Return to the woods… I’m getting a feeling of deja vu
How spooky is this… guess what we were doing exactly a year ago?? We were going to the woods. And I remember that we went quite regularly over a week or so which is just what we’ve been doing this week! Anyway, the weather turned cold so we thought we would go walking in the woods where it would be a bit sheltered from the wind.
The boundary stone "W"
I haven’t seen this for ages! If you are a regular reader you might remember that I blogged about our walks and all the big equipment that was in the woods last year when they were harvesting the trees. They’ve all gone now and there are plenty of gaps between the trees so they will all be able to grow big and strong.
What can I smell on this tree trunk?
BOL that photo makes it look like I have a square head, but that square thing is a bit of the tree trunk. From up here we had to walk all the way down to the track right at the bottom of the hill! We’d only walked up here because we could.. so now we had to walk down again.
Is this snow?
It was quite cold and there was a lot of white stuff in some of the frosty pockets. Not enough to make a snowman.
Coming around the corner past Keepers Cottage
We didn’t see the big dog at Keepers Cottage, maybe he was indoors snuggled up in the warm.
Hurry up mum
I was eager to race on down the track to see those big piles of logs. They were clearing the trees in the big scary dark wood last year but they seem to have given up doing that.
Baldy patches of trees
It was great not having to walk in mud for a change. Any mud we did find was frozen solid and all the water was thick enough to walk on.
It's all frozen
It was lovely walking with the sunshine coming through the trees
It was nice to see the sun
Just for fun we walked up the hill on the other side of the woods – we followed a footpath and mum figured that we could walk along the field boundary until we met another footpath to get back down to the track again. We found the footpath on the map and our little GPS had our blue dot on the dotted line but there was no sign of a footpath!
There should be a footpath here somewhere
We gave up looking for it and just headed on back down through the trees.
No sign of a track anywhere
It was fun walking through all the leaves and twigs and climbing over the brambles and before long we were back down on the track again.
Back down on the track again
Here I am on another section of the track that goes up the hill on the other side… it’s all ups and downs.
More trees
A bit further along this bit of track is another hilly bit with some big holes… and we saw something odd so went to investigate. I think this will be tagged under the “odd things we see on walks”.
A balloon and a piece of paper!
It was a white balloon and didn’t photograph very well. It was a very tough balloon and didn’t want to pop… so we picked it up and took it home with us – mum tied its string to my lead and dragged it all the way back. It didn’t burst once! Which is just as well because it wouldn’t have got a chance to burst a second time would it!!
ROSA - NOT TO USE THE BATHROON SO MUCH
How weird is that. Perhaps some people wrote down their New Year Resolutions on pieces of paper and tied them to balloons and let them go? Maybe Rosa is a bathroom, or even bathroon, hog. If you’re reading this Rosa, please get in touch and let us know.
The big hole in the woods
As we are kind of on the theme of odd things we find on our walks… how about this then.
Cauliflower leftovers
Now how did the remains of a cauliflower get to be in the woods? That’s a bit of a puzzle isn’t it. Well, that about winds up my walks in the woods at Whatcombe. But we did find one other odd thing. I think my friends Mica and Lexie might know what it is.
I think Ned has been here!
Yes, we found big clumps of black fur so we think Ned has been walking along the same paths as us! If you were following my blog back in January 2009 you may remember when I met Ned for the very first time…
Ned the Newfie
I heard him woofing but we didn’t see him. Maybe we’ll go back to the woods next week and if we’re lucky we might see him again. Gosh, he’s enormous, I’d forgotten quite how big he was!
Well, until next time, I hope everyone is keeping tucked up warm in all this cold weather. That doesn’t apply to my friends in the hot bits of the World of course, I’m sure they’re all busy running on beaches and swimming in the sea…..
Teagan Times 
Looks like a great spot for sniffin’ around – you are without leash – impressive! I would take off at some point so I would need my leash!
Hi Emma, Yes, lots of smells and pheasants were at the top of the woods in that field! I never wear a lead unless we’re on a road with cars or we see bicycles or horses or sheep or small children… or mean looking dogs/owners. I do chase stuff sometimes but I always go back to mum otherwise she might get lost 🙂
Do you think the mission trees were cut down so that peemail could be delivered straight to your door? That would be a neat serviss….or maybe Ned just leaned on em and they fell over…
BOL yes I reckon Ned could knock them over if he leaned on them. He’s a mahoosive doggy. Peemail deliveries would be good too, especially for convalescing doggies like you Marley.
No digging fun at the moment for you with the ground so frozen then? Boooooooooo
It’s all changed today… back to wet and muddy 😦
I loved reading about your trip to the woods and your pictures made it come alive. You did find some strange things!
I love this walk and remember all the trees, now a lot more open space! Yes, we know what that is in the last part of your walk we have it everywhere! Ned is male a little bigger than Mica. This is going to sound strange but I’m with them everyday and they are big, but normal size. Until I see like you w/Ned I forget how big they are!! Thanks for pic of Ned I had forgotten you met him :-))