Helen and I did a nice walk in the Chilterns with our friend Jude, a loop from the Studley Green garden centre to the Dashwood Arms in Piddington and back. The weather was perfect, warm but cloudy, with a gentle breeze and occasional patches of sun, and maybe half the walk was under trees.
Bottom Wood
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wheat harvesting
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the Dashwood Arms
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flying the EU flag
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flying a kite
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There was a bit of mud going through Bottom Wood, which meant some navigating along the edge of the bridleway between the mud and the nettles/prickles. We got to see some machines harvesting wheat. And we had a decent lunch in the the Dashwood Arms, with Helen and I almost finishing a double serving of ribs between us. They were busy and it took a while for the food to come, but Helen and Jude did some drawing on napkins - and Helen got a triangular plate, which I sadly didn't photograph. On the way back we fitted in some kite-flying and white arrow waymarker finding.
The 7.5km (4.5 miles) took us about three hours of walking (including a few short stops) but there were no complaints or "carry me" requests from Helen at all and she didn't seem tired at the end -- and she didn't fall asleep in the car on the way back to Oxford either, rather to my surprise. This is the longest walk she's done, though with only 100 metres of climbing it's much easier than the walk to Easedale Tarn.