A welcome leg stretch on a nondescript late July day… A bit of sunshine, then some cloud, neither warm nor cold, a light breeze – and a lack of colour in the landscape (have I just contradicted myself?). Haven’t walked this way for a while – the path beside the brook can be rather wet, but though there’s always a sticky spot where a spring runs across the path, it’s otherwise dry (and well-suited to limbo dancers). It’s quiet in the fields past the Albynes – and along Stocking Lane and across Nordley Common, where the breeze is just perfect!

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No – another full month to go. But there are plenty of signs of autumn in the hedgerows around Colemore Green – the bracken looks well past its best, and it will be worth returning to pick blackberries (looks like being a bumper crop). The sloes, wild plums and damsons are coming along nicely too, and some of the leaves are beginning to brown.

Not so long ago the hedgerows were a blaze of colour. The season has moved on, and the dry weather hasn’t helped – but there is colour, here and there. There would have been a little more if the small blue butterflies hadn’t been camera shy…

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Cooler again today, but still worth staying in the shade. We’ll walk from Bedlam and cross to the shady side of the river, then down to the  Jackfield footbridge to cross over to Coalport – to the youth hostel at the china museum for ice creams. I’m not sure we’ve really earned them, but they’re very welcome.

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The last two days have been really hot (by UK standards) – today, just a few degrees cooler, we can perhaps manage a short wander. It’ll need to be somewhere shady – it’s still very warm. Comer woods should be ideal.

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I was here in November last year, when the mud on the main descent was truly horrendous. Hadn’t been back since… This afternoon, Mrs Geoffspages is out eating cakes with her friends. I’ll make the most of it with a walk on Brown Clee – and it’s a wonderful day! It’s cool and shady under the trees on the way out, down the eastern side of the hill. When I cross the crest of the ridge, I’m in pleasantly warm sunshine,  with a gentle breeze. There’s no-one in the chocolate seat either (I only passed 10 other people in 3 hours). It’s too warm for chocolate though; instead an apple is just right. And the mud? Practically all gone. Last November, it was hard to imagine it could ever be dry again.

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Our small visitors have gone out for the afternoon, so I’m taking the opportunity to enjoy an hour or two out in the fields – down Scots Lane and Bould Lane to the path across the field of oats, over the main road and on past Linley Hall to the top of the bank, then back beside Birch Wood to Linley Green and home again. There’s a crab apple tree down there which is well-laden – worth a revisit when they’re ready for picking, if I can time it before the deer get them all…

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It’s dry and bright, not too warm. We’ve been busy all day – we need a short leg stretch. Colemore Green and Boldings Pools will be perfect…

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We were away for the best part of two weeks, and it’s taken a day or two to get straight… And it’s warm – really warm! So this morning we’re out shortly after 9am (and back by 11), enjoying the familiar landscape of Willey in summer.

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