Walking at Fryer's Cliff

 Today there was a lively chatter about many things, including: rugby, drama, New Zealand, cycling, submarines, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight. RAF WWII airfields and whippets.

Sunshine hugged the horizon

A row of breakwaters towards Hengistbury Head

John, getting the Tea and coffee 

(we're training him up to be a waiter).

Thanks for another coffee stop at the excellent Beach Hut Cafe 

A walk at Hyde on a winter's day

 Lots of chat today about every subject under the sun, which made for slow walking.  Some walked a couple of miles others left.  All back to Hyde Cafe for coffee, tea and George's toffees.

Who chose this route?

Rockford Common and the Alice Lisle

Fifteen Pals go to Rockford Common for a stroll in the sunshine and for drinks at the Alice Lisle

Walking at Rockford Common

Down the hill

Valerie was quite taken with this Greek rescue dog that we met in the Alice Lisle.

And lots of stories were told from the old days.

Hengistbury Head

Great walk, cold weather but warm chatter.

A grey day walking along by Barn Bight

Some of the volunteers and Pals

Coffee at the Hiker - plus George's toffees

Walk at Friars Cliff Beach

 We all had a warming wintery walk at Friars Cliff Beach today. 

There was much laughter, chatter, early memories and discussions of, the Isle of Wight, the curvature of the Earth (and how to spot it), pottery, New Forest Ponies, creativity, the relative merits or otherwise of being 'called-up' and farming.

We finished the jaunt at Friars Beach Cafe.

A walk at Hyde

A Walk at Hyde
on a mild Winter's day
with lots of chatter.

Ian's detailed instructions,
"Walk on to you get to the tree."

Tried talking the hind leg off this jenny.

Oh, that was the tree you meant.

Coffee at the Hyde Out Cafe.

Christmas Tea Party at the Hyde-Out Cafe

  

 Following the regular walk last Tuesday the Pals were joined by friends and partners for a Christmas Tea Party.  

Twenty-three of us - tea, mince pies, carols and a good chinwag.  
All of which went down very well.

Happy Christmas!

A good turnout for the Pals' walk  today at Hengistbury Head.

Some walked over the top of the Head others took a shorter route.

Today we talked of many things: When was cows milk first consumed in England?  Who is our favourite composers? And the advantages of the metric system over the pounds, shillings and pence.

We discussed education today, global warming and the difficulty that fossil fuel producing nations, like Poland, have in helping save the planet, and there was even a short discussion of Brexit! 

Sheep helping with weed control on the Iron Age site of Double Dykes. 

Who ate ate all the cake?

Not Lolly!

Friends are invited to our next meeting
for Christmas nibbles and tea.

A walk in the rain; a chat in the dry.

The Pals group went to Hyde today, to brave the wind, rain and temperature.  Whilst walking, there was talk of  nearby WW2 aircraft runways, horses and ponies, poodles, the effects of  new housing in Fordingbridge, our children and how modern eating habits compared with those of our childhood.  For some reason, now forgotten, there was talk of how sugar and salt used to come in blocks.

John brought Lolly along, his sedate, and well mannered, eight year old labrador, but as soon as someone threw a stick, Lolly was transformed into a two year old sprightly young thing!  Some of us thought that it would be good if you could play a similar trick on humans.  Then we noticed that those throwing the sticks, were looking a lot more sprightly themselves!  Well done, Lolly.


After an hour or so of walking, we settled down in the Hyde Out Cafe to sort out the rest of the world's  problems, over pots of tea and mugs of coffee and hot chocolate.

Hyde Cafe to Abbotswell

It was a gorgeous autumn day today for a lovely, lively walk with the Pals. We went from  Hyde Out Cafe to Abbotswell and back.  

The gorse was in bloom, as it nearly always is, hence the saying; 

When gorse is out of bloom, kissing is out of season. 

The good news is that either common gorse or the closely related western gorse is pretty much in bloom whatever the time of year.  In fact, a few yellow flowers can generally be seen even in harsh winter months.

We also talked of countries that we had lived in, family trees, photography and about the various animals we came across.  Web pages got a mention as did poodles, swimming in the sea, pigs and panage and the New Forest grazing rules.

There was a discussion about whether there was more than usual grass for the animals  this year and what the donkeys were waiting for, outside someone's gate.

Some walked a few hundred yards and others, a couple of miles.

Everyone agreed that we were indeed exceedingly lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world and to be fit enough to enjoy it.

Many thanks to everyone at Hyde Out Cafe for putting up with the whole gang of us taking the place over for half an hour.