Monday January 30, 2006

A cold weekend and a nice Sunday lunch

A very cold day with significant windchill and overnight frost had temperatures hardly above zero. But we ventured out for a walk near where we live. We started just off the old Bath road named as the A4 used to be the main route to the city of Bath. We took a path across a large meadow where as you can see the sun was casting long shadows on the ground. The ground itself was actually frozen solid in places so mud was not so much of a problem. We were heading to Pinkneys Green a meadow expanse of land. The name comes from a Norman knight Ghilo de Pinkney who was given the land of this area as a reward for supporting William the conqueror. Alas the Pinkneys are no longer the lords of the manor the last being Catherine Pinkney whos illegitimate son was adopted as heir of the Hoby estates at nearby Bisham. Pinkneys Green main claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of the Girl Guides the first troop was formed here in 1910 by Miss Baden Powell. We followed several wooded paths and wide grass rides that are common in this area.

We soon came to the second pub the first not being open at the time we arrived at it. It is called the Shire Horse and takes its name from the now defunct Shire horse centre next door to it. This was built by Courage breweries to house its heavy horses used for pulling drays. We went in and I had an excellent duck pieces in a baguette with a chinese sauce (celebrating Chinese New year of course!) . Our final part of the walk had us walk back through Maidenhead thicket back to the car park. The thicket and Pinkneys green are both owned by the National Trust. The thicket was an excellent place for highwaymen of olden times to hide out before and after attacking stage coaches. In the late 18th century as many as eight mail and ninety stage coaches went by along the old A4 road each day. The vicar of Hurley was paid extra to brave the dangers of the thicket as he headed to Maidenhead to take services there. Where we left the thicket and crossed the busy A404 by way of a pedestrian bridge several trees had their catkins out. These are the flowers on many trees where the seeds will develop after pollination. The most common of these trees are Willow, Hazel, Birch and Alder. The idea of producing the flower so early is a you get the pollination process out of the way before the leaves get in the way.

We returned to the car and headed home for a few frustrating hours of DIY in the kitchen putting new lights up on the ceiling finally ending up with a successful completion of the work - after a few choice words...

Sunday we celebrated my birthday by going to the Royal Oak at Ruscombe for Sunday lunch. It is a pleasant walk to the pub which means there are no concerns about drinking and driving. Beforehand I got this years seed potatoes and onion sets from the local allotment society.