A family day out

 We see TYM on a fairly regular basis these days, but it tends to be of the sharing a meal and then us all doing our own thing at the weekends. It's a couple of years since he moved out yet we've only been over to his on a couple of occasions. He quite rightly pointed out that a family day was long overdue, so we pencilled in a date a few weeks ago and waited to see what the weather had in store for us before firming up our plans. As luck would have it, conditions were thankfully dry yesterday even if the temperatures were still very low. We're all walkers though, so wrapped up in the right clothes I was able to pay my first visit to the Newlands Nature Reserve in Surrey. He had, quite by accident, found out that they have several yew trees there when he hiked through there on a jaunt with his grandad last year and with my well known love of this oft called 'tree of the dead' [due to the number you find in churchyards] his suggestion was perfect.

This place is a substantial area of open chalkland up on the Surrey Hills with some beautiful views out across the surrounding countryside. We didn't get the bright sunshine yesterday, but the golden hue catching the tops of the hills in the distance was a sight to behold.

It has a substantial free carpark and is open all the time so I imagine it must be a popular spot with locals with their families and dogs wanting to get out and stretch their legs. It's mainly woodland and there are various length trails marked out for people. We only covered a couple of miles as we knew that our time would be short, but it was lovely to greet a new group of magical yews. It's unusual to see that many in one place. They are now part of the The Yew Tree Project which has been undertaken to educate people about these aboreal wonders and protect them from the damage done by the compacted earth from all of us trampling around them. There's now a boardwalk. I came away with having learnt a few new snippets with my favourites being that these mighty fellows are dioecious meaning that the male and female flowers [they look different] grow on separate trees. Several of the ones we saw were male apparently. That pot bellied one rather stole my heart and there was much eyerolling from my two chaps when I stopped to give it a quick hug. Well it had to be done didn't it😆 They should be grateful that I didn't stop to inhale the pollen vapour to help me connect with the ancestors in the spirit world. Had it been the spring maybe I would have done!!

Having spent an afternoon hanging out in my favourite type of grove we wound up our fam gathering with a delicious Greek meal in one of the independent restaurants in nearby Guildford. There is much more for me to see and explore in this area so we think we'll repeat the exercise in a few months time when it's not quite as chilly.🥶

Arilx