Chesham

The Pasks, Norma and I had a lovely walk today in perfect weather: sunshine all day but cool in the shade, of which we had plenty—in lovely woods which kept cropping up between the fields for a bit of relief from the sun and a change of scenery. Jane led the walk using the book while I followed the route on the OS map (until later in the afternoon I couldn’t be bothered with that anymore, especially when I couldn’t figure out where we were). Jane was great (when she knew her left from her right), and I appreciated her doing most of the work.

The Bucks countryside looked idyllic, with its little undulations, hedgerows, swathes of poppies, fertile fields bursting with crops (we ate some peas out of pods—oh, so sweet!— but didn’t try the wheat). The red kites and buzzards were circling, we heard and saw several yellowhammers as well as many other species, and had a perfect view of a whitethroat. At one point we could hardly believe our eyes when we saw two muntjac deer chasing each other in circles in a wood. We saw lovely wild flowers, pretty thatched houses and quintessentially English villages.

With great contentment we entered the Cock and Rabbit for lunch and had the most awful shock when they said they were closed: they were having a big funeral party in 2 hours’ time. But as we were only 4 they took pity on us and said it was OK if we only had baps and sat outside as all their indoor tables were lavishly laid and decorated. No problem with that: the smoked-salmon/salami baps with lovely salad were just the job, and we were on the path again after 45 minutes. At Great Missenden we had tea/beer in the Cross Keys a few minutes walk from the station (and I had a chocolate and walnut brownie to make up for having had no pudding at lunchtime).