Warfield walk

My friend and her husband are back from Estonia! My joy was even greater when they agreed to come for a walk with us. She brought us some really nice estonian sweets too, that unfortunately are all gone already.

I have done this walk several times as it's quite near to home and there is no chance to get lost. It's a little under 6 miles and takes little less than 2 hours to walk it. It starts off from Wargrave church. The original walk should take you through the pasture where we were once chased by a bull. There was a whole cattle and me, my sister and children were scared to walk on. So my husband said he would go first and see, if the cattle reacts in any way. I decided to walk back towards the stile, just in case. I had Summer on the lead as I had read is best to do. But as we were walking away from the cattle, I let the dog off. Now, instead of coming with us, he wanted to go with Rainer. So off she ran towards cattle and Rainer. But the bull didn't think it was such a good idea that a dog is running around his cows and started chasing Summer. She of course turned around and ran back towards us with the bull shortly behind her. So we started running too as fast as we could. We were really lucky that we decided earlier to walk towards the stile, cause if we had been in the middle of the field, who knows what would have happened as we would never have made it to the fence before the dog and the bull. So after that little incident I took the liberty to change the walk.

There is still cattle all around you, but surrounded by propper fencing so that you can even let your dog run freely without getting to the cows. When I was little, my aunt used to have a farm with calves. I just loved them. I could have easily lived in the barn. And there was nothing sweeter than a little calf sucking your hand. Don't think there is better smell in the world than cow manure. I truely am a lost farmer:)

The cattle is genuinely curios, especially if you have a dog. I don't know if they would like to play or they've had some bad experience and they are kind of ganging up for a pay back, but as they saw us coming, they all ran towards us (thank God for fencing!). Even the ones who were further down in the field, came running. Only this little one got scared by all the commotion and took off in a different direction. It looks as if he's in the show:)

After the cows and bulls you will reach the horses. They are magnificent animals! My children have been asking for riding lessons forever and I finally gave in and signed them up. There is a waiting list (no idea how long it is), but hopefully they can have the lessons soon. At first I thought I won't tell them at all before the lessons, but today as we saw the horses and riders and they both sighing "I wish I could ride", I told them. Now I can pribe them to behave or there will be no riding:)

It is a funny time of year. It's supposed to be winter, but there are days it feels as if it is spring already. Everything is green and the daffodills are blooming already in some places. And then you find an apple tree full of apples. And you are even more confused. I personally can't wait for the spring and summer. Luckily we've had quite a long summer that stratched way into autumn. We were sunbathing and swimming in October. In England! Doesn't happen every year.

I don't particularly like pigeons but the white ones are quite qute. We saw this flock of pigeon flying in and I had to take picture of them. I wonder what are they used for - pigeon racing may be?

I have been really lucky to see my friend's children growing up. Especially as we moved to England and they did too. Although there is quite a significant age gap between our boys, they still get along really well and my boy is taking him as a role model. Girls don't want to be on pictures.

Best news from today's walk - the spring is coming! Oh how I can't wait till it's finally here. It's like a new start to everything. I was asked today if I wanted the snow. I wouldn't have minded it earlier, but not anymore. Unfortunately my opinion doesn't count and as we're still only in the middle of January, we are very likely to get some snow.

That's it for today. Hope you enjoyed my today's walk. God bless!