Sunday afternoon walk on Bredon Hill

Mr Gaucho and I are on a winter holiday, staying with family and friends, between Worcestershire and Devon. Happy days! Yesterday we took a walk up Bredon Hill, which can be officially called a marilyn (think munro in Scotland, and yes, there is a connection in the choice of the name marilyn!) There are 176 marilyns in England, which have to reach 150m in height. From the top of this hill we had wonderful views to the south, over the western edges of the Cotswolds. Lovely.

There is plenty of mistletoe in this part of the world. Large round lime green clumps of the stuff, which can be clearly seen in the trees, now that the leaves have fallen.

Part of our walk took us across the Overbury Estate. They have a significant number of handsome, but disused, barns on their land. They are all kept in good order but sadly they stand empty.

We were not quite at the top of Bredon Hill, but the views were wonderful.

From "A Shropshire Lad" by AE Housman

In summertime on Bredon

The bells they sound so clear;

Round both the shires they ring them

In steeples far and near,

A happy noise to hear.

.......

The bells they sound on Bredon,

And still the steeples hum,

"Come all to church, good people," --

Oh, noisy bells, be dumb;

I hear you, I will come.

Further on up the hill there is clear evidence of the earthworks of an Iron Age hill fort, called Kemerton Camp, now the domain of sheep!

We passed an abundance of spindle berries, which made my day. I love the gorgeous colour combination of the hectic pink outer casing of the berry and bright orange seeds inside.

At the bottom of the hill, in the lane leading down to Conderton, we passed some extremely large and luxurious horsetail plants, Equisetum arvense. They were so big they looked as though they should have been growing in a botanical garden hot house!