Ashley

Flotterton – Snitter Windyside – Charity Hall – Sharperton – Holystone Lodge – Flotterton (8.8 miles).

Bright and fine. Sunny with a cold wind, some frost. The clouds started to gather towards the end of the walk.

Ashley, Ron, Sandy, Michael, Michelle, George.

Ken - bad back and injured knees.

Bernie - term time work.

Evelyn - writing a novel in a month.

Comments

The parking spot was very muddy. Further on there were several very muddy patches especially in field corners where cattle had congregated. Early on, we passed a wall on which there was a line-up of gnomes, one with his trousers partly down, and an owl. We saw a very old barn adjoining a new one. Several other spanking new barns were spotted en route. We met three people and their two friendly dogs, neither of which obeyed the commands of their humans. The young retriever rolled over on his back for Ron to tickle his tummy. We passed a remote caravan on which the cows had messed. The remains of a large bonfire was found nearby along with a lot of litter. We saw a tractor with an inverted cup on its exhaust pipe.

Lunch was taken sitting on a fence with good views of Hedgehope. We saw two shooting parties.

A strange metal object in a field just beside the river with the inscription “Utina” on it, turned out to be a pasture pump. These pumps were used by cattle to pump water from a supply to their location. The cow pushed the lever in with its face and the water trough beneath filled with water. It's not known if they are used much today, but this one appeared to be in good condition.

We met a friendly young girl whose parents had just moved into the area, walking her dog, which had a coat on. We spent some time inspecting a solar panel on a bridge, probably used to charge a battery powering a now defunct electric fence.

We were confronted by a large group of cattle, one of which looked extremely reluctant to let us pass. Fortunately we then realised that our route took us away into an adjacent field.

While taking afternoon tea at the edge of a field, a lady on horseback came along. We had a pleasant conversation with her.

There were nice views and colours all round the walk, but especially at the stand of trees just before we joined to road to walk down to the cars. We saw some spectacular cloud formations apart from the large black cloud that crept up on us towards the finish.

Wildlife/Flora/Animals:

Mammals: dogs, horses, sheep, cattle and calves, bulls, roe deer, hare, rabbit.

Birds: guinea fowl, ducks (possibly mallard), heron, buzzards, kestrel, swans, chaffinches, tits, fieldfares, pheasants, partridges, skylarks, bantam hens.

Falcon’s Nest, North Gosforth – nice meal, good food. Joined by Evelyn and Bernie.

November walkers

Human Genome Project

En route

Group on the road

Pasture pump

Stile

Ron and Ashley crossing

Lunch

Scenic view

Sun on the River

Michael and Michelle

Peaceful River

Sunset

Photo stop