Day 10 (20 February 2009)

Maidwell to Little Brington (12 miles)

Part a) Walk to Creaton where meet Gill. The best bird morning so far. Walk through an area that is being conserved very successfully to ensure that owls survive - didn't see any of those though. Very nice walking- past the house which may have been the setting for Mansfield Park (A book that's not about cricket - don't think so anyway)

Part b) Creaton to Little Brington
I drove from Loughborough to meet Paul at Creaton in the depths of the Northamptonshire countryside and amazingly he was walking up the hill as I arrived. I was a bit shocked by the amount of thick, gooey mud on his boots but he removed them before getting into the car. As he did so an elderly lady stopped and told us her life story.
After to-ing and fro-ing collecting and shunting cars we started the walk from Creaton, a pretty village built on a hill. It was alovely spring day and the going was quite easy especially as we both had sets of sticks. Well we had both started off with two but as we stopped to try and identify the source of some birdsong Paul realised that he only had one stick. After poking around in the mud and scanning the path we'd followed Paul decided it was a lost cause. The bird was a blue tit. Later on we saw a skylark- my first sighting so I was quite excited.
As we dropped into the valley there was a quaint millIhouse,it's garden carpeted with snowdrops.Towards lunchtime we approached Holdenby, an estate village with an interesting array of house styles ranging from mock tudor to traditonal local stone. There was a large green but unfortunately no benches or suitable lunchspot. Walking towards the church we spotted a clearing with a fallen log. We sat down gratefully, only noticing later that there was a circle of similar seats all having been fashioned purposefully. A Hansell and Gretel house was just visible through the hedgeline making our spot instantly a bit spooky and covern like. I was glad to move on.
As we approached the crown of a small hill I realised that I too was about to get muddy feet. Below us was a huge field with the remnants of a maise crop, still tall and spiky but completely dried out. Running through it, literally, was the McMillan way. There was no chance of avoiding the mud and little of avoiding wet feet. Heading out of the swamp, towards the Spencer family home of Althorp Park there was a fair bit of road walking. The roads were quiet and safe. The field boundaries were chiefly recently maintained hedges. As Paul and I mulled over the hedging process we came across a farmer working on them. He cheerfully gave us a lesson on hedgelaying. I was amazed that after being hacked to ground level, pulled, bent and pushed , the hawthorn actually lived to fight another day.
We got slightly lost in Great Brington and as Paul consulted map and book ( not my problem) a local asked us if we wanted to 'cheat'. We did, and followed his directions over a barbed wire fence to rejoin the path and an oversized poodle that we'd been following earlier. We should have followed him as he would have led us into Little Brington but we were still unsure and decided to play safe and follow the road. Bit of a climb into the village but the magnificent cedar trees were worth it.



Bird of the day: little grebe
Tree of the day: cedar