It's Valentines Day! So John was out with his boyfriend Dave, and me with the ladies. 😍😍😍
Louise kindly offered to lead today, using a route to Wargrave on her Garmin. (which started officially from Cantley, so quite possibly one of my Breeze routes.) There are various ways to get to Wargrave!
Martina was due to join us, but woke up feeling unwell this morning with a cold. 😟
Although it was just above freezing this morning, there was a very nasty E wind, so it felt well below freezing. I arrived at the start point first, and decided to move a bit further into a side road to keep out of the wind..... it was that cold!
Gill peddled down to meet us. Jeanette said she would drive to meet us for coffee.
I hadn't looked properly at the route since I was on the train when Louise shared it yesterday, but Gill suggested that it went to Wargrave first, returning via Warren Row, and we agreed that it would be better to climb to Warren Row today to keep warm and, go to coffee after that. So, poor Louise didn't really have a route after all, as it kept saying "off course". But I knew that she knew it anyway, but didn't have the confidence to KNOW that she did. At each junction with an option, we asked her "which way Louise", and she always got it right.
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| Sunny skies at Broadcommon Lane. |
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| Broadcommon Lane, Hurst. |
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| The Straight Mile. Liked the light on the fields today. |
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| The Straight Mile, and now to catch them up, as we head to Shurlock Row. |
Taking Smewins Road (the corgi weather vane road), we soon arrived in White Waltham, and into Butchers Lane. Which, as we all now know, changes it's name to Bottle Lane, once we have passed Shottesbrook Park, and over the railway line. There is a long stretch of newly layered hedging down Butchers Lane. A real skill.
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| A little project on the left in Warren Row. Scaffolding at the chimney, so presumably something is happening? |
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| And the view opposite, which I often photograph. Looking fairly clear today. |
A confident left turn from Louise as we arrived at the XRoads with Rose Lane to the right. And another confident "straight ahead" call, into Highfield Lane. She knows this because her friend Jo owns the barn conversion at the far end of this lane.
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| Highfield Lane, nr Wargrave |
I had to catch them up again, but arrived at the cafe at the same time. Jeanette was already there, sitting at a table in the "bike room". The cafe part was full, so that was fine, but by the time we had ordered at the till, a space had become available in the main cafe area, where it was much warmer, so we all moved our clutter of coats and helmets.
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| Taken by a guy at the next table. |
I often check my connection to John's Garmin route wherever we stop, and I noticed that he had a abandoned his planned route after 10 miles, and was heading back to Silchester where he parked this morning. Oh dear. He wouldn't be happy about that. Puncture issues, or too cold?
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| As we left, the sun had come out, and lit up the beautiful old 1902 Woodclyffe Hall. |
A climb away from Wargrave now to cross back over the A4 at Hare Hatch, and to Ruscombe. We opted to drop downhill passing Stanlake Vineyard. The roadside looked different today, since recent hedgelayering meant you could get a view of the manor house in the distance.
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| Hedgelayering has opened up the vied to Stanlake House. |
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| Stanlake House |
There is a barn on the right as we turned into Hinton Road, which I have photographed before, and today it had several Highland Cattle in it. Lynne waited for me as we spotted this patch of snowdrops on Poplar Lane. We had seen quite a lot on our travels today.
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| Snowdrops both sides of Polar Lane. |
Gill and Louise had stopped a little further, to chat to Gill's friend Richard (and x gardener). He's now 70 he told us, but is still doing part time Hedge Layering. Very topical in today's blog. He has done quite a lot around Shottesbrook Park.
We dropped down past the Castle Inn, Hurst where there is still a substantial flood at the bottom of the lane. This is where we left Gill and we took the lanes back to Winnersh.
John was home before me. It turned out that his friend Dave was just too cold, so after a coffee stop at Charter Alley, they headed the shortest route back. After lunch, John gave 4 bikes a good rinse, but too cold for a proper wash. I guess that will be the plan tomorrow if its any warmer. Next Wednesday has a forecast of 10 degrees. Thank goodness!
Gill's heading to see her parents tomorrow. Sending best wishes to you, if you are reading this.
