Tag: Stokesay

Lenny’s lazy wander

A short blog to celebrate Lenny going on longer and more interesting walks. We often don’t get walked together as we tend to try and outdo each other in the idiot stakes. Same scent, same bit of field food, bashing into one another whilst dragging our respective parental along, that sort of thing.

So it was last week that Lenny decided he would take a path less travelled and drag dad along for the fun of it. Along the lane and cross the road, through the Discovery centre and then traverse the big road to find themselves on the lane leading to Stokesay Castle. Lenny walked straight past the castle and continued to the railway level crossing. He waited patiently for dad to check for trains and then open the gate to cross the tracks (very carefully people!!). Along the dirt track and uphill to the edge of Stokesay Wood where the forestry operations were underway. I think they are removing the non native trees and replacing them with broad leaf native varieties.

As the turned right and hugged the lower tree line, Lenny was forging ahead and making sure that dad didn’t slack behind him. Under fallen trees, over fallen trees, through muddy swamp puddles and all the while following the path as it curved away through the cool shaded woodland. They arrived at a stile which Lenny couldn’t get over ( or under) so it was decided that they would follow the path for a while longer. Only after another mile or so did they see a sign that said “Private, no public access” but they didn’t have much of a choice as they were most of the way along the lane. Continuing to the end of the gravel track they appeared on a road much less travelled and turned right back towards home. Lenny was flagging at this point and they found a small stream so he could have some water to renew his vigour. On they marched, over the hill and down past the smaller wood called Sallow Coppice. Across the next busy road and they found themselves on the back roads through the town and onto the common in front of our house. Arriving home it was as much as Lenny could do to have another drink and eat his breakfast. He retired to the sofa to sleep off his exertions before he could recount his tale to me.

I was very impressed at his 7 mile walk. I think he will do it again. I am also pleased that he is getting to find his paws on walks that he enjoys, despite it being without me to “guide” him.

I never realised

Until I blogged yesterday I hadn’t realised what we had done between our adventures on the train to Ludlow in late March and our sojourn to Wart Hill last Sunday. Here is a precis of our shenanigans, sorry I meant to say our adventures. 😀

Firstly Lenny discovered Sallow Coppice, a small wood close by Stokesay Wood. He said it was so quiet and pretty that he needed to explore every leaf, twig and fallen branch. Our dad however had different ideas.

We welcomed another beagle parent to our house, this time one from Houston Texas who was visiting the UK. We got chew toys which we played with quite nicely.

The field in front of our house dried out significantly and I could stroll down by the river, taking in all the sights and scents that accompany a meadow.

Sometimes Lenny and I are walked separately as avid readers will remember. We tend to drag our respective parent around after the same scent so they think its calming for us to walk separately to discover new things. In this regard Lenny found the back road to the next little hamlet of Lower Dinchope which he eagerly explored.

In the meantime I was discovering Stokesay Castle and all its interesting features. We swapped stories and then adventures at a later date.

In early May we accepted the offer of a guided tour from our good friend Griff to go and explore the bluebells at Hope Bowlder. Griff is a rescue like Lenny and me, so we always try to look out for his wisdom.

Lenny and I then swapped routes and he discovered Stokesay Castle, whilst I strolled up to Dinchope to see what all the fuss was about.

The route toward a place called Sibdon Cawood was next to be crossed off our list of places to explore. This walk involved traversing fields of wheat or barley as well as strolls down very quiet lanes. I must admit that there is a welcome dearth of traffic here.

At the end of May we had a visitor from Yorkshire, another beagle called Hector. We couldn’t play as he had a poorly paw and I was very overexcitable so we were banned from exploring the garden without supervision. Actually we were banned from the garden, full stop.

Then we took on the challenge of a 10 km circuit around Wart Hill via Cheney Longville which is a village named in the Domesday Book. Our exertions caused us to feel rather tired for a few days after our walk, which cheered our parents up for some reason. 🙄

Lenny decided to take dad to a place called Flounders Folly as a precursor to all four of us making the trip some weeks later.

The road past Stokesay Castle and the path through the lower part of the wood was the next assault on Lenny’s visual and nasal senses, with him doing the precursory legwork for a future visit.

In early July we made sure that everyone who went to vote was behaving themselves.

This was followed by our combined trip to Flounders Folly for a lovely view over the surrounding countryside.

Finally we welcomed another beagle visitor to our area. River was visiting Griff and we were so happy to show her around the meadow.

(L-R) Dex, Lenny, Griff (rear) & River

In between all these excursions we have been making sure that the fields and side roads, especially those leading to the Discovery Centre have been regularly pounded.

Phew, I never knew we packed so much into our first 4.5 months. I think I need to go and lie down.