I wish I was a chestnut tree, nourished by the sun, with leaves and twigs and branches, and conkers by the ton.
Tony Hancock
The first picture is the colouring page that I promised to share with you in my recent post about my visit to Hodnet Hall. I coloured it during July and August.
The second two photographs are colourings that I started a while ago and only recently completed.
10 Comments CherryPie on Sep 14th 2025
I picked this book up in 2024 with the intention of using it for weekly walks during 2025. With mum becoming ill again at the end of 2024 and not returning to her normal self I was so focused on her health that I totally forgot about my intention to do the walks one week at a time.
I was reminded of the book recently during my walk leader training at Attingham Park. One of the ladies on the course recommended this book and Annabel’s follow up book, The Walking Cure. Since then I have dipped in and out of the book but haven’t yet read it cover to cover. I have also purchased the follow up book which I will read after I have finished reading this one.
I have decided that I will approach the book differently than I had originally planned. I will address all the walk ideas as the mood takes me rather than in chapter order and not necessarily ‘One Week at a Time’. Colouring is another of my hobbies (also neglected recently) so I will colour the chapter heading pictures as I go along.
My first walk from the book was today; ~Week 48~ Walk Hungry.
I will be writing about this walk soon.
6 Comments CherryPie on Sep 10th 2025
My next adventure was a post shift walk at Attingham Park. When I set off on my walk I wasn’t sure which way I would go but I heard the call of the walled gardens so I set off in that direction. I sat on a bench enjoying the autumn blooms and the peaceful atmosphere before heading to the suspension bridge still not knowing which direction I would go.
After crossing the bridge I walked along the river bank to the woodland walks. When it came to the choice of left or right through the woods the atmosphere felt quite melancholy so I chose to return to the suspension bridge along different pathway that passes the signpost where one of the directions is ’short cut’, the route that I walked last week after my volunteering. I arrived at the signpost to find that it had been replaced by new one. The new signpost is very smart but the the ’short cut’ has vanished into the mystic ethers and been replaced by a bluebell path (same pathway with a new name).
As I retraced my steps over the suspension bridge back to the mile walk I was surrounded by birdsong which made me realise why the woodland paths felt strange to me. There had been a complete absence of bird song!
2 Comments CherryPie on Sep 10th 2025
From Attingham Park to…
6 Comments CherryPie on Sep 8th 2025
It’s so graceful to be blown by the wind, to go where the wind takes you. Just drifting over beautiful rivers in a balloon is perfect.
Richard Branson
2 Comments CherryPie on Sep 7th 2025
It was my afternoon for volunteering at Attingham Park. The shift was more chaotic than usual due to unexpected quantity of volunteers and one volunteer stayed later than usual. The usual smooth teamwork was a little disjointed.
After my shift I went for a walk as I often do. I chose the mile walk, although I wasn’t able to do the extended mile walk because one of the pathways is closed. I took a detour to the suspension bridge where I chose the mysterious sign ‘Short Cut’ which follows a pathway through the deer park, over the stone bridge and back to the mansion. As I neared the mansion, I noticed a few sprinkles of moisture in the air but thankfully the ominous grey cloud chose not to open the flood gates.
Back at home, I noticed a lady standing between our house and our neighbours’ house writing what looked like notes of some sort. When I opened my door, I found a business flyer with a personally penned note on the back suggesting (with a price quote) what gardening services she could help us with.
After a while Mr C went out to purchase ingredients for the evening’s meal. Normally I would go with him but on this occasion, I decided to stay at home. Mr C was away longer than I thought he would be… Then I received a phone call. He had broken down on the supermarket car park with no ignition to the car and a smell of petrol.
He sorted himself out by paying the RAC for roadside assistance. Within minutes a patrol arrived and quickly identified the problem as loose fuel injectors. The problem couldn’t be fixed on the spot but the car was towed home to be fixed a few days later on our driveway at home.
Back home, Mr C brought the shopping in for me to sort out whilst the car was unhitched from the tow bar and sorted out the paperwork. A few minutes later Mr C charged into the house in a spin. The car engine was on fire and he needed water to damp down the flames. He dashed back several times with bowls of water as I dialled 999, thankfully, after a few questions about car fuel type and where the vehicle was located in relation to our house, the fire brigade arrived within minutes.
By the time the fire brigade arrived the fire was out, although the car’s engine was still smoking heavily. The fire brigade made the car safe, temperature wise, so the leaking fuel would not reignite and helped push the car from the middle of the road onto our drive.
The RAC patrol man had said it would be safe to fire up the engine to back the car onto the drive (but it wasn’t!) and in the moment had forgotten that he had fire extinguishers that would have extinguished the fire much more quickly and easily.
With the car battery removed for safety reasons by the fire brigade the car is now dead and positioned slightly awkwardly on our driveway making it difficult to get my car on and off the drive.
I think the ‘mystic ethers’ are playing with us; this is the latest of several, mostly electrical, oddities that have occurred in 2025…
4 Comments CherryPie on Sep 6th 2025
