Helen and I decided to take some time out of our preparations, to go on one of our favourite walks from The Old Swan at Swan Bottom. You take the gravel track from the left had side of the pub do a big circle then end up back on the other side of the road after passing along the outskirts of The Lee.
After the first woods we noticed in the field where the Yellow Hammers hang out that there were quite a few Beatles and Long legged spiders about. We usually do the walk in the Autumn/Winter/Spring time so it was a treat to see it in late summer mode. The blackberries are starting to become ripe, so you had to be careful to find a sweet ripe one if you did not want to end up with a real sour one.
Further round we came across a bare patch in a field that had more that it’s fair share of butterflies, quite a few browns, and a definite Holly Blue amongst the blues that were there. I made a mental note to learn a bit more about butterflies so that I could at least identify the common ones. I guess it is a bit like bird watching you need to start to identify them and after a while becomes second nature and you wander why it was so difficult.
We then crossed the horse field where you can often see Meadow Pipit, Red Wing, and Fieldfare in the winter and then took a wrong turning in the woods. I recognised we had stumbled across the edge of The Lee. Following our nose we eventually got back on track, I will remember that route in future it made a change to pass through some civilisation for once. Perhaps we could start the walk from Lee Common pub instead another time. I thought it is called the Cock and Rabbit but apparently is it called Graziemille . We also passed an old closed pub which looked a bit run down call The Bugle .
Back on track we headed through the farm and along the usually muddy bit, and it was muddy, then onto the final stretch along the arched hedgerow path up towards the big house, which is opposite the pub.
We decided to treat ourselves with a pub lunch, as usual we had veggie burger and chips accompanied by a pint of real ale. Helen had tribute and I had Chiltern Ale, both were great pints especially sweet after our longish walk.
