Mark and I have just spent a couple of nights in the Cotswolds. We travelled up on Saturday morning hoping for some dry weather so that we could do some walks from
More Cotswold: Walks (Pathfinder Guide)
. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Gloucester. Mark booked the room several months ago for the great rate of £29 a night. The rack rate is £105 for Saturday and £229 for Sunday (does anyone actually pay these rates?)! When we checked in we bought breakfast vouchers. Usually you can buy these for less than the menu price if you buy them when you check in but do remember to check first. The price for a breakfast voucher this weekend was £8.50. I find a Full English Breakfast
sets me up for the day and I don't need much at lunchtime. Having checked in we drove over to Painswick for a late afternoon walk (walk 19 in the Pathfinder Guide).
I enjoyed this walk which went up to the Iron Age Hill Fort at Painswick Beacon. The guide gives an estimate of 3 hours for the walk. It took us three hours with a stop for tea at the Falcon Inn in Painswick. The Falcon Inn has one of the oldest bowling greens in Britain (it was around in 1554) in its grounds and we made a mental note that the Inn had a good menu and used local produce.
The walk itself took us alo
ng some lanes and tracks with fantastic old hedgerows which had scabious, wild thyme and wild clematis growing in them. We also spotted a Magpie moth resting on a leaf. Halfway up the beacon there was a seat in memory of 'Stumpy'. Two hangi
ng baskets were suspended, one at each end of the seat, which I thought was a lovely idea. There was also a container of water tied to the leg of the seat so we stopped to give the baskets a drink. The walk took us through a golf course. There was a house on the edge of the course with two topiary golf balls on either side of it's entrance which made us smile. We spotted two golf balls in the grass so I took a photo. I would have like to have lined the balls up but even though no one was
playing that part of the course I thought I'd better not! By the time we got back to Painswick at the end of the walk it was around 6.30pm so we decided to go back to the Falcon Inn for our meal. It was excellent. We both had the Thai style fishcakes, which were served with a side salad, followed by the chocolate experience. I certainly can recommend the food there.
On Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast, we drove to Crickley Hill Country Park a few miles north of Gloucester. We followed the route given for Walk 20 Crickley Hill and Leckhampton Hill. This was a 7 mile long walk with fine views
but I would have preferred less walking on tarmac. I was out of sorts a bit anyway because my walking boots were causing pain in my right metatarsals. I have short, wide feet and find buying shoes and boots a problem. Currently I have a pair of Meindl boots. I've had them a few years and they've not been too uncomfortable but I guess two long walks on consecutive days with hot feet were too much. Highlights of this walk were the views, 250 year old beech trees, wild cherry and masses of green holly berries. Along the walk there were several places with loaded blackberry bushes... and no one picking them! I would have been tempted to pick if I'd had a container even though we were away from home. We took a detour on Leckhampton H
ill to see the Devil's Chimney which was created by quarrymen in the 19th century. Note that there is a hairy crossing of the A417 and A436 roads at the end of the walk.
After our walk we went into Cheltenham for coffee and a cake and to buy provisions for an evening picnic supper. Then we drove to the Cotswold Water Park where we, more or less, followed the route of Walk 4 Thames and Severn Canal and Cerney Wick. By now the sun had put in an appearance and it turned out to be a lovely afternoon. We reached the cafe at the visitor centre just before it closed and enjoyed a cuppa by one of the lakes. The walk followed a disused railway and the towpath of the disused Thames and Severn canal and was much more interesting than our mornings walk. Looking at the map we had expected a fairly open walk even though the guidebook mentioned woodland. In f
act it turned out to be a very pleasant woody walk. The lakes themselves were created by gravel extraction and there are now several gated housing developments beside some of the lakes together with water sports f
acilities. The only downside was the noise from the nearby A416 which has one of those very noisy surfaces. I was particularly taken with the
arches in the disused railway bridges which had beautiful oval openings in the supporting walls and by a new bridge with bull rush railings.
sets me up for the day and I don't need much at lunchtime. Having checked in we drove over to Painswick for a late afternoon walk (walk 19 in the Pathfinder Guide).
I enjoyed this walk which went up to the Iron Age Hill Fort at Painswick Beacon. The guide gives an estimate of 3 hours for the walk. It took us three hours with a stop for tea at the Falcon Inn in Painswick. The Falcon Inn has one of the oldest bowling greens in Britain (it was around in 1554) in its grounds and we made a mental note that the Inn had a good menu and used local produce.
ng some lanes and tracks with fantastic old hedgerows which had scabious, wild thyme and wild clematis growing in them. We also spotted a Magpie moth resting on a leaf. Halfway up the beacon there was a seat in memory of 'Stumpy'. Two hangi
ng baskets were suspended, one at each end of the seat, which I thought was a lovely idea. There was also a container of water tied to the leg of the seat so we stopped to give the baskets a drink. The walk took us through a golf course. There was a house on the edge of the course with two topiary golf balls on either side of it's entrance which made us smile. We spotted two golf balls in the grass so I took a photo. I would have like to have lined the balls up but even though no one was 
playing that part of the course I thought I'd better not! By the time we got back to Painswick at the end of the walk it was around 6.30pm so we decided to go back to the Falcon Inn for our meal. It was excellent. We both had the Thai style fishcakes, which were served with a side salad, followed by the chocolate experience. I certainly can recommend the food there.
but I would have preferred less walking on tarmac. I was out of sorts a bit anyway because my walking boots were causing pain in my right metatarsals. I have short, wide feet and find buying shoes and boots a problem. Currently I have a pair of Meindl boots. I've had them a few years and they've not been too uncomfortable but I guess two long walks on consecutive days with hot feet were too much. Highlights of this walk were the views, 250 year old beech trees, wild cherry and masses of green holly berries. Along the walk there were several places with loaded blackberry bushes... and no one picking them! I would have been tempted to pick if I'd had a container even though we were away from home. We took a detour on Leckhampton H
ill to see the Devil's Chimney which was created by quarrymen in the 19th century. Note that there is a hairy crossing of the A417 and A436 roads at the end of the walk.
act it turned out to be a very pleasant woody walk. The lakes themselves were created by gravel extraction and there are now several gated housing developments beside some of the lakes together with water sports f
acilities. The only downside was the noise from the nearby A416 which has one of those very noisy surfaces. I was particularly taken with the
arches in the disused railway bridges which had beautiful oval openings in the supporting walls and by a new bridge with bull rush railings.
. The cake is a tray bake and the recipe was easy to follow. It makes a very moist cake which went down very well with my afternoon decaf. I'm not sure how to describe the flavour. You can taste the chocolate and the allspice and you can also taste the courgette but it's flavour is not so obvious. I had to eat some courgette by itself tonight just to be sure I wasn't imagining it! The whole thing has a wholesome sort of taste and I will definitely make it again. Alarmingly the recipe states it serves four to six. Maybe six navvies or growing teenagers! I cut mine into 16 portions and find 1 is quite enough. By the way the recipe is virtually identical to that for Chocolate Zucchini Cake given in What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?
. The latter uses sour cream or yogurt in place of the milk.
Around midday yesterday I took a break from my labours and went for a walk through the park, around Baiter and back through the park. The reed beds that were created a couple of years ago are beginning to look really good and hopefully will provide accommodation for lots of wildlife.
pair in the park are not. They have failed to rear any young previously. The cob (male) is extremely aggressive and the pen (female) seems to loose interest. Last year they lost 3 signets very early on. The pen looked after the remaining youngster for a while and then deserted it. A regular visitor to the park noticed and contacted the ranger who managed to rescue it and take it to a sanctuary where, in spite of it being very small, it thrived and I hope that it still does to this day. So it was very pleasing to see that the mother still has one healthy looking signet this late in the 
summer. Fingers crossed that it survives to adulthood.
There is a pair of swans in Poole Harbour that are really good parents. They regularly successfully rear 4 or 5 youngsters each year. In the summer I often see them and their signets at the quay swimming around the boats and pontoons. But this year I hadn't seen them and I was beginning to think that something must have happened to one or other of the pair. So I was delighted to see them this morning with three healthy looking signets.
It stopped raining for a while yesterday and so Mark and I took the opportunity to get out for a walk. When it warms up and the sun shows its face after a rainy start there is a good chance of seeing Whitecliff Fox. It's as though he comes out to warm up and dry off a bit! And sure enough there he was yesterday.
