After a few wet and windy days, it’s still and sunny after breakfast. The afternoon looks much less encouraging, and we’ve other plans – let’s make the most of the morning along Shirlett Lane.

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Broome barely exists! Just a few farm buildings, a little way from the single-track road. Plaish has its Hall, and Church Preen its Manor – and (obviously) church. Halls and manors notwithstanding, this is very quiet country, especially on a grey and breezy Sunday afternoon. Being December, the poor camera is struggling by the time (not long after 3pm) we’re completing our circuit, but it’s been very pleasant wandering around these lanes.

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…and the leaves have all gone. Well, most of them anyway. The morning looks like being a little better than the afternoon – a touch more sunshine, that’s all. It’s quite cold and there’s a stiff breeze, though the lanes (Scots, Britons, Bould et al) between Willey and Linley Brook are fairly sheltered. It’s good to be out on a day like this.

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We expected clear blue skies, but a bank of cirrocumulus drifted over for a time. However, we didn’t expect snow, and while there wasn’t much of it, a recent fall, lingering especially on the north-facing slopes, provided us with scenes we’ve not enjoyed for some time. The Hope Bowdler hills are no great height, but they make up for it by providing wonderful views, extensive to the south and south-west, where the mountains of south Wales form the skyline around 50 miles distant. It’s good up here in winter!

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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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