A walk in the sun.

On Saturday John, Lucy and I set out to walk at Leith hill. As we left home the sun was shining and the temperature was perfect for walking, not too hot and not cold. We had to drive to get to the starting point and during that time the weather decided to deliver snow flurries and then back to sunshine.  This was a pattern repeated at intervals throughout the day. The last bit of the journey was along very narrow lanes with passing places. There were a lot of cyclists enjoying the weather and the woodland tracks. I wish they would take a little care as they suddenly appeared on the road from the woods, but we did safely arrive at the car park. We started by walking up a steepish hill to Leith Hill Tower. We took Little My with us as she wanted to spend some time in the woods. We needed to do something as we didn't have Scamp to accompany us.

If you don't know about Little My you need to read the Moomin books by Trove Jansson. 

As we neared the top of the hill we had a good view across the valley.

At this point there was a flurry of snow, hence the overcast sky.  A short walk bought us to Leith Hill Tower. The Tower was built in 1765 by Richard Hull of Leith Hill Place as 'a place for people to enjoy the glory of the English countryside'. The tower is owned by the National Trust and you are able to climb to the top and enjoy the view. Although it was open we decided to get on with our walk since the weather was unsure of what it was doing.

For most of the walk the scenery was mostly woodland.

There was evidence of various fungi, but they were all rather old and so looked a little sad.

Some of the trees had very interesting bark.

Meanwhile 'Little My' found another place to play.

At times we were walking in an old hollow way. The sides were high and much of the tree roots were on view.

We came across a boggy patch of western or American skunk cabbage or Swamp Lantern. They looked very pretty but are not native to the UK.

We took several wrong paths during the walk, not because we are poor map readers but because a lot of new paths had been set up, so it was sometimes difficult to pick the right one. We enjoyed our walk and the sunshine. The snow flurries were an added bonus.

In the evening I worked on the giraffe block and had planned to finish it. The last bit to stitch was Noah's beard, face and hands. The beard was to be completed using French knots and I made a good start at it but I didn't like the effect so unpicked it. I haven't decided how to stitch the beard yet, once I do this piece will be complete.

This evening I'm going to trace out the final blocks for this project. Tomorrow I'm not working and I'm going to be cutting fabric for the start of a new project.

Take care

Lyndsey