Back to the beginning.

 Such has been life recently that I've seen and done much these past few weeks, but written little about any of it. Rather than skip about all over the place willy-nilly I'll rewind to the beginning of our time away and the first full day we spent in Leicestershire. It always takes me a day or so to find my holiday head so I have a simple plan for the first day to get me into the swing of things. This time we just stepped out of the front door of our cottage and followed the local walk instructions. I don't know the area at all so it was all new to me and as we pottered round the route I captured anything which caught my fancy.

Before we got going we nipped up the road to have a poke round the nearby village of Packington....church related of course...

This most peculiar bench end was my quarry in Holy Rood church. It's 14th century and that's where the trail runs cold. One of the ladies setting up the tables for the coffee morning said it's thought to symbolise the Black Death [how or why I know not]. Now if you were to ask me I'd guess at it being an early depiction of a jellyfish😄 There's a reason why I'm not a church guide. The churchyard is brimming with yellow and orange Hawkweed and I simply couldn't resist these two alpacas relaxing in the sunshine. The way they stretch out their long necks💓

The ones below are from the walk itself. It was only a short potter [quite toasty that day] so we didn't linger. The cool of the church of St Michael and All Angels in Appleby Magna was most welcome. Although not much of note I did enjoy the folkart quality of the mid Victorian graffiti and the lead sign from 1829. 

A gentle start to our adventuring. Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Arilx