Wall-to-wall warm sunshine – blue skies, clear air, a pleasant breeze – perfect! It’s been a long time coming. Ideal conditions for a walk from Little Stretton, up beside Small Batch to Pole Bank, back down the Ashes Hollow. A red kite circled, then descended into Callow Hollow; later he appeared again over the ridge, and we saw him one last time as we walked down the quiet valley (maybe three different kites? I doubt it). He didn’t stay – left it for us, the sheep and the buzzards. Other than the aforementioned, and lots of small birds, singing loudly, we had the Ashes Hollow to ourselves. For much of the descent, there’s nothing man-made in view (other than the path) – it can sometimes be hard to believe we’re in the English Midlands.

A walk from Aston Munslow into quiet country on the Wenlock Edge. The Munslows are on the Corvedale road, which isn’t particularly quiet, but through Millichope Park and down into Hope Dale, there’s mostly just birdsong, plus a few sheep and a noisy dog at the farm. A rustle in the trees below gave us a glimpse of a deer, and a red kite wheeled for a few moments before disappearing behind the trees – neither were there long enough, or near enough, for a photo. The kites are coming further and further east from their mid-Wales stronghold – there was one over our house yesterday, a real “first”.

The Speller? Clearly labelled as such on the OS 1:50000 maps, and their 1″ predecessors, the name has intrigued me for many years. There’s a Speller Brook, which flows down through Millichope Park, and Speller Coppice is an area of woodland in these parts. Other than that, I’ve no idea what it is, or refers to.

There were still patches of snow here and there, where the deepest drifts would have been. Still quite a bit on Brown Clee too, though the air was so hazy we could barely see it. It’s still cold, too – very few signs of spring in the Shropshire hills

It’s the 3rd of April today, yet the heavy snowfall of the weekend before last (eleven days ago!) is still very evident in the hill country. It’s blown and melted from the more open ground, but it’s deep amongst the heather and gorse, and some substantial drifts remain. The (very) minor road south from The Bog is blocked below The Rock.

It knocked us off our planned course too – very slightly. We were intending to arrive back at the Bog Centre in time for refreshments, and they would close at 5pm. Time was getting tight by the time we’d walked our way round to The Rock, and progress along the ridge (the preferred route) would have been slow and laborious given the depth of snow. So we walked along the road instead – much quicker, and we were able to say hello to the llamas along the way…

An Easter Sunday walk from Benthall Hall, Shropshire. We may have put the clocks forward, but it’s still winter time here. Last weekend’s snowfall was the heaviest for many years – and though it’s cleared from the roads, there’s still plenty in the fields, and some of the paths are not easily walked. The air’s cold – the snow is melting, but not very quickly. Some of the drifts were deep – it must have been tricky this time last week.