Among our visitors have been ring necked pheasants. We've seen hunting towers out in the fields and we understand that the local hunters like these birds when in season. Meantime, they visit us occasionally.
We're still learning how to cook with the Aga. This morning Claire made delicious Huevos Rancheros for breakfast.
It was another overcast day with rain threatening, so we settled in with the Sunday London Times. This newspaper is like the NY Times, except that they spread the bulk between Saturday and Sunday. By the time we finished it was the middle of the afternoon and we decided to take a walk. After walking through Crocker End again, we walked into Nettlebed and through some ornate metal gates into the Joyce Grove. This is a beautiful property with a retirement home in a grand old estate (referred to as "quite a pile"). We think it was originally part of the Fleming estate (family of Ian Fleming of James Bond fame). We didn't have a camera, but we will visit it again and take some photos. The grounds are extensive with walking paths, ponds, benches, etc. It will take some exploring.
To get home, we decided to try to walk through Nettlebed Common to Crocker End. unfortunately, we hadn't brought the map and we got "sort of" lost, running into barbed wire fences, so we backtracked. We'll try this again after consulting the Ordinance Survey Map. These maps are invaluable. The government publishes them and the detail is remarkable. They are at a small scale and they show every farm, house, road and trail. If you want to explore an area, you shouldn't be without one of these.
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