Saturday October 09, 2004

Walk around Finchahamstead today

Did a five mile walk around Finchamstead today. Around the walk is a yew wood memorial to mark when Henry VII and his two sons Arthur and Henry rode out to meet Catherine of Aragon following her arrival from Spain. There were lots of acorns and conkers on the ground. Berkshire seems to have its fair share of oak trees. I imagine a lot of these will be buried by squirrels soon who will then forget where they left them. I don't suppose the oak tree minds acorns not dug up in winter as they will grow into trees... Maybe Berkshire squirrels have very bad memories which might explain the number of oak trees.

There is a lovely red brick steeple church in the village This picture sadly does not do it justice.

The good thing about the walk from my wife's point of view was it was not muddy, the walk was flat and it was not cold. Despite it being five miles long we made good progress and were back at the pub in time for lunch. ( Oct 09 2004, 07:00:00 AM PDT ) Permalink

The Royal Oak Ruscombe makes a main entry !

Several months ago I wrote to the Good Pub Guide that my local at Ruscombe (Royal Oak)had improved by virtue of new owners. My wife has just seen the new 2005 book and the Royal Oak has made a main entry ! It is unusual for a pub to go straight in as a main entry but the guide did a visit just before going to print and confirmed the pub deserved the full treatment. It will be interesting to see if they stay as a main entry and if others ( and how many) write in and recommend it...