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.

Walking East Stoke's lanes: January 2026

It’s been a few months since I shared pictures from walks around our village, and that’s because somehow they haven’t happened and I’m not really sure why not. But anyway, the photos in this post are from two separate outings, both of which were to the pub in the next village!

We were fortunate with the weather, and although it was cold - we were wrapped up warm, it didn’t rain. In fact it’s been such a while that we walked back from the pub in the dark, and it’s darker much earlier in winter isn’t it?, that we forgot our super-beam torch. Thankfully it was more dusk than dark and the lights on our phones were sufficient. But to avoid this unpreparedness in future we’ve added a square rechargeable torch to our keyring!

There are some beautiful vistas here, and looking back at these photos I’m wondering why we don’t get out into the lanes more often than we have been, something to work on for this year I think.

Pausing at the bridge over the A46 to take a peek at the ongoing roadworks - they are ahead of schedule, which is good news, and the road is due to open earlier than planned. Let’s hope that also reduces the amount of traffic, and speeding traffic, though our village.

We turned off and headed along the bridle path which runs alongside the A46 on the southbound side. It was full of bullards, rosehips and catkins. The last time we walked this path it was decidedly autumn, and much different to our winter jaunt.

A couple of days later, with our heating broken and in need of some respite we headed back to the pub for Sunday lunch and a much needed warm-up. Our challenge though was to gauge how many layers we’d need for the walk, and then in the pub and of course for the walk home. In the end I ditched my thermal top for normal clothes, and was perfectly fine - but the thermal went straight back on when we got back.

Winter, especially chilly days, does bring some gloriously clear skies and the photo below is a favourite of mine. It’s one of the trees I find myself particularly drawn to, and therefore seem to photograph a fair bit, and a fair bit more than some of the others - though it’s easy to see why isn’t it?

And I do like a Nottinghamshire sunset, they can be pretty spectacular and you just know that I have several on my phone, don’t you?!

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: September 2025

Unlike last month where we headed down Church Lane to the Trent, this month we took two walks down Moor Lane. One at the start of the month when autumn was just starting to make itself known, and then again on the last weekend of the month, where we had an unexpected, and unusual, discovery on the bridge!

But more on that later, let’s start with those hints of autumn - there were plenty of them, and some much more than hints.

There are lots of acorns around this year, which isn’t a surprise as 2025 has been deemed a mast year, which happens every few years - this post from the Woodland Trust (published a few years ago) explains more.

It’s also teasel time - not an official name, just one I made up, but it’s a great time, honestly it is! I love their structure and light prickly-ness, and how they look against the green hedgerow and the sky.

For our second venture out along the same lane we passed a field of cows, which we thought we’d heard a few mornings ago. They were much closer than we thought, and despite their demeanour it didn’t rain.

But there were some amazing clouds and a kite flying above us.

It had rained overnight though - but all that was left were a few puddles on the edge of the lane, some muddy tractor tyre marks and the opportunity to photograph the cloud’s reflections in the puddles.

I’ve a couple of favourite views in our walks from home, and on this walk, this is my favourite tree. There aren’t many walks where I don’t end up with a picture or two of it, and I’m really not sad about that at all.

The hedgerows were even more full of berries and haws than our walk earlier in the month, but we were about to make an unusual discovery. On the bridge, on one side there was a chocolate sponge cake - I don’t know why either, and on the other, what we first thought were stones lined up, but turned out to be chunks of bread.

The bread made us think these had been left out for the birds, or wildlife - though it’s still unusual to leave out a whole jam filled chocolate sponge cake. And maybe it wasn’t as we’d originally thought related to the small, but empty, bottle of Jack Daniels we’d seen much further down the lane, or maybe it was, who knows?!

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.