Walking East Stoke's lanes: November and December 2024

January 27, 2025

Somehow my last post in this series was the October update in which I bragged about it being ‘almost on schedule’ - well, that didn’t bode so well did it? I’ve also realised that there was little joy for me writing these posts so long after the walks, and so having given in some thought over Christmas and the New Year I thought I’d change that. For my 2025 posts my intention is to post them much earlier in the month on the first (or at times second) Wednesday of each month.

But before I can do that I need to catch up with my 2024 posts, and so that’s what I’ll do now.

In mid-November we woke to snow, not a huge amount thankfully, but enough for me to double down on my hibernation tendencies. MOH though has very few of these, and so he ventured out sharing with me a photo or two of his expedition, which he was probably also daft enough to do on his bike, or at least consider in any case.

Either way his pictures did nothing to persuade me outside, and confirmed I should stay snug and warm indoors. A week later though it was a different story and I was pleased to get out for an approaching sunset walk, also along Moor Lane.

It always strikes me as odd when we have snow before all of the autumn leaves have dropped - but then again our weather seems more crazily mixed up as the days go on so I really shouldn’t be that surprised. But what a different a week makes, hey?

And even though it was way colder than it looked, the glorious light more than made up for that.

We reached our usual ‘turn back’ point of the bridge and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it look quite so picturesque - though I’m sure it has, I’ve just not been there to see or capture it. I also noticed ahead of us on Moor Lane the sheep in the right hand field - while this might not strike you as odd, as obviously that’s where sheep should be, it’s the first time we’d spotted them here.

Heading back and it almost looked as if the hedgerows were aflame with the sun - the picture here only does part of the justice, in real life they were flaming beautiful.

We get some brilliant sunsets here, and often my pictures are from our upstairs windows - but not this time, this one was an out in the open natural beauty capture.

In December I only ventured out on foot once, and that was on Christmas Day. We’d booked lunch at the pub in Elston and our plan was always to walk there and back, whatever the weather. We were lucky as when the day arrived, it was another one with blue skies and also unseasonably warm - much better than our worst case scenario of driving rain.

These pictures are from that walk, heading out around 1pm and heading back much, much fuller a good few hours later!

Given that it was peak lunchtime on Christmas Day you wouldn’t expect much traffic, but it was a joy to see the A46 this empty.

We turned onto the path towards Elston, and so the A46 was on our left, but you’d never know it (and especially that day) given our view. I think this photo is one of my favourites so far.

Even though we were heading off for our Christmas lunch I still had a couple of photo stops along the way. I mean, catkins and lichen - I was never going to walk straight past now was I?

And then much later, and much fuller, we headed back along the path complete with bright torch and accompanied part of the way by the Christmas lights which were magical - and the first time we’d seen these as they are definitely off the usual routes through the village.

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 or some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?

If all goes to plan, then January’s update will be here sooner than you know it!

Walking East Stoke's lanes: October 2024

November 21, 2024

This month not only is this post almost on the schedule I set myself it covers three separate walks - all of which took us in different directions, unlike last month’s post which only had a single walk. Some months are like that, and that’s ok. It’s also true that two of this month’s walks involved lunch out, once at the pub in the next village and another at the farm shop in the other direction - and that’s more than ok by me too.

Let’s start with a walk towards Elston, stopping briefly to admire the tyre track patterns in one of the muddy fields along Moor Lane.

Looking at the tractor tyre prints in a muddy field entrance — MOOR LANE

It was only the first week of the month but already the rosehips and sloes were very much in evidence - reminding me that last year I foraged some rosehips to bring inside, and which ending up lasting until Christmas and became part of my Christmas decorations. It’s a bit early for that, but Christmas preparations seem to get earlier and earlier each year - that’s definitely something you don’t want to ask MOH about - or maybe you do, who knows.

The leaves were already turning quite red in places and it was a joy to see - I think autumn and its leaves are one of my most favourite things, and these really did make me smile. The leaves in both of these pictures were glistening from recent rainfall, though thankfully the path itself was easily walkable and free from mud much to my delight.

Lunch at the pub was good too - steak and ale pies, and a much slower walk home. A few days later we were out again, this time heading down School Lane, along Church Lane and towards the River Trent, still dodging the puddles.

There were of course stops to admire the views and the plants growing in the hedgerows. And this time knowing that there is a jetty - we first saw this in June - we purposely looked for it, though there was a small gap there was very little jetty on show!

We stopped by the church yard on the way back to pick up some conkers - my forage activity for the autumn - and as the sun had come out also took a look inside. This statue on top of Baron Pauncefote’s grave is particularly impressive; as was he - he was the first ambassador to the US, who was buried here after dying in Washington in 1902.

Our third and final jaunt out involved more lunch and was one of those ‘break in the showers, let’s get out’ type of opportunities. There was a chance they’d start again at any point, but thankfully mostly held off. This time we headed down Moor Lane and then turned off towards Thorpe, retracing our steps later that afternoon.

Thorpe is a pretty village and even in October there were flowers in the gardens - and in the case of the hollyhocks escaping the gardens, that we passed.

Heading out the other side of the village these twin trees caught my eye initially but then I saw the gates, which immediately reminded me of the gates we’d seen while walking in Portugal.

On our return journey - and still managing to stay just about dry - we spotted some workmen at the top of one of the pylons. Definitely rather them than me!

And then we spotted clusters of mushrooms, and wished we knew anything about mushrooms - though I’m not sure I’d ever be brave enough to try any, even if I was pretty sure what they were - would you?

Thanks for joining me this month, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series or some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?

Walking East Stoke's lanes: September 2024

October 30, 2024

With a few days away in Glasgow during the month, there was less opportunity to get out and explore the lanes local to us, especially as I seemed to have also picked up some bugs this month - but I do have some pictures from a very blue skied walk along Moor Lane - though it was cut short as I was still struggling for breath. The cold that came after Glasgow - and which MOH avoided - lasted way longer than it was welcome!

But with blue skies such as these, it was hard to resist a walk along the lanes starting right from our front door.

The walk up and over the A46 always amuses me - the view promises so much (and it delivers once you’re on the other side) but it’s a bit of disappointment to see the traffic whizzing past with no real idea of what they’re missing. Even the verges on this section of lane are full of changing flora.

The seedheads that are almost ready to explode and fling their seed far and wide, not caring perhaps that a lot of those will be onto the tarmac road, and therefore lost - unless of course they make it as far as the nearest pothole (and let’s face it that’s never as far as we think is it?!)

The rosehips reminded me of those we foraged last winter which stood in the tall glass vase in our kitchen bringing their jewel colours to our impromptu Christmas decorations - and reminded me not to leave it quite so late this year, as it looks as if I can have an extra month or two of them in the house.

The weeds in the picture below also made me smile as I crouched down to snap them - at this angle they remind me of tall, proud sunflowers - but of course they’re not!

It really was a good day for skies and taking my recovering cold-full self out, but sadly we didn’t make it anywhere near as far as we normally would. No picture from the bridge for this month’s post, I only got as far as the bend in the lane before calling it quits - thankfully though the cold was much less short lived after this trip, finally.

Thanks for joining me this month, if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?