A country walk near Moreton Morrell
It’s arrived at last – not just the first few tentative signs of spring, but a full-blown heatwave that’s seen temperatures in the UK exceed those in Greece this weekend. After a succession of violent storms, a collective sigh of relief could be felt across the country as Brits did the British thing and switched rapidly to summer mode. Lee and I took the opportunity to enjoy a walk in the countryside with the help of a new leaflet of local walks produced by Warwickshire County Council – Walks around Wellesbourne and surrounding villages. You can get an online version of it here. We went for the short version of Walk 4, which was 2.3 miles and pretty easy going apart from a few muddy bits.
The walk begins across some fields off Brook Lane in Moreton Morrell. There were a few electric fences to negotiate (thankfully not live), which made the route a little tricky to spot at times, but the footpaths were marked at intervals along the hedgerow.
Spring is on its way! We spotted a fair few buds on the trees, including these.
How to cross a stile in style ;-)
The route takes you past Grange Farm and its attractive brick barn.
More buds!
Lee enjoying the view.
This clump of forget-me-nots was growing in the middle of the path.
The route went along the edge of a number of fields bordered by small streams. Evidence of unseen wildlife was abundant, including a hole that looked too big for a water vole that we thought could have been home to an otter.
Contrary to probable appearance, this photo was entirely unposed!
In this field we spotted some ridge and furrow.
We found a fence post to balance the camera on so we could get a shot of us together. I look taller than usual in this photo, must have been standing on something!
This stretch of the walk took us through a rather muddy but tranquil field.
A reminder of the recent storms and extreme winds in the form of this poor old tree, which had been uprooted and shattered.
The route took us back into Moreton Morrell via the road, which was really quiet; we only passed two horses, a cyclist and a Sainsbury’s delivery van.
Back in the village, we saw this beautiful old thatched cottage with bowing walls.
It was so lovely to get out into the countryside, and contrary to our expectations, we didn’t see anybody else out walking at all, so we had nature all to ourselves.
If you’d like to do this walk, there’s a map and description of the route here.