Weekend of walks

We have had a lovely weekend of fresh air and walks, starting yesterday with our friend Gill and her son Matthew. We were very kindly invited to partake in a walk and barbeque on Crickley Hill, just outside Cheltenham, so armed with a flask of hot soup, a packet of sausages and the all important football (should have been a rugby ball) we set off. The weather has been beautiful this weekend, properly autumnal with sunshine and a crisp bite in the air, and we could see for miles from the top of the hill.

We had a great time, Gill had made parsnip soup which was fabulous, and Rob took charge of the bbq and the football. It was lovely to be outside in the fresh air, in such beautiful surroundings. We managed to set up camp in a small clearing amongst the trees, complete with picnic table and bbq and space to play football, so everyone was happy.

After our lunch of soup and sausages we set off for a walk along the top of the hill, admiring the view and making some friends on the way..I have never seen stripey cows before, they were adorable, and some of them still really young.

They certainly kept Matthew entertained anyway. After taking the wrong path several times, and many near misses of cow pats we made it back to the car park, excited about watching the rugby.

We looked quite happy before we watched it didn't we?!! Never mind.

So today, to follow on from our day of fresh air and exercise we went for another walk along the river Avon where we live. We don't take advantage of this walk as often as we should, which is a shame because there is always something new to see. We can almost walk in a huge loop from our house, along the tree lined river and back again. The sun was shining and the sky was blue and Rob got a bit trigger happy with his arty photos. This is the pedestrian ferry which takes people from the caravan park across the river. It saves them from having to go the long way round.

The caravans all looked beautiful this morning, there were lots of people sat outside them drinking coffee and reading the papers, it felt like Summer still.

The water was so calm this morning, it's hard to believe that it was only a matter 0f weeks ago that is caused such devastation locally. We wouldn't have been able to have travelled along the path we took this morning without a canoe back in July...

I had a mad five minutes of domestic goddess-ness when we got back, and spurred on by Gills' soup from yesterday I roasted some parsnips, sweet potatoes, red onions and a big red chilli in some olive oil for half an hour and then covered it all in stock in a pan, added some lentils and bubbled it up on the hob. I whizzed it up in the blender, and hey presto! It was gorgeous, and I now have lunch sorted for the rest of the week. I also decided to christen the coloured cake cases that I bought on my shopping trip to Oxford with Nancy...the cakes are huge for some reason, not quite sure why, but they taste ok! (and they will keep the boys at work happy this week)