slight deviation: Great Canal Journeys (Timothy West and Prunella Scales).
Thoroughly enjoyed that Series, although sad times too watching PS gradually disintegrating.
I seem to recall one episode when they were on the Oxford Canal, cruising gently…
Marvellous scenery, canals, locks… whatever 
Yes really sad, especially as I have observed the same. I sometimes thought that she was the real star of Faulty Towers. Difficult choice to make though. 
And Samuel West (their son) has done a programme with Adrian Edmondson (Sam and Ade go Birding) which we’ve downloaded and will be watching shortly.
Downward dog, isn’t it? Lovely openair yoga 
You can probably guess who she learnt it from…
Today’s walk with the group was along the Lot, but some of the photos are from Sunday when just my wife and I did the same route. We do this walk on Sundays throughout the year, but during a canicule, it’s the best local walk because it’s flat and well-shaded by the forest.
Also in summer, when the river’s low and flowing very slowly there’s some fabulous reflections and so this is a good place to begin. Unfortunately, sometimes vegetation gets in the way a bit and you can’t get the perfect composition in a photo, but it’s a good basis for a large painting with loose brush strokes (think Monet at Giverny, but a bit smaller and unfortunately not quite as good, tho’ nevertheless not bad at all!)
At this time of the year there’s a lot of petals falling from the trees and floating downriver, which combined with the reflection of the trees gives a sort of inverse double spatiality. These have been painted too (and sold well, both locally and internationally through Saatchi’s online gallery).
This stretch of the Lot Veloroute was flooded last February and the river was flowing so strongly that the tarred surface was ripped off and washed away. They’ve just repaired it with what looks like a lot more cement and gravel in the mix than before.
Similarly, this stretch, which is currently about six metres above the river had all the fencing ripped away and is just being replaced. The chemin is incredibly well-maintained, in all sorts of ways, without it ever becoming too neat and tidy.
The Figeac to Rodez line runs alongside the path, but there’s only two trains an hour and they’re ever so quiet. It’s over 150 years old and it too is continually observed for maintenance, so what looks like a possibly rather rude, funky graffiti figure is actually highlighting masonry that needs repointing.
The south bank of the Lot gets very little sun in winter, so despite being the original main route before they blasted the D840 through the rock on the north bank, there are only three houses on this side in five kms. This is one of them, it’s been empty for at least fourteen years but suddenly a small for sale sign has appeared; however as the only passers by are a few cyclists and walkers, that sign might be there for a while. In the meantime we’ll continue to steal their figs, as we do every August. But please don’t tell!
This is the only slipway on our walk and is very popular with dogs, and I know that either last year, or the year before I posted a very similar photo of Lupo at this spot.
The roof of the rowing club - Aveyron Aviron - confusing to say, but always interesting to photograph - not my best shot of it, but I think it’s OK for a phone.
This weir’s reflections are always visually interesting, but unfortunately because it’s a phone telephoto photo you’re unlikely to identify the little black and white vertical blur in the middle of the weir as a heron fishing…
We don’t have a canal (like some people) but we do have a few locks and these are their do’s and don’ts. I like to think it might symbolise the average French persons’ attitude to regulations, or is that a tad harsh?
You be the judge…
The C18th lock at Bouillac, sadly disused (as explained previously) because of buried heavy metals up-river
The lock rejoins the Lot…
Our stretch of the Lot has many producteurs in the flat deposits of the meanders. This morning people were bent double, weeding their plots in the hot sun.
Next a 51 in the auberge and then back upriver for the picnique, where a new gite has appeared - looks rather fun -
Another (cooler) Sunday, another Rando, this time starting in Upper Heyford, crossing the valley to Steeple Aston, then returning. The car parking space near the lock at the start of the walk was small and we lost the last space while turning round for a better angle, so ended up parking in the village. Never mind, because it was still a nice afternoon.
We crossed the bridge by the lock for the start of the rando.
Past the narrowboats moored there and a couple of cats, before turning off across the fields.
We then crossed a field normally full of horses, under the Oxford to Birmingham railway line, before crossing a gated bridge over the Cherwell and ascending up from the river.
This took us onto a field with what appeared to be the remains of last years crops in a band around the edge, with the main field sowed with wheat.
We passed through a stand of trees at the top of the field and there it was in front of us!
This is a folly, built for the Stately home at Rousham (more later) that was intended to look like ruins in the distance from the front of their hall, and is clearly visible as one drives alongside that part of the valley. On this walk, we circle around it in a large loop.
From the valley bottom there’s a steep, stony ascent to Steeple Aston. This area is quite hilly, and although none have any real height, most of the hills are steep enough to ‘get warm’.
While walking past an orchard I noted that the apples are already forming!
Nearing the edge of the village, we turn left down a curiously named road and back across the valley.
Over a couple of bridges of varying design qualities, then we see the folly again.
The footpath crosses a couple of fields, ascending upward, then passes through a wood. From here we can see Rousham Hall in the distance (sorry about the phone cam quality). We also notice sloes forming, at least 3 months early.
The path crosses a field often used for nursing cows (dangerous for dog-walkers) before crossing the Cherwell again.
On the home stretch now, we walk along the towpath for a couple of kms, past a tithe barn and back to the lock, which is full of boat!
Thanks, you certainly packed in a lot of variety - maybe that’s a difference between walking in SE England and some parts of France - it can be lovely here walking through a forest for a hour or two on a hot day, but I’m always reluctant to post lots of very similar photos of trees.
The other thought that occurred is how often it can be difficult to convey in a photo the steepness of the hill you’re walking up.
Thank you. I worry that too many pics (and there ARE a lot here) will get tedious. But the countryside is very varied on a walk like this, and we’re very grateful to have lived a long time in such a fascinating place. With walks around Cussy, the scenery is often quite similar over large distances, lovely in its own way, but with fewer variations.
And yes, you’re absolutely right about steepness. I tried with the ‘Stoney Climb’ picture, using a wide angle and keeping the focal plane as near vertical as I could to make the trail climb up through the frame, but it really needs a side view and tall, straight trees to illustrate well.
I’m impressed with the toilettage.
I am more than impressed with all the above and did a video of my short walk with Jules a few years ago but did have a thought of one while it is sunny, but it is due to rain tomorrow and if it doesn’t the always late farmer is due to cut the grass.
As that would be the greatest interest, it is above my height in some places now, and I let Jules head to the bottom to save myself a quarter of the 10% slope up the other side, but he disappears from sight 'till I get to the far side. I stand and watch as the long (33m) red line disappears too, and then for a while. If he goes left, which I don’t want him to, I will see his bright orange jacket because the grass is lower in that corner being close to the trees and I can call and pursue the line if necessary. If I don’t see him that is ok, he is going right and I cross the field following our barely visible path, it recovers itself in 24 hours, and then wait 'till he comes ambling back into view.
Then we take the hill alongside the far forest which he sometimes goes into and I follow, partly to escape the heat but mainly because this is his walk and, within certain parameters, I go where he goes. I can easily keep him in sight but have to be careful, especially in shorts because there are many low brambles to rip my skin.
Back across the top of the field, very long grass again, and then either into ‘our’ forest, or a slight left and right along the bottom of the top field. There is a lane along the far side so I hold the end of his line as I walk which brings him in a wide semi circle unobserved if he chooses to take to the grass again. RDV halfway along ready to start the descent through the shady relief of the forest again. Occasionally he wanders further towards a leg of the lane but if I stand on the end of the line he can’t reach it and will soon return.
Downside is heaven, well worn paths and no effort 'till we cross the bend of the overgrown chemin rurale and through the gate into our (no quotes needed) forest. I shut and lock the gate behind us then unclip him and give him his homecoming treat to the recall whistle, just so he remembers it 
. Then pull in the long line hand over hand to flake it loosely nearby. He is off to explore on his own which normally means to see if there are cats beyond the bottom fence to stare at. I take the opportunity to sit in the chair and contemplate the swaying treetops and the cosmos through the, occasional, gaps between them before, after 10 minutes or so, return to the house via the front garden to spot any ‘leavings’ if there are any to shortly do my rounds with the bucket, also turn the tap on the hose to water, if no rain, the last 2 of Fran’s plants, a small pink rose, which is flowering now, and the lovely white edged green leaves of the one that stays with us all year round, thank you @JaneJones 
Then the bucket, the house for a strip off, and 28 metres in the pond. Toasty today at 19c. 
Then to do it all again in the late afternoon.
Sorry, no photos in a photo thread, but if it is still fine and the farmer has not harvested, I will take the camera along tomorrow. Promise. 
Thanks for the likes you two, but I have let you down, no photos. But not for either of the events I mentioned.
Perfectly understandably, seeing as it’s me, I can’t find the bloody camera. 
When I was driving all over the continent it was never far from hand and in fact held its own place in the long tick off list I had to go through before going through the gates. But that all came to an end generally, 2 or 3 years ago and it has hardly been used since. Then I had a brilliant idea, that wonderful (as John Sully told me) smartphone I was forced to buy just to get this equally wonderful Apple Watch to work and totally unused since. BTW my midday alarm on my Doro flip top to remind me to sms Eddie that I am still alive rang as usual but, at the same time, the watch started to squeak and vibrate while flashing a red light at me and the smartphone rang out like an old telephone.
Anyway I managed to get a bit of charge in the SP before setting out and managed to understand how to get to the camera icon. A short test in the bedroom where it lives told me that I had also found the shutter button. Trouble is I immediately forgot it and wasted a long time surrounded by high grass trying to find it. I pressed everything but all that happened was that I had a view on the screen partly blocked by a big white square with an icon in the middle which looked a bit like (I don’t bring specs when walking) the Olympic intertwined circles.
So sadly, no photos yet, or maybe, if I can work out how to bring them back. 
One offshoot of all this was when we were coming back down through the forest Jules wandered off piste somewhat and I waited for him and tried to master the SP again, without success, again. 10 minutes passed and I realised that he was stuck so into the wild brush I went to find him enmeshed in several strands of very fine, almost invisible nylon twine, stretched by kids I assume. Before I realised that I went to check his line and found that it was broken, 2 feet from him. He must have thought that was what was trapping him and chewed through it, luckily I was able to repair it being so close to him, normally that spells doom for a long line because it lays itself open to snagging continuously. An eventful day to say the least, and it isn’t over yet, there is still this arvo to come.
I found the button on the smartphone, and have taken some pictures today. Only problem is how to transfer them to the PC and thus, to here.
I have seen some instructions, one involving a cable, but I don’t have one with a connector to a usb slot.
Others seem to involve sending them by email, but just remembered that this smartie doesn’t have a simcard. It was bought simply to set up the Watch and the sim was borrowed from the Doro phone for the purpose.
I could ask Eddie to swap the sim for a while and send everything by email, it would have to be him, I am far too clumsy to be fiddling with sims. If I was paid a penny for everytime I drop something each day I would be a rich man.
Any other ideas?
Does the cable you use to charge your phone connect with the transformer (chargeur) that plugs into the wall socket connect via a USB? I
If so, just disconnect it from the plug and use it to connect your phone and your computer’s USB port, then switch the phone on and on your computer screen, you’ll be offered several options re what next to do with your phone. For me the simplest one is to view the folders and decide what I want to copy or transfer to the computer, rather than downloading all the photos.
1 Click on the Phone icon to reveal its folders.
2 Choose DCIM (not ‘Pictures’).
3 Choose Camera and all your photos should be displayed.
The folder’s View menu offers several different display options, Extra Large Icons will give you the best view of the photos on the phone and make it easier to decide what to copy or transfer.
Hope that helps.
No the charger cable plugs into a small transformer which has 2 usb slots and 2 smaller ones, looks like the same small pins at both ends of the cable.
Thought I had cracked it for a moment because I remembered a cable with a usb one end and a similar connection to the phone the other end, but just checked it and they aren’t the same size.
I’ll try and get in touch with Eddie tomorrow and see if he can extract from the smartphone to his computer and then send the results to me in an email.
He may, of course have a suitable cable I can borrow and plug it in as you suggest, directly.
Believe it or not, I have had my nose to the grindstone over the last 3 or 4 days, The cable arrived from Amazon but had the wrong connection so I followed Eddie’s instructions to send all my photos from the iPhone to iCloud but met a brick wall when I tried to send them on again to here.
Just had further instructions from the guru so lets see if it works.
This first picture show what appears to be Jules deep in the forest (confirmed by me just now after enlarging it). We don’t see his red line anywhere so we must have been travelling parallel so that is out of sight. If nothing else it proves the value of the 33 metre line because with a nose explorer like him I never could have allowed him such freedom. If I saw danger I would just have to turn 90 or 45 degrees to intersect with the line, no need to catch up with him.
Anyway, here goes:
Eureka ca marche !! Now to try with the others.
Hope you haven’t rubbed it sore!
This is the hole in the brambles that he disappeared through last week and through which he forced me to to follow him out after I had freed him. Full story on the thread ‘Battered and Bloodied’ I think it is called.
Somewhere in there is a Beauceron with a bright orange coat:
After we turn back from the top field into the forest again for the descent, this is the remnants of a giant tree. 4 or five sibling giants emerging from the supergiant cut off trunk, all of 72 inches around. I had a formula from the book I am reading but cannot trust it. This original must have been many metres in height and hundreds of years old. If one of you doesn’t spot its ‘breed’ before this afternoon I will try and do it myself on the next walk.
To the right of it is the remains of a man made trench, it is a narrow strip across the top of the lower parcelle and itself must be very old because there are large trees growing within it. At odds with its surroundings there is a very rusty coil of wire (that might be it in the foreground) so someone back n the mists of time must have thought of fencing the area.
Home at last, through the gate into the ‘new forest’. Jules has pushed past to be first there, he gets a treat anyway but is very competitive. You can see spare lines on a pole, the 2 red ones are damaged but usable in an emergency, and the blue one is the 20 metre one that Hades, the dog that was stolen from me, gifted to me after he had earned his complete freedom (due to 100% recall) after only a week with us. Just as well, as he could clear that fence from a standing start purely with the spring in his long legs. I do miss him and have no idea where he is now as the association have been too ashamed to tell the membership that he is not still with me. On a happier note, to the left you see my chair and lounger where I spend many hours contemplating the trees, birds and the peaceful silence.
This week we were walking from Marieke’s place on the south side of the Lot, high above Flagnac. The steep-sided river valley’s not visible, but it runs diagonally across the middle of the scene.
We do several different walks from here, but all have one thing in common, the last leg will be an uphill slog. This week’s was a new one that incorporated bits of other ones we’ve done. When asked about the length, Ruud, who’d planned the route, said vaguely, “It’s about ten kms.”
And we believed him…
Setting off down through the forest towards the river
Not unpleasant, but a bit boring…
Apart from an interesting tree (a bit desperate)
However, were soon following a long, very narrow footpath down the river. It looks straightforward, but was actually quite awkward walking because the path is slightly sunken and only a few inches wide, also much zig-zagging between mole hills.
I remember when this tree came down during last year’s tornado, we had to climb through the branches to continue. After walking these chemins for over ten years, each walk brings back memories of events at points on the route.
Although we’re only two or three metres from the river, in summer, you seldom get more than a glimpse of it.
But eventually we reach a large meander and as is usual in the Lot Valley, the forest then gives way to agriculture; although I prefer walking through the former, the latter usually offers more interesting photo ops (not that this is one - it’s just documentation of location).
Then back in the forest…
And now the start of the touristy bit, manicured riverbank, campsite etc.
Tourists queue for a lunchtime voyage on a floating restaurant (RHS through the trees) . Bonne ap !
We continue past a much photographed poplar plantation
Flagnac in the distance - the village is mediaeval, so was built just above the flood plain, but now the river is barraged.
My wife feels Gigi is in need of water, but Gigi ignores the water and instead looks at the camera…
Now we’re on the Lot veloroute, but not for long,
The river widens at the next barrage
And then we leave the Lot and prepare for a steep climb, but before we cross the road there’s this - I’ve photographed it before and as usual wished I had more time to do it properly, but the rest of them are charging up the hill at a furious pace, so don’t want to get left too far behind.
These bags always remind of both the KK Klan and Jacob Kramer’s The Day of Atonement a painting I’ve known for over fifty years
My first art school was Leeds’ Jacob Kramer College of Art: despite Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth having begun their art education there (and more recently Damian Hirst), it had been re-named after a fairly obscure Anglo-Jewish Vorticist (English Cubist). Its current name is ‘Leeds Arts University’, which reminds me of the possibly apocryphal story that before it was realised that the acronym might be problematic, the proposed name for the University of Northumbria (formerly Newcastle Poly) was 'the City University of Newcastle upon Tyne…
No more time for photos till we all stop for a breather - like the incongruous juxtaposition of a pot plant on a tea towel and a real arboreal backdrop. I’m sure it means something, but haven’t got time to linger and contemplate…
So having climbed up several hundred metres, Ruud suddenly suggests we go down this steep path because ‘it’s more interesting’. I tell him that if he slips and breaks a leg, I won’t help carry him up the other side of the valley…
The other side of the valley and no one injured…
Eventually we reach the top, forest becomes fields, we can get our bearings and we’re about 100m above Marieke’s place.
Ruud’s 10km walk has become 14.1kms - and don’t my knees know it!
