I haven’t done ‘that local walk’ this year. The fields, to be honest, have been too wet. It was a walk I repeated many times during the lockdown, remember that? It has always been one of my favourites taking me straight into the countryside. From my front door up the road and into the fields. Across them to Gill Bridge, up the lane and into the Derby Estate. Through Ferrari’s Country House grounds and back on the road past Little Town Dairy and the Derby Arms.
Today was the first time this year I’ve been able to walk in the area in trainers, sun and wind have helped to dry the ground in most places. A pleasure to be out. The grass was long and lush ready for silage.
Even the path by the pond was dry enough. 
Along the lanes and hedgerows white flowered Cow Parsley, Garlic Mustard (Jack by the hedge) and Stitchwort predominate.
Orange Tip Butterflies are ever present but decline to rest for a photograph. I thought the same of the Lapwings wheeling about but I managed to capture one in flight. 
What’s afoot along the lane, lots of new agricultural buildings, more industrial looking than rural. Large plant machinery is using my track to dump clay from the site into nearby fields. Scary monsters. 
Ferrari’s has just been sold for a rumoured 2.5 million pounds. The gardens look perfect today, they have been designed with weddings in mind – that’s how these sorts of places make their money, not from you and I buying a pint and a packet of crisps. 
I’m tempted to stop for a drink at the Derby Arms but it is early in the day and one might become two. I could have had a pot of tea at the farm shop. And let’s not forget the Alston Arms on the corner. Aren’t we lucky to have an abundance of catering establishments within walking distance. Locals on the local walk.
That local walk weighs in at just under four miles. I should do it every day.
