Walking East Stoke's lanes: May 2026

After a busy and unexpected end to April, it took us a while to get out and about in the lanes around us. It wasn’t until the middle of the month that we headed down Moor Lane and out of the village, taking a chance with the April like showers that were turning up on a whim. We were lucky though and dodged the rain - well, when I say dodged, it looked like it might rain, and then it didn’t and then it did, but actually didn’t, so perhaps more correctly we dodged the chance of rain!

What was clear though since last month was that the cow parsley was out in force, not that I’m complaining, and the plants had a definite spring-like feel to them, which was also very welcome.

It’s a great sight to turn the corner and see the froth that is cow parsley, and here it was only just starting to come in to its own.

We walked perhaps more slowly than usual but reached our usual turning point of the bridge, a familiar shot in these posts and one where it’s looking quite verdant.

Turning back - as is our custom - we noticed that this tree was much later to leaf than others in the area. There were signs of leaf, but it too was taking things more easy it seems.

Our second amble of the month was a much earlier in the day than normal for us, but after the heat of the bank holiday (yes, who knew the forecasters were correct!) and much socialising I felt the need to move rather than hide from the thirty plus degree heat in the house.

We took the same route down Moor Lane, but this time on leaving the village we were rewarded with this beauty of a poppy growing as they do between a building and the boundary. It reminded me that I still have some seeds from my FIL’s garden which I really should do something with - I seem to remember that poppy seeds can be dormant for quite a while before springing back to life, so I’m hoping that’s in my favour!

But anyway, hasn’t the cow parsley grown from my photo earlier in this post - and in just a couple of weeks, but with sporadic rain and then plenty of sunshine it’s what you’d expect. What I wasn’t quite so prepared for were all the wild roses being in bloom, and their gloriously sweet scent in the early morning sun.

We’d hoped for more shade than there was on the road out of the village, and so instead decided to walk on the bridlepath towards Elston - it’s a path we’ve walked and shared here before, most usually when we’re off to the pub - but not today. It wouldn’t have been open anyway…

There were an array of plants to look at including this young oak tree edging the path, the dogwood in flower, the early fruits of the blackthorn, and yes more wild roses.

With no pub visit we reached the end of the path having achieved some shade and some dappled shade and so we turned and retraced our steps. This time as we headed towards the village a clump of oxeye daisies caught my eye - they’re beautiful and there’s plenty here as we head home, which reminded me I have some of those in a pot, which will definitely benefit from being divided as they get planted into our garden, or maybe even before.

I hadn’t expected there to be such a difference in just the two weeks between our two walks - but the weather had changed drastically, and so had the plants and hedgerows. Isn’t nature wonderful?

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.

Walking East Stoke's lanes: April 2026

Just one walk around the lanes near where we live this month, but it was so good to be out in the blue-est of blue skies - and so early on in April too. But first these gutter loving dandelions on School Lane caught my eye - very resourceful of them to grow there, and great for the insects but not so much for the upkeep of the roads in the village.

I did warn you there were very blue skies didn’t I? I took this as we spotted a couple of large birds - buzzards or kites - but couldn’t work out which so took the photo, and at a quick glance you can’t even see the small bird shapes, can you? If you look closely there’s one about two inches above the tree to the left…

But anyway, our walk took us down School Lane and onto Church Lane, which took us down to the River Trent. It was much drier than our aborted attempt last month, where we had the wrong shoes on for the amount of mud! It’s amazing how much difference a month can make, but as you’ll see, it has.

This month we could see the jetty - and it’s probably the clearest we’ve been able to see it on all of our walks along this route. I’d not seen the sign for the, sadly no longer running, Fiskerton Ferry but we did today. It’s a shame it’s not running as there’s a nice looking pub on the opposite river bank!

We also spotted possibly the remains of the ferry’s operations - an old wooden picnic table and some plastic chairs in the undergrowth. At least that’s what I’m hoping they’re from as I can’t believe anyone would dump them right on the river bank intentionally, but I guess you never know.

The skies were blue, and it was much warmer than we expected it to be - but there were no lambs yet. It wasn’t long though as not long after our walk there was the first ‘escaped lambs’ post in our village Facebook group. Two cheeky lambs had managed to get out onto the quiet lane, before being ushered back in by a concerned villager.

Escaped sheep (or lambs) is the best use ever of our village Facebook group. Fact.

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.

Walking East Stoke's lanes: March 2026

With only one walk through the lanes in our village this month I didn’t think I’d have many photos to share, but seems I was wrong. It was a lovely spring morning when we headed out, and well after a long wet winter a spring walk was just what we needed.

And the blossom was very much welcome too.

There’s definitely something about seeing the first blossom starting to bloom and a direct link to feeling more uplifted isn’t there?

This month we headed down School Lane and then into Church Lane, and it was my first glimpse of the long and winding stone wall for quite a while. Even that has its seasons though, and we’ve already got to the flowering nettles stage of the year, but it wasn’t just the nettles that caught my eye. Look at that ivy.

I was fascinated about how it’s pushed the mortar out between the bricks and taken its place. I knew ivy was strong and forceful - and it’s why I won’t be having any ivy in this garden - but this shows just how much, doesn’t it.

I rather optimistically thought the track that leads to the River Trent would be as dry as the pavements around the village, but that was far from the case. And as I’d opted for the wrong shoes I was at first tiptoeing around the puddles, before calling it a day completely.

Lesson learnt, it’s most likely always going to be wetter in this section - dress accordingly, especially footwear!

It’s not often that I’ll stop and take a picture of Cleaver (or Sticky Willy as we used to call it), but I recently learnt that it can be foraged, with the tips tasting similar to pea shoots. I’ve not tried it as I can’t stand it sticking to me, but let me know if you.

On the way back we just had to stop and look at the sheep - no lambs at this point - but their interest was clearly piqued as we walked past, no doubt wondering if we had any food for them! It’s great to see the sheep back in the fields around us, and no doubt it won’t be too long before our village Facebook group is reporting the antics of escaped lambs!

I can’t wait.

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.