Rushbrooke Walk

"How about a walk on Friday about 12.30pm. It looks warm! We can walk over to Ickworth via Westley as we’ve all done recently or we can use the footpath across the golf range to Rothschild farm, towards Hangars Lane (on the way to Rushbrooke Arms pub), walk some of the railway and then take the FP to Little Whelnetham and onto Rushbrooke Wood. Then Bradfield St George round back to Rushbrooke and then back towards Dobbies by using the new bridleway that goes parallel to the A14 - classy!", said the invite from Joyce. I voted for the Rushbrooke option and Miranda and Roland didn't mind which, so that's the route we took....

Here are a few photos.

The start of our path past the back of the Driving Range, and Joyce was using her snippers already. They go plenty of use today.

We were soon in the open countryside.

It was still a bit drizzly, but it didn't last for long. Roland furled his brolly soon after we entered the Rushbrooke estate.

There are some lovely wide paths here.

Along one verge we had a proliferation of scabious.

Harvesting has started, but the combine harvester was resting as we passed it.

We could see where it had been.

It was just the 4 of us today. It was good to catch up with Miranda.

Lovely teasels too.

A favourite stretch of path is along the old railway line at Great Whelnetham.

Bindweed and these yellow flower spikes of Agrimony (if I've identified it successfully) abounded.

Now who's idea was this?

Timing was all together the first time...

...so we did it again. The wind was taking the straw away quite fast.

An unusual and nice view of teh cathedral and St. John's church..

I liked this sign.

We passed by some oil-seed rape.

Some of the paths needed a bit more treading...

...and snipping to get through.

Which way now?

The rather indistinct path led us through a field of beet.

A yellowhammer flew past us and perched just within camera reach.

This wasa  great mass of flowers.

We entered the woods....

...where we encountered some forestry workers clearing out diseased trees. Robert, here, had an interesting chat with Joyce as her Dad used to work for the Forestry Commission.

We returned via Rushbrooke church and village.

You can see when I did this on a blustery day in March here.

We passed the lovely colts again before returning to our starting point.

A lovely walk and some new paths explored. Thanks Joyce for organising and Miranda and Roland for the additional company.

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr and more details of our walk here on MapMyWalk