Thursday 12 June 2014

The hidden valley

It seems as though the English summer is taking place this week.  Ever since the end of last week the weather has been good - not hot, like having temperatures of 30 or more (that's Celsius or centigrade or something, which means roughly 80+ in old money) but comfortable at the lower mid-20s.  Some afternoons there has been a bit of a breeze so I have had no difficulty in finding somewhere to walk the dog, who doesn't like it too warm.  Other days I have kept to the woods so that she has some shade.

Last Sunday was a very warm day and the ideal place for our post-lunch stroll would really have been Stanmer Woods.  But I knew that many families would be thinking the same as me and the woods would be heaving with people.  Just managing to park would have been quite a triumph.  Then I recalled another wooded area I have only once before visited.  The Boundary Path runs through a strip of woodland in a roughly northerly direction from the village of Falmer.  I assume the path has been so named as it runs along the boundary of the city of Brighton & Hove with Lewes District Council.  It also happens to run along the edge of the campus of the University of Sussex.

It was a real pleasure to walk through the woods.  I took great delight in stopping for a minute or two to watch one of my favourite birds, the tiny and hard to spot wren, as it hopped from twig to twig while keeping a wary eye on me.  After about a mile, the woodland opens up into a valley of the Downs - nothing very special, perhaps, but so peaceful and utterly typical of the South Downs these days.


1 comment:

joeh said...

I disagree, that valley looks very special.