Beer Gardens and Country Walks and Sunshine(2)

It's been abso-effing-lutely goi-geous here for the past week... sunshine! That being said, we're expecting frost this week, but I'm not as bothered as I might have been as we've have a full week and two weekends of nothing but sunshine (and I even have a little color in my cheeks! oh miracle of miracles!)

As it's been so nice, we've gone on two lovely country walks, Jibril in tow (well, actually, running madly in front of us). We've meandered past a tithe barn, two water mills, a wind mill, and numerous country homes that I would give my eyeteeth to own. We lingered by a pond smothered in frog spunk that Jibril, silly bugger, fell into repeatedly... not the brightest fluffy white beast in the house...

What I, as a die hard American (I got me a gun to protect my property!) about the UK is the concept of the public right of way. There are paths, some used frequently, some never used, some in the middle of nowhere, some cutting through people's private property and all these paths, due to the fact that they have been historically public, remain public and will, for all intents and purposes, always be public.

There are times when people aren't too keen on this and some are less keen than others. We went through a farm where they posted "Beware of Bull" on the fence that we had to cross over to continue on the path. It is, however, illegal to put a bull in a field through which a public footpath crosses, so we just ignored it and kept walking. But at the next fence, there wasn't a stile and we had to crawl under the bottom rung of the fence to get into a field full of horses (which Jibril was less than thrilled about).

At any rate, all country walks, fraught with obstacles or no, end at the pub, in the beer garden, sun on your face and a pint of ale in your hand... There really is nothing that beats that feeling of utter, nigh-comatose, relaxation in the sunshine, surrounded by fairly well-behaved, football kit clad children drinking lemonade out of newly-awarded trophies.

Related Links:
Public Rights of Way - UK