I had driven to see this open garden called Upper Bolney House, a couple of years ago. Since I knew I would have the weekend to myself, I offered a Breeze ride, so that others possibly also on their own, might also want to come out to play. The weather has turned from cool and blustery to scorchio overnight. It's horrible. We finished in 26 degrees, but it was hotter at times. But when peddling at least you are creating a breeze and we had plenty of tree shade on much of this ride too.
Route link screenshot at end.
We met at Cantley, and passing the bottom of Sandford Lane, continued on Lodge Road towards Whistley Green, using the track that runs behind a hedge alongside the road. Nice and cool in here!
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| Track alongside Lodge Road, Hurst. Denise, Barbara, Eva and Clare. |
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| We stopped for a minute or two to admire the scene from the bridge on Whistley Mill Lane. Never fails to impress. There are a few rivers near here, but this is the Loddon. |
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| time to leave the tarmac and over a little bridge into a field next to this impressive old Willow tree trunk. |
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| 4 of the bikes were easy to hand over the fence, Eva's a bit heavier, but we managed. |
A local couple also joined us to pass their bikes over the style, and when we got to the other end of the field, they suggested a technique of reversing our bikes in, which worked better for Eva's bike. I almost changed the route to avoid this, knowing she was coming, but glad I didn't. It shakes up the route!
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| At the back of the Lands End pub now we joined Lands End Lane and continued though Woodley to cross the A4 into Sonning. |
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| The Sonning Scarecrow trail is on today and tomorrow. Some interesting characters! |
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| The music of "Sponge Bob Square Pants" playing quite loudly here.😄 |
Left at the Playhatch roundabout, and soon we joined the cyclepath climbing up through Caversham Park Village to Emmer Green. A long downhill, then up again to Chalkhouse Green, arriving at Kidmore End church after another mile or so.
From Grove Road in Sonning Common we joined Blackmore Lane to climb up past the farm. A Range Rover came down, and we all had to dismount and squeeze past it, and difficult to get back on again. Another 4x4 then appeared, but they were able to pull over to allow us enough space to stay on our bikes to squeeze through.
A big whizz down Devil's Hill into Harpsden Valley, followed immediately by Perseverance Hill. Denise never done this before. She's joined the club! A sneaky path through the woods now to emerge at the open garden. We parked our bikes in the car park ie field.
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| It was around mid day , so first priority drinks and cake, and we found this comfortable sofa in the shade. Clare was impressed that she had a choice of 4 gluten free options. |
We then spent another half hour wandering around the garden, and found another shady place to sit to chat a while longer.
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| A giant Allium sculpture in the wilder rear garden area. |
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| Looking back to the house. |
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| There were several beautiful colours of Iris. |
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| Perfect spot to keep cool |
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| A number Rhododendrons in another area |
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| I think this is new since I was last here. The path is lined with Lavender which will be out very soon. |
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| Aquilega. Very common, but so pretty. |
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| A sculpture on the lawn of the rock garden, Looks a bit sad. |
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| Opposite side of the rock garden. This white render looks great.... for now! |
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| We had a nice relaxing chat in here out of the sun. |
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| A large area had some lovely trees, with hundreds of Camassia which had finished flowering. (But would have looked amazing 3 weeks ago.) |
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| Every garden needs some classic cars. |
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| The lawn looks a bit better than ours at home! |
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| A more formal area nearer the entrance. |
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| We hadn't even noticed the front garden as we arrived. |
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| A huge Agapathus sculpture. |
When we returned to our bikes, my Garmin was reading 38degrees, ( and it was covered by my helmet), and my saddle was too hot to sit on. My planned route was to continue to Woodlands Avenue, and take a track through woodland which drops down, then climbs up Kiln Hill to Binfield Heath. It was so hot now, that I scrapped that idea. We were already high... so lets just stay high, No one complained. 😂
We backtracked through the woods, to pass Bottle and Glass pub and soon we were whizzing downhill through Playhatch and back through Sonning. This time we headed to Park Lane Charvil, and to Lands End pub once more, where this field of Buttercups was.
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| Seems to be a bumper year for Buttercups. |
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| Another drink stop to stay hydrated. (we had all refilled our bottles at the garden.) |
Thanks ladies for joining me and hope you enjoyed today's route and garden visit. Nice to see a group that I don't ride with so often. Home at 3pm, and hungry now. 😎
