Chorleywood – 26-27 November 2011

Having just finished our move to the country, Saturday was the ideal day to do the explore the town centre. There are no empty shops here, the town is well cared for, although not full of lovely historic buildings, it has lots of cafes, and all the useful things like a Library and Medical Centre.

According to the Web, Chorleywood was voted as one of the 'happiest' places to live, in a 2004 government survey. More recently, it has been rated as one of the 'least deprived' areas. We have certainly found it a pleasure to come home to.

Sunday was a glorious day, so we caught the train to Chesham, and walked the Chess Valley walkway, back to Chorleywood. The beautiful balmy winter weather seemed to get lots of other walkers out of doors, as we've never met so many people on a walk before.

The valley is known to have been settled from at least Roman times and the river provides the ideal conditions for watercress cultivation with one commercial cress farm still operating. Just before we arrived at the cress farm there was a free-standing brick tomb seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

In the past there was a church nearby but in 1777 the current occupant decreed that his body be buried here, well away from the church-yard as he wanted to make sure that his bones did not get mixed with others come the resurrection. His cunning plan was somewhat foiled when his wife was buried in the same tomb some 30 years later.

Lunchtime in London - 23 November 2011

The last of autumn – 13 November 2011

We decided to take some time out of packing, to enjoy the unseasonably warm November day; this gave us a chance to do a short walk not far away, before leaving Brent.

There was no need for hats, coats or scarves in the warm sunshine. We lost count of the open-top cars also making use of the potentially last nice day of 2011, in this hemisphere.

Totteridge Common gives the impression of being way out of London in the countryside, but the nearest tube station is in Zone 4 for the Underground, the same as we are, in a very dense urban area. The walk had no special highlights, just autumn trees and the obligatory pub lunch halfway round.

Last weekend of summer – 29-30 October 2011

Summer seems to be hanging in, and with an extra hour on Saturday night, it was a perfect weekend to go away. Having read good reviews about the Haycock Inn in Wansford near Peterborough, we booked a room and set off for a weekend in the area. Peterborough is just six miles away, and we spent the day in that area.

After a coffee stop in the lovely market town of Whittlesey south-east of Peterborough, we visited the Flag Fen Archaeology Park. The Visitor Centre is built beside a bronze age causeway, which lay undisturbed in the swampy fens for about 3000 years, until discovered in 1982 by a drainage ditch digger. A section of the causeway is preserved in a swampy environment inside a building, exactly as it was found. A Roman road also passed very near the causeway site, so the area has been a busy area for travellers for centuries.

We drove to the outskirts of Peterborough, and parked at The Boardwalks, an area of canals and lakes. From here we walked along the waterways into the city centre. Apart from the very impressive cathedral, Peterborough has a very pleasant town centre with other fine buildings, and even another old stone church very close to the cathedral.

Wansford is a cute stone town, on the northern 'Cotswolds' stone belt. The hotel has been a hostelry for five centuries, and is a really special place to stay. Previous guests have even included royalty – Mary Queen of Scots and young Queen Victoria.

Having fully enjoyed the extra hour's sleep in on Sunday morning (thanks to the end of daylight saving), and the best hotel breakfast of our recent expeditions (this is saying something, as they have all been of a good standard), we set out to enjoy the national garden day at Boughton House. En-route, there were many pretty villages, and we passed several other stately homes.

The best village (apart from Wansford where we started the day), would have to be Geddington. Apart from the lovely stone houses, pub and church, Geddington has a ford over the river, as well as a lovely old hump-back bridge used by small vehicles and foot traffic, but it's main claim to being special is the 13th century Eleanor Cross. These were built by Edward I to mark the funeral procession of his wife Queen Eleanor, from Harby where she died, to London where she is buried. Only three of the original crosses have survived.

Boughton House is close to Geddington, and the grounds looked wonderful with their autumn makeover. We had visited the house many years ago, but since then the gardens have been restored to replace most of their original formal water features. These are surrounded by mature trees, reflecting in the still mirror surfaces.

As well as the restored lakes, a new garden was developed two years ago, the first addition to the landscaped grounds for 300 years. Orpheus is a spiral water feature, based on ever diminishing squares to formed from a golden rectangle. The largest feature of it is an inverted grass pyramid with a reflecting pool at the bottom. It really was a massive project, and with the added enhancement of autumn colours, a wonderful place to pause and enjoy.

From here, the trip back to the motorway and home passed through other lovely villages, the most picturesque probably being Barnwell, also enhanced by a golden glow. Even the journey home along the motorway was attractive, as clever use of trees made a colourful changing autumn kaleidoscope, which was actually better than most of the scenery we saw on our New England trip.

World Cup Final – 22-23 October 2011

The Chilterns and The Thames are a wonderful backdrop to London. We spent the weekend enjoying both.

We converted a seven mile walk from Whitchurch-on-Thames to Goring, which relied on public transport to provide the missing link, into a ten mile walk by returning along the Thames Path. This looked easier on the computer screen than in reality, as the Thames Path climbs high above the Thames here along a cliff top. But despite this, it was a really enjoyable day out.

Goring is a particularly beautiful town, as most of the Thames side towns are. At the completion of our walk we drove to another town close to the Thames, Dorcester-on-Thames. Oddly, Dorchester is actually on the banks of the Thame river, just above its confuence with the Thames and to make it even more confusing the river downstream of Dorchester is the Thame while upstream it is the Isis.

Dorchester-on-Thames is a beautiful small town, and we stayed the night in the White Hart, a lovely old coaching inn, where we enjoyed a great dinner. When booking the room, the important criteria were, is there a large screen in the bar, and will you be showing the Rugby World Cup final on Sunday morning?

We were the first to breakfast on Sunday, and also the first in the bar at 8.30am, so had the pick of seats! A few other guests joined us eventually, surprisingly there were some French supporters, but no other Kiwi supporters. Along with the whole of New Zealand, we felt the 'tension is mounting in the stadium' type nervousness, and it felt more of a relief to have won, rather than an exciting triumphant conclusion!

After the cup presentation, we checked out and enjoyed the rest of our day doing an AA tour which started in Dorchester. Highlights of the trip were the lovely towns of Warborough, a stunning Romanesque church in Iffley, a very grand school in the tiny village of Cuddesdon, Abingdon, Clifton Hampden and The Whittenhams.

The church in Iffley was built 1160 and retains many original features, some of which show quite a decided eastern influence. We visited a number of other lovely churches on the tour, ending up outside St Peter's in Little Whittenham. This also has a Romanesque entrance. Opposite the church is a walkway to the top of the Whittenham Clumps. This hill has a terrific view, which highlights just how many churches there are in relatively close proximity.

And now for something completely different – 16 October 2011

After cheering the All Blacks on to victory against Australia in the World Cup semi-final, we had a complete change of scene and tempo, by visiting Windsor Castle.

Only 30 minutes from home, but it feels like a world away. Murray was able to use his age for the first time to receive a concession, so it seemed appropriate for Her Majesty to have the honour of being the first to give him this 'privilege'!

The Castle is stunning, and now that the high season is over, the 'Semi-State Rooms' are open too. In fact, these are probably the most opulent rooms, as they were the private apartments of George IV, always known for his extravagance.

The fire which destroyed part of the Castle in 1992 has resulted in some rooms receiving a makeover. Among these are George's apartments, which have been restored exactly as they were when George first renovated. So today we saw them looking fresh and gleaming with gold everywhere, just as George lived in them. His furnishings were rescued at the time of the fire, as were most of the furnishings and paintings in the other affected rooms.

The Castle was built in Norman times on top of a hill, an ideal place for defence. Today it dominates the town, and the combination of town with attractive old buildings plus dramatic castle towering over them, makes Windsor a lovely town to visit.

After afternoon tea in the oldest restaurant in Windsor, we went back to the Castle for Evensong in St George's Chapel. We have enjoyed services in a number of Royal Chapels, but this would have to be one of the best. The beautiful chapel with fine vaulted ceilings, also has the unique status as Chapel of the Order of the Garter. This is where the Knights of the Garter come every June for a special church service. Each Knight has there own seat in the Quire (the area where today's service was held)

Out of Africa – 15 October 2011

After a week sitting at our office jobs, which followed two weeks sitting in an RV around New England (with a seven hour flight each end), and culminating with two hours on the sofa this morning cheering Wales on in their World Cup semi-final game, we definitely felt a walk was in order, So we drove to Pirbright after the game for a ten mile walk.

First we fortified ourselves with lunch at the White Hart in Pirbright. We would recommend this pub, as their food is excellent.

The walk set off along the Basingstoke Canal and the return walk was alongside army land. Red flags were flying everywhere to warn us to keep out, as firing was taking place today. Sure enough, we eventually walked across the end of the firing range and could see the soldiers facing away from us and firing from a prone position.

Pirbright was the home to Lord Pirbright, better known as Sir Henry Morton Stanley, whose immortal words in deepest Africa make him famous to this day - “Dr Livingstone, I presume”. We found his grave in the local churchyard at the end of the walk. The enormous chunk of Dartmoor granite makes it fairly unmissable.