Saturday, November 01, 2014

NaBloPoMo 1 - Walking

Welcome to November, the month where I post random stuff every day if I can!

November the 1st.

Today we had a gentle weekend lie in, then I made Tom and I grilled croissants with salami and cheese for breakfast. Note to self, if doing this again, cut up salami into little pieces and mix with the grated cheese. The rind on the salami shrank under the grill and made it into a little cup with all the melted cheese in the middle.

We then did some housework, and I worked on my latest knitting project for a bit, whilst we waited for the lovely Rob and Louise to arrive. I'm kind of knitting another Christmas jumper, but as always, I'm not really using a pattern, and I'm making it up as a go along. Hate patterns. I wish I could cut my own sewing patterns the way I make up my own knitting patterns.

Once Rob and Louise arrived, and Tom and I had finished faffing, we loaded up walking boots and water bottles and drove off up the A3 to Winkworth Arboretum to take in the autumn colour. It was heaving as it's  prime autumn colour time, but the weather was so glorious I thought it would be worth it.

It certainly was. We had a quick lunch in the tea-room and got walking. They've got three waymarked routes, so we went for the longest one that took in most of the site. The trees were amazing. The man who created it was said to have painted the landscape with the colour of the trees, and it certainly felt like it. We saw plenty of acers, and sorbus, and some fantastic trees that went from red at the top, through yellow into green, all on the same tree!

Here's a good photo I took of an acer with my new phone:


According to Runtastic, we walked 3.38km in 2:06 hours. I always forget how much I love walking until I go on a walk like this. It was lovely to bimble along chatting away and catching up, stopping to take pictures and to take in the views.

In fact we enjoyed the walking so much, we walked round rather quickly, so we ended up stopping at the Devil's Punch Bowl on the way home and walking round the bowl here as well! Certainly getting our National Trust membership money's worth! Here we walked along the route of the old A3 that's been superseded by the Hindhead Tunnel and back along the old coaching road. Louise and I rather liked the look of the routes down into the bowl, but the chaps weren't feeling that adventurous.

We sped back to Southampton and after much too-ing and fro-ing on what to do about food, we ended up getting takeaway, and watching Strictly and Dr.Who over our food. This was rather cosy, and a pleasant comfortable end to a lovey day with good friends.


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