Home for the the winter

I wrote this almost a week to the day ago but have had some trouble getting the photos onto it…

We took advantage of a dry morning yesterday to bring the donkeys home from their summer grazing. It was a nice excuse to have a walk through the woods which we don’t really get time for normally.

Once we were off the main roads and onto the foot paths the donkey were (mostly) happy enough to wander along enjoying some of the taster bits of grazing the woods have to offer;

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

The woods down into the valley and out the other side are very different;

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

Once you are down into the base of the valley then it is dark and much cooler than the top of the hills, even in summer. You can see signs of how the wood would have been when the area was a Royal hunting ground and of the industries that have let their scare on the landscape. There are signs of old coppice and of the wild boar that are spreading out and up the hill.

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

To the right of this photo is a patch dug over by the wild boar and to the right is the entrance to an old mine, now ‘capped’ and hardly more than what looks like a pile of rocks fallen from the bank above.

For the whole of the walk the sound of flowing water followed us and the signs of the recent heavy rain fall was everywhere;

Donkey walk – November 2012

Donkey walk – November 2012

There was some more photo showing the water-logged ground but wordpress seems to have changed their system for uploading photos and I am not sure how the new one works. A few days after the donkey came home part of our walk was completely flooded to over half way up car depth so our timing was chosen well!