still going strong, and a link to its website can be found here.

Walter would certainly have appreciated this view, almost Japanese...



The moist banks of the Dollis Brook were lined with Ramsons, wild garlic.



Hampstead Group member Lorri with some of the plentiful Wild Garlic to be found...



Another walker who appreciated the exercise was Tess, who brought her owner Harriet along as well!



Walkers on both four feet and two are welcome to join us for the next leg of the Gerald Colton Way on Sunday 24th May, when we walk Mill Hill East to Radlett, (11 miles), leaving Mill Hill East Station at 10.30.

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