It’s winter tomorrow! The daylight is already wintry – the hours are short and the sun is low. Our walk this afternoon was very pleasant, with some blue sky at first; later, coming up from the old railway track through Chestnut Coppice, the sky is grey and it’s dark under the trees. Emerging from the woods, we’ve enough light for the last mile or so back to the car, but we’d better not hang around.

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Arwen has been and gone – there’s plenty of evidence along Shirlett Lane this morning. Lots of small debris and one or two larger items – branches down here and there, and a tall tree has fallen in the wood (it was rotten!). The temperature’s fallen too – the puddles are frozen over (more fun for the camera). It may have been a cold morning, but it was dry and fairly sunny – now, after lunch, the sky is leaden and a light rain is falling.

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There’s been a frost, but now it’s a beautiful sunny morning. From the Shirlett road junction, there are two ways to Barrow, and from Barrow there are two ways to Arlescott. At Barrow, we’ll retrace our steps for a short way, so it’s not quite a circular walk, it’s a figure of eight – and a very pleasant one at that.

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Weather: what a dull day! The camera doesn’t do justice to it! Down by the river the gloom seems to be accentuated by the silence – no wind, no distant traffic sounds, no little aeroplanes, no loud-talking walkers or cyclists. In fact there’s no-one else at all.  I’m not complaining! There’s a lovely feel to this little corner of Shropshire, where the long-closed station stands near the white-painted bridge. We’d better keep moving though – it will be getting dark soon

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We cross it about half-way around the walk – a bridge, then a ford (with a footbridge…). There’s barely a cloud in the sky, and the sunshine is really making the most of the remaining colour in the trees and hedges. Most of the leaves have fallen.

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It’s the old road along Corvedale. We’ve walked along the south-western part a few times – we did a short stretch last Sunday – but not the north-eastern part. That’s the way we’ll head today, from the road junction near Thonglands, then cut across to Stanton Long. Now we’re heading back south-west towards Holdgate, where there’s an ancient church and a bench for chocolate purposes. These are very quiet ways – surfaced roads carrying very little traffic. Grass grows in the middle of Rowe Lane, always a good sign!

It hasn’t been quite as sunny as I’d expected and hoped, but for the last half-hour the sun comes out and everything is golden. Wonderful!

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The clouds cleared and for a little over an hour, the sun shone brightly – perfectly timed for our walk across the fields to the east of Linley Green. The route (a public footpath, but there isn’t really a path as such) follows the woodland’s edge until it reaches the top of the steep slopes above the Severn. Here, we’ll head back towards Linley Brook and make our way round to Willey and back up Scots Lane to the car. It’s great to be out on an afternoon like this!

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A pleasantly calm afternoon in quiet contryside – across the Fiery Fields to Lodge Lane, where there are still plenty of leaves on the trees, then over the road to Benthall Lane. At the hall, we’ll take to the fields again and head for home.

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Don’t they sound dull! Lazy estate agents perhaps? Comer woods are anything but dull today – the sun is shining, backlighting the gold of the leaves, and while it’s shining, we’ll escape from the woods into the bright daylight near the farms at Mose. Re-entering the woodland takes us past the pools (Wall, Seggy and Brim – they’re in advertising, I’d say…), where the beeches – and toadstools – are at their best.

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