last of the British summertime

Today the sun shone and on the last day before we lose an hour of afternoon daylight we did one of my favourite walks. Through the beautiful south facing valley from Aldbury to Duncombe Farm where the last blackberries are still good on the north of the lane ...

beeches all along Duncombe Terrace on the Ashridge boundary are just beginning to turn now, the oaks are still green, the cherries flame....

past Barley End,looking toward the Ridgeway across newly ploughed fields so good you could eat them...

towards Clipperdown ....

and up the steeep chalk path eating one of the very last Coxes scrumped on our way through...

afternoon sunlight filtering through the beech trees as we meet the boundary path

looking toward Wiggington sheep graze beneath a still green oak.

We cut back down through Duncombe Terrace where we were thoroughly investigated by the herd of young black bullocks - Dexters I think and very pretty whatever they are! This is where we watched a fox drinking from the water trough earlier in the year.