Ragged Miles

Here's a walk I do many times, but this is the first time I've taken you along with me. On a morning like this, when rain is forecast by lunchtime, it has the advantage of starting from my kitchen door. So we'll leave the breakfast dishes in the sink and stride off into the dawn.

This walk can be anything between 7 and 10 miles, depending on exactly which variations I include. But this morning we'll avoid the bit that crosses a newly ploughed field and just head straight down the road. There's a grass verge we can walk on when the occasional car comes past on their way to work.

The sun is just coming up and we can watch the darkness evolving into a bright autumn morning as we proceed. Watch out for the footpath heading off on the left as we enter the village of Whaddon.

Here we are following a track between fields under a marbled sky. Just a few months ago I heard, and briefly saw, a bird I'd never encountered in the wild before. A migrating Quail. These tiny game birds are extremely elusive and usually hide deep in the growing crops. I'll probably never see one again.

Further along we come to a working farm where the path goes straight through the farmyard.

We're now in among the handful of houses that make up the hamlet of Dyer's Green, which always sounds more like an artist's pigment than a place name. We can pick another field path up here which will take us towards the edge of Kneeswoth.

On the way we'll pass this little square reservoir, built by the farm to irrigate the fields during summer. The surrounding earth banks are thick with rare wild orchids during June.

When I set out on this walk I promised myself I wouldn't get "all arty" but would just show the countryside as it is, but I couldn't resist the contrast between the yellow leaves and the green-blue waters of the reservoir.

Our path leads on through the fields to the outskirts of Kneesworth, where a couple of hundred yards (or metres if you like) of road-walking leads to a path leading beside Hill View Farm Shop and out into the fields again.

This is always the saddest part of the walk as we skirt around behind Kneesworth House Hospital, a facility for mental health patients. You hardly ever see anyone but the high security fences tell you what some of those troubled patients must be like. On a morning like this when I can wander happily through the countryside one can't help but feel sorry for those shut inside. And I include the hard-working people who do their best to care for them too. 

A little further along there's a free-range chicken farm. They're also fenced in too, though they have a larger area to roam.

We'll turn on to a farm track that gives far-reaching views towards the low hills of Hertfordshire. But this is not just any old farm track.

When you find a track like this, which maintains a basically straight course across the map, but on the ground has many minor kinks and diversions, you can be pretty sure it's an old route. The little deviations have come about as travellers through the centuries have avoided patches of wet ground or other hindrances to progress. And that's the case here, because we're on Ashwell Street, an alternative branch of the Icknield Way, Britain's oldest road.

We'll duck under the bridge that carries the Cambridge-King's Cross railway line on its way to London.

Oh dear, we're getting "arty" again with the sunlight illuminating the autumn grasses! There's a sudden movement from the top of the bushes as a few dark shapes take flight against the bright sky. A scattering of scratchy notes rain down, criticising and scolding me for interrupting their feast. Familiar voices that I've not heard for a while: the first arrival of wintering Fieldfares.

Another brief roadside walk takes us through to the turn-off for Bury Lane, leading us back to the village. On the left are a row of poplar trees planted as a windbreak.

Another windbreak. There are several of these near here which I'm guessing were planted to protect the fruit orchards that once thrived in the area.

Here's Bury Lane, an old track that was once a road, but is now a leafy by-way that was thick with blackberries a week or two ago. Some of them will be making me an apple and blackberry crumble or two later in the year. Which reminds me...

I need to call in to Fieldgate Farm Shop to buy some vegetables and half-a-dozen eggs as we're passing. "Get Fresh, Get Fruity, Get It Here"......hmm.

I've noticed a few little clumps of fungi along the route today and these are happily growing right beside the village street.

A little autumn colour beside the Village Hall where the pre-school children are this morning. My littlest next-door neighbour is there, while his big brother has just started at the primary school opposite.

So that's the end of our stroll for today. Aren't you coming in to help me wash up those breakfast things?


Take care.