Crowsley Park and the Baskerville Legacy!
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Crowsley Park and the Baskerville Legacy!
Read MorePipsticks Perambulations
Enjoy our ramblings about walking and the great outdoors. From accounts of our adventures to interesting notes and stories about the special places and things we discover on our walks, plus a few tips to help you enjoy your time outdoors.
County Flowers of the Chilterns
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We are all familiar with the traditional floral emblems of the countries of the United Kingdom but did you know that each UK County has a flower emblem? In this blog we introduce you to the County Flowers of the Chilterns.
Read MoreAmong the Bluebells: Literary Hitchhiking
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Taking a woodland walk among the bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) is a wonder to behold and one which we look forward to with excited anticipation every Spring. For a few weeks from mid-April to early May, the flower of St George transforms our woodlands into ephemeral seas of shimmering blue.
Read MoreThe Kissing Gate (for Valentine's Day)!
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Meet me at the kissing gate, I know that's where you want to be…
Romantic Ramblings! The amorous-sounding ‘kissing gate’ is one of many much loved curiosities to be found in the English countryside, and it’s perfect for stealing a kiss on the Feast of Saint Valentine (14th February).
Read MoreThe Mistletoe Walk
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Mistletoe (Viscum album), the magical sacred plant of the Druids, has become embedded within our folklore, tradition and mythology, particularly at Christmas and New Year. On this festive themed walk we set off to discover more about this special sacred plant and to hopefully find a sprig for ourselves!
Read MoreLiterary Hitchhiking - "Dulce et Decorum est"
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The Poetry is in the Pity
Walking is a great way to contemplate and remember and in November each year it is ‘sweet and fitting’ to take a Literary Hitchhike with a Remembrance theme. For this Remembrance walk in the south Oxfordshire Chilterns, we have chosen as our principal literary subject one of our most celebrated Great War Poets, Wilfred Owen. Owen witnessed firsthand the harsh reality and carnage of war - his ‘poetry of witness’ is uncompromising work, steeped in pity and fury, the pen exploding with purpose as it is pushed across the paper.
Read MoreBulls Bag's & Butterflies - World Nordic Walking Day!
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Join our Perambulations from the Sofa to celebrate the Chilterns Walking Festival and World Nordic Walking Day. Sit back and enjoy this amazing walk as we take our Nordic walking poles to explore the Ridgeway National Trail and the Chilterns escarpment in Oxfordshire. It’s one of our favourites and you can expect butterflies, orchids and awesome views!
Read MoreChilterns Walking Festival
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Stroll away, this sweet month of May
May is National Walking Month and a time when many walking festivals would have been held across the UK, including here in the Chilterns. We are proud to have been part of the Chilterns Walking Festival since it began and it saddens us that, in today’s climate of social distancing, the Festival has had to be stopped in its tracks. But all is not lost... Join us for an amble down Memory Lane of our past festival walks.!
Read MoreHolloways of the Chilterns
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Irresistible and Intriguing
There is something irresistibly intriguing about old paths and byways and none more so than the old sunken lanes or ‘holloways’ which are so characteristic of the soft sand and chalk hills of southern England. The Chilterns Hills are rich in deep Holloways; they are an integral part of our landscape heritage, inscribed into the chalk bedrock over centuries and on many of our walks you may become immersed in their cavernous shade, captured in awe by their mystique.
Read MoreSnowdrop Walks
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Fair Maids of February
Late January into February is the time of year when tiny humble snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis or ‘Milkflower of the snow’), symbols of hope and purity, burst in clusters of white blooms from the frozen winter soil. Some of our favourite Snowdrops walks take us to the tiny Norman church of St Botolph, by the Ridgeway National Trail at Swyncombe and famed for its snowdrops and teas!
Read MoreMushroom Muses - the Amethyst Deceiver
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As we walked through Harpsden Wood one autumn morning the sunlight chanced upon this beautiful Amethyst Deceiver (Laccaria amethystea). Pummelling upward through the leaf litter, this stunning deep violet mushroom makes a magical sight. Poetry to the eyes, and as we crunched down among the leaves for a closer look this mysterious pretty-in-purple got us musing...
Read MoreArt and Remembrance
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A perfect walk for Remembrance weekend. Along the way we discovered mediaeval fresco paintings, an unfinished sculpture by the renowned war artist Eric Kennington, stunning glass windows by Laurence Whistler and John Hayward, and a haunting sculpture by John Buckley. There were also our usual nature notes and other discoveries along the way, and of course some yummy refreshment at the Blue Tin Farm Shop!
Read MoreA Walk for All Seasons
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Four Seasons fill the measure of the year (Keats)
Walking is one of the best ways to explore a country and as the changing seasons unfold across the English countryside each brings its own unique beauty showcasing the land in a different way. The changing seasons also ensure there is plenty of interest on our walks throughout the year.
Read MoreBottoms Up!
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I recently came across The Rather Cheeky Map of Great British Bottoms (published by Strumpshaw, Tincleton & Giggleswick). It features nearly 300 Great British place names all involving the word 'Bottom'.
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