Some nice UK walks

Having just left the UK after a short period of searching and organising before I headed off again I wanted to share with you the surrounds of where I live and some lovely walks in the English countryside: one, because it is actually very pretty; and two, so I had an excuse for  some limited sun, exercise and time out of the house and away from all the organising and planning tasks I had to get through before the next thing.

"Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far." - Thomas Jefferson

Firstly a quick couple of shots of the views from our house and why its such a nice area to return to...

from the back window

more from the back window

...and at the front.

So despite the clouds...

...and the mud...

...and bits of litter (and dog poo) - please take it with you!....

....and of course the reminders....

...off I set for the first walk of the season: around Entwistle Reservoir, one of my favourite, local, easy walks, just a quick hour round it and plenty of fresh air.

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." - Henry David Thoreau

I love that the water board tries to add some sort of grandeur to the water pumps and towers that hide all the machinery....

...and its own Bolton crest...

Ask anyone who lives near reservoirs, one of the most important questions always seems to be 'how high?'

Very high as you can see...

There are some lovely artistic additions in the area...

...but my favourite sites are always from nature itself...

"Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises." - Pedro Calderon de la Barca

I have spent a few of my walks going round Entwistle, and find it a lovely place to walk if people come for a visit too, here are some of the best shots of this place...

As we are in the middle of the countryside its really easy to head out just to the top of the road for a walk and here are some of the scenes that greet you....

Baa - its lambing season!

I'm so used to checking for spoor, I almost got very excited that this could be a large carnivore, then quickly realised it was more likely a Labrador!

Storm brewing at the top of the road.

The black part of the back hill is the fire damage.

We had a moor fire a few weeks after my return, right at the back of the houses. Despite having seen moor fires every few years all my life my perspective was really changed having lived in Namibia and when I first spotted it my initial feeling was fear - if this had been on the farm, distance wise, it would have been on our land and a really serious situation. Luckily where we are the fire crew put it out and there was a good few tar roads before it could have gotten too close. Strange how time and experiences in different places change your perspective.

I had to laugh with one of my friends as my automatic 'go-to' if anyone visits is a walk and a pub lunch, but when in the countryside you can't beat it and luckily my friends enjoy outdoorsy stuff too. Here is me and a friend on a walk up Rivington where we visited the mast you can see out of our back window.

Up on the moors with no one around for miles, so refreshing!

There's the pike - miles back!

Off we go!

Closer and closer.

And there we go!

There are also some old gardens in the area that belonged to Lord Leverhulme back in the day - the waterboard who look after Rivington reservoir are planning to spend £3m on doing them up. Sadly I think that means I wont be converting this into my moorland hermitage any time soon!

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair!'

Here is the only wildlife I have seen (apart from the dogs!) at the Jumbles Reservoir.

We also had a lovely few walks in Hampshire when we went to stay at Champneys, with another regular guest - Pat Butcher!!

After a bit of a rest it was time for my next adventure.....

"Life is either a great adventure or nothing." - Helen Keller