That would be fantastic, thank you Mark. The NT has information up, but it would be interesting to read something with a bit more depth about the place.
I couldn’t figure out a way to easily edit the book down to the relevant chapter, so I’ve made a Dropbox link to the whole book. @JaneJones and @Susannah might enjoy this too.
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Thanks for that, (ps dropbox seems to sign me up for a free trial, no payment details taken).
I’m a big fan of the OU, when last working the boss asked all in the team to sign up for the 20 hour cyber security module on OpenLearn (cheap CPE for him haha). I recommend it, or the short one, to forumites. I also availed myself of quite a few of the IT security and networking courses for my own CPE requirements.
You’ve now reminded me to return to the site in retirement for some further longitudinal study - and I shall start with your interesting book! I never did get to finish Gombrich, I lent it to my Mum and it still rests there.
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I can see we shall have some reading to do over the Christmas hols, thank you very much 
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Thanks to you too, Mariner, your very nice photos of the perfect English curated garden walk has brought forth all this extended reading for us
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My pleasure.
Thank you! Much appreciated.
Merry Christmas 
Our possibly last group walk of the year was from Laurie’s place in the Cantal sector of St Santin, the village that doesn’t just straddle two départements, but is also in two regions (Midi-Pyrenees and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes!). But obviously, being France, this doesn’t cause any problems or confusion whatsoever (I lie).
Setting out with a fine, high sky-
The south Cantal isn’t mountainous, just rolling countryside, but there’s a great many streams and at this time of year one needs the rather precarious, slippery, mossy, rotting bridge with its rather inadequate looking handrail.
This stream will flow into the Cele above Figeac while below Figeac the Cele will flow into the Lot, and then into the Gironde, and eventually into the Atlantic. This makes one think about the French distinction between riviere and fleuve - how did it come about and why isn’t there an equivalent distinction in English? Actually, I think the answer to the latter might be that most English rivers are much shorter so it’s not as important, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.
Approaching it on foot from below, I didn’t recognise the church at Le Trioulou despite having started many walks from there over the years.
This was because it looks like many other, very old local romanesque churches, but it’s a better than average example particularly given that it’s in the Cantal, which historically was a comparatively poor area compared to the more prosperous and relatively more cosmopolitan Lot Valley (primarily due to the Lot river and being on the Camino/Conques etc).
We didn’t go in the church this time, but I’ve posted photos of the interior before and here’s one from online that gives a better indication of this robust version of the romanesque - it’s simple rustic solidarity is the antithesis of the metropolitan gothic.:-
Looking south, the line of cloud on the horizon is mist that has filled the Lot Valley and buried our house under a few hundred metres of miserable grey cloud, whereas up here it’s lovely weather.
I liked this wall:-
A solid Cantal barn. Many of these are becoming houses, but sadly very few conversions spend enough on the replacement entrance to make it look good. some dutch friends have replaced an entire gable wall of their Cantal farmhouse with glass; it looks fantastic from within, yet externally doesn’t visually disrupt the building’s appearance.
This got posted accidentally before it was complete - but because it’s already quite lengthy, the simplest solution seems to be to post it into two parts.
So, more to come…
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Excellent visual voyage, thank you! Love the Inadequate looking handrail 
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Thanks again for the pictures, Mark. That bridge looks like an ‘interesting’ obstacle to negotiate if there’s ice on the floor, but also reminds me of country bridges everywhere (except for the handrail made of sticks).
Those in the Lake District are far more robust and well-maintained, but they get a great deal more foot traffic and of course there’s also English H&S culture.
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One of the things I like about Europe is that generally one is expected to be responsible for your own safety.
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Managed short a stroll yesterday lunchtime while working from home, and also this afternoon, enjoying the sunshine after a week of rain. The valley just down the road from us is flooded again, and looks fabulous. There’s a small amount flowing over the road, but not much.
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Rando continued…
we carried on and picked up part of another route that’s a long steep path down towards Bagnac-sur-Cele
and the light is not very good for photography. OTOH walking downhill is better than the route where you have to come up this path. Then, just around a bend we encounter un petit problème -
At the bottom of the hill just before Bagnac, we turn off through a picturesque little hamlet. Laurie, whose legs are twice as long as anyone else’s strides along in front, whist Gigi (whose legs are somewhat shorter) waits for everyone else to catch up.
This is a bit of that picturesque stuff mentioned above:-
and nothing seems to have changed very much…
For some reason the photo below seems reminiscent of Central Europe - it may be the strange building just left of centre -
Cows and mud - neither very interesting…
This was an unexpected sight, common enough on the forest slopes of the Lot Valley, where the trees have shallow roots on the schist and are always falling over. Whereas here, I’d assumed the soil was much deeper and yet this old tree’s roots were really shallow. Laurie, who’s a retired hydrologist suggested it might be related to the water table.
A few metres further we encountered what appeared to be an ex-acacia and we drifted into a discussion of the impact on native South African species of thirsty, fast growing Australian trees like the acacia, black wattle and eucalyptus and how these had dramatically lowered the water table on the Cape.
Despite our erudition, Gigi evinced little interest in the subject, but then she doesn’t even pee on trees, instead doesa sort of handstand on her front paws that resembles a yoga pose whose name my wife will know, but I don’t…
At Rhodes U, where I used to work, the ecologist in charge of the university grounds had horrified the Vice-Chancellor by wanting to uproot the venerable English oaks that lined the main avenues of the campus and made it appear a sort of Oxbridge-on-the-Veldt.
Closer to present home, a dramatic little stream that would like to become a river -
Would liked to have known if these were edible but decided it was wiser not to find out…
Here the path forked and Laurie wondered if the ladies, who were somewhat ahead of us would have noticed that the should turn right across the bridge (which lacked the hand rail of some of its more up-market neighbours).
I suggested that they might have been too engrossed in discussing something like yoga or cheese, to have noticed. But we had no way of knowing which path they’d taken. Neither of us thought of phoning to find out.
We continued and then my phone, “Where are you? We’ve left Gigi’s lead behind on that bench” (a long way back) “But it’s not so far to walk for you, because we’re in front.” “Where are you, did you cross the bridge?” “What bridge?”
Eventually we met up at Laurie’s place then he and I drove back along the the forest tracks to the bench. It was the first time I’d taken our little automatic BM SUV off road and I was very impressed by how well it coped with all the mud and the steep gradients. And we found Gigi’s lead !Now just need to get the car washed for Christmas.
Good rando, not such good photos, but there we are. At least its not cold, wet or snowing…
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Low sun, with cold clear skies and water is a winning combo - whereas here it’s just been murky for days…
Have the fields always flooded, or is it a recent phenomenon?
In Cumbria there are now many more floods because it seldom snows anymore, whereas the snow used to stay on the fellsides, now precipitation just runs off straight away and the rivers in the valleys can’t contain it.
The Cherwell valley is a flood plain, and helps the midlands up to south Yorkshire drain to the Thames. It’s always flooded according to locals who’ve lived here longer that us.
We got back from my brother’s place at the end of the morning, and decided to make the most of the winter sunshine this afternoon, with an hour long walk where we hoped the paths would be firm and dry. After a rather dull half mile alongside a field we got to some woods that form a border between 2 farms.
Then along the edge of another field, destination to turn left up ahead towards Troy farm (posted some maze pictures previously.
Looking across the field to the cottage of the friends that got me looking at houses abroad, we stayed in Steve and Alison’s house in Italy while I did publicity pictures for them.
There’s a long track leading to Troy farm, running between two hedges from the far side of the field.
It was still frosty at 3pm
We were both feeling a bit achy, so cut the trip short and just did the last 30min on the road heading back.
A couple of ‘interesting’ trees.
Not long after we got home, it’s dusk.
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Beautiful pics! Thank you for posting. Speaking with relatives in Oxford and London, I see UK enjoyed a perfect sunny frosty day. Meanwhile, we had an unaccustomed misty moist Christmas day.
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Thank you, I hope you have our sunshine, because we have the overcast today. 
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Not exactly a rando, rather a visit to Blenheim palace and the Christmas decoration inside the house. This year’s theme is the wizard of Oz.
The first and second courtyards.
The Tornado that started it all in the entrance hall.
Then progressive mysterious scenes to those who don’t know the story.
The scarecrow
The tin man
The lion
Emerald city.
Wicked Witch of the West’s domain.
More stuff.
And then back into the fresh air.
The chapel is always carefully decorated.
And so is the (expensive) gift shop.
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