Matching fields and flowers

Oh what a beautiful morning!  No rain, sunny, not a cloud in sight, Hurrah.  

After David had been to Pewsey on his bike and brought his paper, home again had a coffee and a sandwich, read his paper, finally we set off on our bikes.  We had decided it was far too nice a day for boating, a curious thing you might feel, but on this canal all the beautiful countryside is somewhat hidden so off we went to see some of it.  To Martinsell Hill.  

The ride there gave him ample opportunity to snoop into several farms on the way and two were ex-dairy farms too, his favourite.  One of the beautiful things about this part of darkest Wiltshire is the lack of people, these little lanes are empty.

Now take a look at this picture, then imagine this, sun coming through the new bright green foliage, bright yellow flowers, birds darting in and out and butterflies dancing all the way up the hill in the sun, mostly those lovely bright yellow Brimstone ones.  Truly beautiful sad this photo didn’t do it justice.

Big hill full of butterflies.

Pushing the bikes up the hill was a bit of a slog, then we did arrive at the car park.  What to do with the bikes?  No metal posts, only the gate into the field that the farmer may want to use,  we wheeled them into the field behind a bush to somewhat disguise them, David decided against that as the cows in the field could easily lick and nibble the brake cables,  so we tried the woods adjoining but thought a thief only has to cut the wire to take them finally finally, inside the field was decided upon, to hell with the licking cows and to chain them to a Police sign which says BEWARE OF THIEVES.

Within minutes we were at a great viewpoint, looking out over fields some with Oilseed Rape which is bright yellow and all around our feet were matching yellow dandelions, so very lovely.

Martinsell Hill.

On the top we met two brothers who were carrying around very very impressive cameras and ruck sacks with extra kit, both had zoom lenses one was a foot long, they were butterfly enthusiasts and were today looking for Skippers.  But no joy. 

The very top of this hill is an Iron Age Fort, our second this week.  A large flat summit with impressive ramparts all around, part of it has been left as grass and part of it ploughed.  We walked around the entire area and found a spot that had some phone reception on one of our phones, the first in several days, so I stood in that exact spot and phoned my mother.  Animatedly I paced as I spoke to her, lost reception straight away and had to call her back from that exact spot again!!!

Me talking to my mother in the only spot in Wiltshire with reception. I kid you not.

The bikes were fine I am glad to say, as we assembled them the two brothers left too, in a tiny car that was only a little bigger than their camera bags!

The ride down the hill was speedy and we took a big loop back to the boat.  

David had been so pleased with The Royal Oak yesterday lunchtime that he took me there for dinner.  I asked for a glass of red wine, house wine would be fine I said, the lovely waitress said Oh we have three, a Merlot, an Australian, a Spanish and a Reserve…. made me laugh a bit.  I plumbed for the Merlot. Of the diners in this pub tonight we counted 11 we knew were from boats, not bad trade for this pub in the middle of nowhere.

Supper was Smoked Salmon, loads of it too, beef in red wine and Peach and Amaretto trifle.

A good day.