On Coombe Hill.

We went out!

We went for a drive through The Chiltern Hills, skirting Amersham and stopping off at Wendover.

Then we headed up to Coombe Hill, one of the higher hills on the ridge.

The views can be amazing but it was a bit misty. We were here in August watching the grain being cut in the field down there;

It was a walk from the car park that I didn't really notice last year - this time round it was tough. I've had a painful couple of days and decided to just walk through the pain.

That kinda worked.

Everywhere we went January had left the trees bare down to the bark.

When I was ill I would have enjoyed the austerity of it all, now I'm just thirsty for spring and warmer weather.

There is only so much bleakness you can take, although this view of 'Pulpit Hill' was almost like a Japanese print in its clarity.

We wanted to go somewhere dramatic - it was a year ago we got engaged.

And we hit 100,000 views!

Time for a selfie;

It was nice to make it back to 'The Bowl of Warts', which is what Robyn thought I said when I told her the monument was to the soldiers who had died in the Boer war.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home; helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Ewelme and The Chilterns.

With another visit to Hospital looming we went out for the afternoon and ended up on the fringe of The Chiltern Hills at Ewelme.

It's very old and has some 15th century buildings although we didn't actually take a close look at them.

I liked this house - to get to it you have to cross a ford;

The little stream runs through the village and is as clear and bright as you can imagine.

It's set out in beds for watercress;

The water trickles through the beds so that there is always the sound of water, wherever you are.

It was looking very lush;

Then we sat, eating our sandwiches and peaches, looking over the village sports ground and the valley carved out by the little stream.

It was idyllic although just a little spoiled by the R.A.F. base at Benson where they were practising war games; gunfire, helicopters, even a 'Chinook' overhead.

We ended up at Chinnor, which seemed almost empty, and had a coffee at the community café.

I bought some Chinese lanterns at the charity shop.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Back in time at Medmenham and Hambledon.

So, as I said yesterday, on Wednesday we went back in time.

To a place where they have strange road signs like this;

And yes, it was telling the truth, the road did disappear into the water;

It's Medmenham, a tiny village down by the River Thames, just past Marlow. I'd never been there before and it was only when we left that we realised a main road had been driven through the ancient village and we had probably missed the best bit.

We might go back.

Anyway, we walked past the little old cottages which are now homes to the super rich and were confronted by another sign;

Which seems to say that you can't carry a fish, you can't cook a fish and neither can you go spear fishing.

The way I see it, that means you can't even eat your fish and chips there.

Odd, very odd.

But we walked along the riverbank and all around us flew the 'fluffy stuff'.....the fluffy seeds which come floating from some willow trees in the Thames Valley and always say to me that summer has finally arrived.

And we saw a river boat - a real live paddlesteamer. It really was.

There was even a new Orleans Jazz band in bowler hats(can't stand that kind of traditional Jazz myself) and a party going on;

We were assaulted by a hungry group of ducks, angry that we hadn't brought any bread for them.

The male ducks were particularly nasty to the few lone females; Robyn is now planning to set up a Duck Rape Crisis Centre which is probably going to take up all our spare time from now on.

Then we drove up into the foothills of The Chiltern Hills and went to Hambledon. It's another ancient village that looks rather like a film set - actually it's been a film set many times. You can Wikipedia it if you're interested.

And while it is really ancient - the house is all timber frames and wattle, it's seems to me to be trapped in Edwardian England of about 1912. As you can see the church clock seems frozen forever at ten past four on a summer's afternoon.

There was an ancient church, a bakery with a very old 'Hovis' sign that I remember from when I was young. There was a pump in the middle of the village where everyone would have got their communal water.

There was a butchers shop and a little Post Office cum shop.

A Village Hall and a former Village School.

There was a little garage where a mechanic was working on cars - but it was like a garage from the 1950's. There was a 1960's MG parked outside rusting quietly and a Riley Mini by the centre of the village.

Very strange to see but nice too in a way.

Here's the Village Pub;

 

 

Cobbled pavements but the road you could imagine wasn't tarred over until the 1950's.

 

 

If you saw 'Band of Brother's', this was where they filmed the American troops training for D-Day. And in real life? This really was one of the villages where US soldiers did their training in 1944. What a culture clash that would have been.

 

All very different today - these villages are now very desirable and very exclusive.

 

This one has been saved because it's owned by an estate - there are serious controls on redevelopment too.

 

It's a time capsule.

 

Mind you, there were some nice cream teas on offer - we may make it back one day.

 

Neil Harris

(a don't stop till you drop production)

 

Home:  helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com

Contact me:  neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com