Cold Ashby - Winwick - Cold Ashby (via Thornby Grange)

View on the way down Honey Hill

We set off from the village hall, along Main Street, then took the right fork along Stanford Road, past the entrance to Cold Ashby Golf Club, and Bunkers Hill Farm. In a field there is a trig point marking a height of 210 metres. At the top of Stanford Road, on Honey Hill, you turn left along the small road past Honey Hill Farm, and along a narrow track beside trees, then across a field down to the golf course.

The path is clear

This part of the walk is part of the Jurassic Way - which I walked in reverse onMay 30 . There are excellent views, though today it was a little hazy.




On the other side of the golf course the path is clearly marked, along the edge of a couple of fields, then over some meadow, until you join a wider track, which leads to Winwick. A farmer was herding sheep using a dog and a car.



Before long you can see Winwick Hall ahead, and emerge on to the road. The brick wall and gateposts are curved.

Is Barry nostalgic for days on sentry duty?

We had an early snack break by the pond, making use of the millennium seat constructed by students from Rugby School. A few drops of rain encouraged us to take waterproofs out, but stopped before we even put them on.




We walked down the hill past the black VR postbox, a door in the wall, and some well-tended flower potsto the crossroads, where we turned left along the gated road to West Haddon.

Red dog-rose or feral flower?

a door in the wall

After passing another Rugby School millennium seat of a different design, we turned left off the road, and followed a footpath, which becomes a track, and leads towards White House Farm. We joined the road for a short distance before taking a footpath/track to the right. This took us towards Grange Farm and Thornby Grange. Just before these buildings, in the valley there is another 'unsafe' building, which we learned is an abandoned watermill for flour. It was never used since someone was killed while the construction was being finished - though there may be more to the story.

The derelict mill

As the weather was so sultry, we stopped for a second short break beside the road to Thornby Grange, then continued to a small crossroads. We took the left hand road towards Cold Ashby, ignoring the road into Thornby. This soon bent to the right and joined the Cold Ashby road from Thornby, and led us into Cold Ashby towards the church.

St Denys Church, believed to date from the twelfth century - and the garden flowers are beautiful

This stark reminder of mortality /immortality? was built in 1883, by "Gregorius Bateman'

More info and pictures of the church are here. From the church we walked up to the road junction and turned left to our starting point.

Our thanks to The Cold Ashby Rambler for this walk

Turquoise, Pecos, and Capulin

Long day on the road yesterday. Not many miles - lots of hours. Headed out of Albuquerque west and north on the Turquoise Trail. I was too early to stop in any shops. Did take a couple photos in this eclectic area.

Main stop for the day was Pecos National Historical Park. Stopped in at the Visitor's Center. They had desk copy of trail guide. Took that and drove up to the ruins. Was surprised that I was able to walk the whole top trail - with some rest breaks. The photo with this posting was taken at Pecos.

Back at the Visitor's Center I returned the trail guide and purchased a couple books (evening reading material) about the area and the ruins.

The original plan was to drive to Raton, NM and settle in the Quality Inn. But, it was only 2pm when I got to Raton, so decided to drive over to the Capulin Volcano. I was going to visit Capulin Volcano National Monument today (Tuesday). Anyway, checked in at the Visitor's Center and drove the road up the cone.

I could have hiked the cone trail (there was a couple doing that). But, with the altitude and the 2 hour hike at Pecos, I thought better. Took some photos at the summit. Back down, over to Folsom, NM. Interesting drive on highway 72 from Folsom to Raton.

Checked into my hotel. Started processing photos from the trip. Took a break for dinner at K-Bob's Steakhouse. Productive and exhaustive day.

Another comeback

I had managed a couple of short rides on the bike last week, but Saturday was supposed to be the "official" comeback. It was originally scheduled as the old 50km return ride to Austinville, but I added some extra distance by detouring to Little Nerang Dam along the way. As I mentioned in a previous post, bumping into a couple of familiar faces along the way made things a little more comfortable, but for me the best feeling was when I turned off into Austinville road, and headed down that narrow valley.

I can't remember exactly the last time I rode down here, but it was probably one of those glow-worm rides in the dead of night. One thing that is certain is that I was certainly a lot fitter and stronger at that point. Revisiting a location with positive memories gave me strength, but more importantly gave me the inspiration to want to return to that level again. It was just a little reminder of who, and what, I am. Of course, the scenery wasn't bad either.

The detour to Little Nerang Dam wasn't in the schedule, but I decided to do it anyway. It probably added another 10-12 km to the distance, but who's counting. There's a reason I haven't put a computer on that bike. As it was, I figured a few extra kilometres before breakfast would do me good (and I turned out to be right, but that's another post), so off I went. There I continued misfiring with the camera as I had been earlier in the day, but that didn't matter. What matters is that I am now "officially" back. The daily riding through the week since has said so, and now there are mountains on the agenda for this weekend. I can't wait.

Frog sounds

Sounds from the frog pond on the neighbor's property. (Sorry I don't know how to make just a sound file.)

There are at least three types of frogs and/or toads I think, but Bullfrog is the only one I'm sure of.
The picture I accidentally made with streetlights:

A red satellite passed before the big dipper, but the current camera was not good enough to capture that.

Yosemite National Park

After spending Christmas in San Francisco I drove on to Yosemite National Park, which is a few hours away from San Francisco. I arrived in Yosemite in the late afternoon on Christmas Day, with enough time to scout a location to shoot for sunset. Even on Christmas Day there were quite a few visitors in the park. Luckily I was able to find a location that I had all to myself when it came time to start making images. There was snow when I arrived at the park and it looked like it had fallen a couple of days earlier. It was a fairly mild evening with temperatures hovering in the mid-30's, which made for some beautiful fog that hovered just off the ground throughout the floor of the valley. The fog also meant that the trees and shrubs were all covered in frost.


After the sun had set I drove around for a little while looking for locations to do some star shooting once it was dark enough. I found a couple more fantastic spots and as soon as the stars became visible, I was shooting again. I had a wonderful time shooting the stars in Yosemite Valley, and I have a feeling that is something that not many people have done. I have seen many images of Yosemite, but only one or two night-time images. There was a little bit of moonlight which provided some nice illumination on the rocky cliffs. The moonlight wasn't bright enough to wash out the stars, though. And boy, let me tell you.... rarely have I seen a sky so full of stars! It was an incredible night, one I will not soon forget!


I returned to Yosemite again the following day, but the conditions for photography were less than favorable. It was a chilly, damp day with gray skies. I ended up driving around some more on the park roads to some areas that I hadn't seen the day before, but I really didn't take any pictures. I also visited the Ansel Adams Gallery, which is located near the park's visitor center. The gallery is definitely worth a visit. They have some really amazing framed prints of some of Ansel's most famous images, as well as images by other photographers that are well worth a look. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you ever find yourself in Yosemite!

Recipe for Esox Lucius - Chris This is for You

This one is for Chrisat Grow Fish Eat Blogspothe enjoys fishing and has fond memories of fishing for Pike with his father, many years ago. As a rule he doesn't hunt anything which he can't eat - so I thought I would share this recipe for cooking pike.





For eating purposes pike should be between three to seven pounds in weight.





To cook: Clean, but do not scale. Stuff with veal forcemeat, bake, basting well with salted butter to which a glass of claret has been added. When the pike is done, to the sauce in the pan may be added more butter and the juice of two or three oranges, the whole being heated again and then being put into a sauceboat, the inside of which has been rubbed with a clove of garlic.

Borrowed image

The liver of the pike may be shredded very fine and incorporated with the stuffing, but the roe should be thrown away.





Pike are better after the first frosts when they have lost their small forked bones.





Eat and enjoy!





Taken from: The Wild Foods of Great Britain by L Cameron, originally published 1917, republished 1977.

And They're Off

Luckily, today dawned clear and dry. Perfect weather for a race (upper 70s to lower 80s). After breakfast, I gathered up my camera equipment, stopped at Xtreme Wheels to demo a bike, and headed to Swanson Park.
The Nebraska State NORBA championship race was held this afternoon. That was the last of the Psycowpath 07 races - and I got shots at each one. Looks like I took some 1775 photos, which are on my web site (today's race probably will be posted Thursday).
With all the rain the last week, it was touch and go it the trail would be dry enough for the race. Thanks to Martin, Christine, et al, the course was in great shape.
One of the racers told me that my photos have been getting better -- happy to hear that. I know they are appreciated. After retouching today's photos, I have one remaining item to work on - that's making DVD(s) of the photos from the Banquet.