Tea at the Ritz? No thanks!!

Tea tastes best if made fresh and drunk from a porcelaine cup doesn't it?   Well not necessarily - my cup of tea this afternoon tasted like ambrosia (whatever that is?!) in spite of being a little on the strong side, having been in a flask for several hours and being taken in a plastic cup complete with little insect!!  Want to know why?...

Well this afternoon we decided that we didn't need to wait for our neighbours to return from holiday to take a walk with us we would go on our own.  So after a lunch we set off to Sherborne where we followed the path suggested in a leaflet we had picked up in the Tourist Office there a while back.

The route led us through some stunning countryside and covered about 10.5 km (according to the leaflet).

 Sometimes the path wandered through woods,

 sometimes deep between the hedgerows,

and sometimes along country lanes - we knew they were proper country lanes as there was grass growing down the middle!  Here we are together taking the photo!  After we had been walking about an hour and a half we decided to stop for tea and this time we had come prepared.  We sat on the grass bank in a field gateway alongside this lane and drank our tea and ate the Chelsea bun I had halved (I only had one and anyway we didn't want to undo all the good the walk must have been doing did we?) and brought with us and I wouldn't have swapped places with anyone in the world at that moment.  The sun was shining, the sky was blue, all was quiet apart from the wind soughing in the trees, the mewing of the buzzards and perhaps an occasional pheasant making their peculiar coarse cry in the distant woods.  Nobody came by we were completely alone and I was aware of one of those magical moments which live on in the memory for I felt so completely content that I wanted it to never end.  I fished the little insect out of my tea and never has a cup of tea tasted so good and the shared bun too seemed even more delicious than when eaten at home.  SHEER BLISS!

Tea over we packed the empty flask and cups back in the rucksack and set off again.  The sky was so blue - this photo could have been taken in some foreign country don't you think?

 And what about this one?!

The route took us through Sherborne Park and this is the little hunting lodge there - obviously not used now as it was shuttered up!

 Here it is looking back and just look at the colour of that sky - and to think I had fetched in my washing before we left home in case it rained!

 The path led us alongside Sherborne Castle grounds and goes up across the ploughed field - you can see it as a green line.  By now we were walking into the sun which was getting lower in the sky so this photo looks a little dull but it wasn't!

Looking back...

 Here is Sherborne New Castle - am I envious of the people living there?  Not at all as I can walk the parkland enjoying the wonderful vistas without any of the responsibilities and return to my own little home afterwards!  I was so happy I could have skipped but my arthritic toe prevented me going quite that far!!

Here you can just see the Old Castle on the other side of the lake.  It is a ruin but it does date back to Norman times so I guess that is not too surprising!  The New one was built by Raleigh so is not exactly modern!!

 That's the castle in the background - I just loved this tree's shape and seeing it against the blue sky.

 Nearly finished - the path leads us back to the car park past this view of the Abbey the other side of the railway........

... and up this slope and when we reach the top we will be almost back at the car park.  We got home at 6.30 having had a fabulous walk and perhaps now you can see why I would prefer my cuppa out of a flask and in a plastic cup than to be all dolled up taking it in a china cup at the Ritz.?  If we don't sleep tonight it won't be because we haven't had enough fresh air and exercise will it?   Hope you enjoying coming with me on our walk today?