Working the old way

Today I was determined to walk, although it was grey, damp and cold outside.  I finally dragged myself and the reluctant Arth and Aggie out at 1130 and we started our walk from Allen Banks at 1200.

I wanted to check out a route for the Walking Festival; I'm leading a walk on the west side of the river. It starts by crossing the Wobbly Bridge and then climbs into Moralee Woods and the tarn there. There are numerous paths in this National Trust site and they can confuse me.

I had the tarn to myself and captured a photo of the reflections before the strong wind blew them away.

Beyond Plankey Mill, I climbed up the road onto Silly Wrea farm land. (This is the only farm where they still use horsepower.) I was delighted to see that two of the horses were out, ploughing a field. What hard work. The long grass was tangling the plough and the farmer had to stop every few yards to remove it. The younger horse is a bit lazy and was not keen to start pulling again every time.

After stopping here, I decided that I'd had enough and turned back to end the walk. I did about 6 miles.

This image asks for sepia and I have processed it this way. However, I thought you might like to see some colour to appreciate the heavy clarts that the animals and man had to work with.  Glad it wasn't me!

PS Arth did really well today. Aggie has grumbled on, despite a hot bath. We'll see how she is tomorrow!