It's half term and I wasn't going to be walking today, but Joyce said she had a spare place in her "group of six" and Dawn didn't mind me going... so I did.
This was the invite..
"Monday October 26th Leaving Hartest Institute IP29 4DH at 10am and walking about 11 miles. Could be soggy underfoot but the sun looks like it might be shining. Bring packed lunch "
Of course we had walked from Hartest recently in the Sunset Walk in Joyce's walking mini-festival, and we had walked here in March too (see here), but it is a lovely part of the county and Joyce said she would be trying a different route. I thought it would be nice to see the countryside in its autumn colours.
This was our route today, again stopping at The Crown back in Hartest for our lunch break.
Here are a few of my photos.
There were a couple of apple trees in the car park at the Institute and the apples tasted very good, so Jane and I picked a couple each for sustenance on our walk.
We had a new member of the group along for the first time today. Here is Joyce introducing Sarah to the rest of us.
I stopped to take a picture of the village in the autumn sunshine. It is a picturesque spot.
Our different route today took us past Hartest Wood, but we didn't venture in.
We had some lovely views in the golden October sunshine.
But then it started raining (but not hard). That wasn't on the forecast this morning.In fact we got several showers on our way round. Not that they dampened our spirits and enjoyment of the walk.
We approached St. Margaret's Church, Somerton; "one of the highest churches in Suffolk - geographically speaking, not ecclesiastically."...
We stopped here for a drinks break and had a look inside
They must have had a harvest festival recently.
I liked this plaque in the vestry, which reminded me of this Ramblers walk from Glemsford and the story of the golden frog earring.
I liked the simplicity of the church organ. Curiously, there doesn't seem to be a stop for the pedals.
We sheltered in the porch with our drinks as it was raining a bit outside.
There is a nice view from the bottom of the churchyard.
Heading on towards Somerton Hall, Sarah stopped to rescue a caterpillar from the road. Good turn for the day.
We passed these alms cottages. They don't get a mention in this article I found last week, though.
I recognised this pyracantha on the wall of Somerton Hall from last time - now were were back on our usual route again.
On our way back into Hartest, I caught a glimpse of the plastic chairs we had passed previously.
We got a nice view of part of the village we would be walking through just before the end of the second half of our walk later as we walked down the hill.
Joyce and I attempted to sit outside at The Crown, but it started to rain so we had our drinks inside. Mine was an American Blonde again.
We did a shorter walk for part 2, starting by climbing up Hartest Hill. Here is the view back to the centre of the village.
At the top, we passed Pippin Cottage, which appears to have a bar upstairs.... just like my Dad had.
We got some more lovely views.
We went close to Tower Lodge, part of the Chadacre Hall estate, which was bought for £16m in 2010, as described here.
We caught a glimpse of (I think) All Saints, Lawshall church in the distance, but we weren't going in that direction.
I recognised this footpath sign when we got to it. We had passed it this morning.
At Cross Green, instead of heading straight back into the village we took an extra little loop around. This is a lovely path.
Steve had stopped and was bringng up the rear
It was lovely seeing the light on the landscape as the we got some sunshine between the scudding clouds.
Back down the lane again past the cottage built in 1795...
...to where we had parked, at the Boxsted and Hartest Institute.
Two lovely walks again. Thanks, Joyce.
You can see more details of our route here on MapMyWalk and more of my photos here on Flickr.
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