Welcome to the “Pete’s Walks” blog!

04/07/2007 by pete.

Welcome to my blog! I shall be using this as a sort of informal diary, occasionally posting about what I’ve been getting up to - for example, what walks I’ve done and what changes I’ve made to the “Pete’s Walks” web site.   For a start, here is what I got up to last week:

Friday 29/06/07

Took my parents to Grey’s Court, a National Trust property near Henley-on-Thames (I passed it on Day 17 of my Chiltern Way walk). Bit disappointed in that it was rather small, with only 5-6 ground-floor rooms open to the public. Apparently it will be closed next year for refurbishment, then the next year the first-floor rooms will be opened as well. Only took us about 20 minutes to go round! But there were nice gardens to go round as well, including a small maze, and amongst the outbuildings there was a horse-wheel and a donkey-wheel. The latter was particularly interesting, as it dated back to the sixteenth century - it drew water from a well that was 200 feet deep and dated from the twelfth century. The best thing at Grey’s Court, though, was a modern painting of the owners (Lord and Lady Brunner) by Bill Mundy - so incredibly detailed it looked more like a photo than a painting. His web site has some examples of his work - http://www.billmundy.co.uk/

Thursday 28/06/07

I tried to do one of my local walks, about 14 miles round the Ashridge area, but cut it short at about 10-11 miles, because I spent over an hour so looking at wildflowers at Ivinghoe Beacon and one or two other places en route. Three types of orchid at the Beacon - Common Spotted, Fragrant and Pyramidal. Lots of Spiny Rest-harrow. Saw some wildflowers that were new to me - Wild Carrot, Clustered Bellflower and Grass Vetchling. The latter is a delicate little red flower on the end of what looks like a stalk of grass. I’ve added photos of the new flowers to my web site.

Tuesday 26/06/07

I did my favourite walk from home today - through Holywell, Studham, Jockey End, Great Gaddesden, Nettleden, Little Gaddesden, Hudnall, Studham again, Whipsnade and back to Kensworth. I always enjoy it, but today it was particularly good because of various wildlife sightings. The highlight was undoubtedly discovering my first ever Bee Orchid on Studham Common! Later on I saw some Common Spotted Orchids, and there were a few other flowers that I saw (or identified) for the first time - such as Meadow Vetchling and Hedge Woundwort. I’ve now added photos of all the new flowers to the web site. Near Nettleden, I almost trod on a Tawny Owl! It was a young one, almost fully fledged - it looked like it had all its feathers and could flap its wings but couldn’t fly. Presumably it was on the ground as the result of a large part of a nearby Ash tree having been blown down. Hopefully it’s parents are around to feed it and it will survive. A mile or two further on, I had a very good view of a fox, just feet away from me in a meadow of very long grass. I also saw Fallow Deer twice, so it was a really great walk as far as wildlife went.

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