Fancy a Walk?

As I'm on my own at the moment,

I thought you might like to join me

on this mornings walk.

As it was very misty this morning,

I waited until it had cleared

before driving up the valley.

So it was later than usual

and very warm.

I decided to seek shade where I could.

This road offered some shade for a while,

as well as being very pretty.

It was a shortish walk

to where the view opened out across the valley.

While admiring the view,

this plane flew over.

It is a regular.

Sometimes there are two of them,

and they fly quite low,

and slow.

Apparently they are training planes.

On a bit more

and we have reached the end of the track.

It used to continue,

but now they are building a new road.

So we turn round to go back down,

but not before we see a deer leaping through the bushes.

As usual, Jewel got very excited.

She would have ran after it if I hadn't had tight hold of her.

Unfortunately the deer was too quick for me with the camera.

Back near the start of our walk

we pass this hostel.

It's used by groups,

mainly young people I think.

The new road runs right behind it.

It's future is uncertain.

I think the beauty of this place

is that it feels quite isolated

without really being so.

Next we follow the road down to the left.

We pass where the van is parked

and carry on.

Admiring the trees as we go.

We take a track into the vineyards.

I stop to watch a lizard

on these old poles.

Can you see it?

It's more or less in the centre of the photo

on the end of the pole.

It's tale is hanging down.

Click on the photo for a larger view.

As I stop a moment to look at the lizard,

Jewel takes the opportunity to have a lie down.

Paddy joins her.

So I take a look at the vineyards.

They are looking very bare.

No leaves,

and little vine.

You can see the difference in these two photos

in the way that the vines are trained.

Looking below me,

I can see that the dandelions are taking hold in some of the vineyards.

Can you see the little tractor

in between the vines?

Time to go.

There's a welcome drink at the end of the walk for some.

It turned out to be another hot day today,

perhaps the hottest yet.

I noticed the thermometer reading 26 degrees centigrade in the shade this afternoon.

But there was some wind as well,

always a sign of a change in the weather.

As long as it doesn't rain tomorrow.

Blogtoberfest-Day 3, What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday we visited our near by town

I had read that there was to be a regional market on there this weekend.

When we couldn't find it,

I called at the tourist office

and was told that it was on,

today!

So we sat for a while by the river.

It was a grey day,

not very inspiring,

but I took some photos from where we sat.

Mainly of buildings,

and I do like window boxes.

The buildings are so lovely and ornate.

I was surprised at how many people there were.

You can see from the first photo

how full the pleasure boat was.

I noticed a large group of people with their dogs

come along and cross the road.

The dogs were all so well behaved.

I couldn't get all the dogs on the photo,

there were so many.

From where we sat we could watch the river traffic come and go.

I was surprised at how low down in the water this barge was.

It was nice to see

one of the men

who works on one of the pleasure boats

feeding some swans

whilst the boat was moored up. 

And so from a grey day yesterday,

to a lovely sunny, warm day today!

And we went to the market,

though I don't think Mike was impressed.

It wasn't very big,

or that interesting,

though the majority of what there was to see

was quite different to what you would see in an English market.

Such as this Federweiss,

which is the new wine before it is properly fermented.

I was surprised to see some rabbits and chickens in cages,

similiar to what I've seen in France many years ago.

When I saw the trailer below,

I thought it would be serving up wild boar sausages,

but instead it was a taxidermy stall!

It wasn't long before we hopped back on our motor bikes

and went on to a village where I had seen posters for a flea market.

But when we got there,

there was no sign of it.

I'm sure it was there somewhere,

probably back on the other side of the river.

So after a saunter and a sit

under some trees,

we went back home

for some tea and cake.

I've made a few cakes over the past couple of days,

and soup,

and bread,

but no photos I'm afraid. 



After tea and cake,

we went off up the valley to walk the hounds.

It was a lovely evening.

We went to see how the work is progressing on the new road.

They have dug deeper so that the slip road is not as steep,

and propbably so that there are steep embankments to drown out the noise from the traffic.

It's still nice up there away from the road.

I hope the rest of it remains unspoilt,

and that the wildlife still retains it's habitat,

and doesn't get frightened off.

I think

Jewel has her eye on something here,

probably a mouse.



I hope your weekend was a sunny one.

You can see what other people are doing for the Blogtoberfest

over at Tinnie Girl.