We awoke to another bitterly cold, but sunny day with more snow forecast. First thing, Keith and I went to get the newspapers and scouted out a walk that we were planning for later in the day.
We called into Mum and Dad's house on the way home and had a welcome cup of coffee before picking the children up and going to Booker (again!) for some urgently needed work stuff. We had been very busy yesterday but I was hoping that today was going to be a bit calmer!
We dropped both kids off at work and then escaped home where we donned our walking boots and set off down a single track road leading out of the village. Our destination was the abandoned village of Faxton and I was hoping to take some photos.
Walking along the quiet road was very pleasant but the wind blowing over the fields was ferocious! I wrapped a woolly scarf around my face and we trudged on. In the distance we could see what we thought was the old village...
We turned off the road onto a byway, passing a couple of farms and a field of sheep. Overhead we saw two Red Kites lazily circling on the wind, on the lookout, no doubt, for some tasty prey. A cyclist overtook us and we could see him lift his bike over a gate and set off up a muddy hill. That didn't look promising and as we neared the gate we could see that the paved track turned into a private road and the byway went up the field. Even more alarming was the notice on the fence that read "Beware of the Bull"!!
Keith climbed over the fence but I refused to follow him. In the distance we could see the cyclist coming back and after I had a short argument with my husband we decided to turn back as well. I didn't fancy getting all muddy and by now the wind was really in our faces.
The cyclist stopped for a chat and asked if we knew anything about the bull as he said the sign was a new one. He told us that there wasn't anything to see at Faxton so the romantic notion that I'd had of a ruined village was wrong and I would have been very disappointed to get there to see nothing at all! The houses we could see were obviously private residences!
We had a nice chat with him and then he cycled off while we trudged back up the hill to the road. The blue skies had turned cloudy and without the sun, it became even colder. While we were still quite a way from home, my mobile rang and it was work to say that they were manically busy and could they stop customers coming in for a while to get back some control?
This, of course, made me feel very worried and I called Mum to tell her that I might not be able to make our arrangement to go out for an hour in the afternoon. She said that Dad would go in to investigate and that if we were needed at work he would call to let us know.
We arrived home and heated up some celery and Stilton soup that Keith had made on Friday. It certainly warmed us up! My dad didn't ring so I helped Keith prepare the veggies for dinner, ironed some school and work shirts and called Mum to say I would pick her up at 3pm as arranged.
We went to Next as Mum had a top she wanted to exchange and I spotted a lovely white ceramic heart that would look great hanging above the doors in the conservatory. We had a cup of tea in Costa Coffee and then I dropped Mum home and went to wait for a call from the kids to pick them up.
Luckily they were earlier than yesterday and Keith and I drove in at 6pm to collect them. Back home it was bliss to have a drink and watch a programme about buying houses in Florida. How I would love some winter sun at the moment!
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