Keeping it local.

We decided to be brave and venture out for a walk in the local countryside on Sunday. Although we saw some other people, everyone was observing social distancing and we had deliberately avoided the places which would attract large groups of people. For us it was a new route and really rather delightful. I stood drinking in the views greedily and taking photos of all the beautiful things I saw so that I could continue to enjoy them when I got home.

Across the fields and into the woods.

Due to us having stayed within the town for the past two months I have made the most of the wild flowers that I have glimpsed in the verges, but it was such a joy to see the hedgerows bursting forth. There was a whole bank of comfrey literally buzzing with bees and the most welcome saffron and tangerine coloured Chicken of the Woods fungi.

We circumnavigated several farms or former farm buildings. The grain store was rather splendid I thought!

However, my building of the day prize has to go to this one.....beautiful stonework and what is that hole and shelf under the eave for....I am guessing either bats or an owl maybe all perfectly topped off with a steam engine themed weather vane.

The final part of our walk took us back past the Horsham Stone Quarry. This has been used since Roman times and one of its enduring qualities is that it can be split into tiles. For that reason many local churches and older houses have Horsham Stone roofs....tomorrow I will show you a smaller example of its use.

This might sound slightly odd, but because none of this walk was familiar to me it rather felt like I was away on holiday exploring....a rather delicious feeling to enjoy for a couple of hours!

Arilx