Frieth – Skirmett – Luxters Farm – Colstrope – Pheasants – Parmoor

2 Jan 2007

• Total distance: between five and six miles
• Start point: roadside at Frieth, SU 797903.
• Weather: bright, very windy.
• Temperature at start: 8C.
• Muddiness rating: **** (*=dry, *****=awful).
• People passed: One.
• Step counter: 13261.
• Camera: Sony Alpha 100. Images taken before deletions = 38.

This being my first day out of paid employment for thirty-three years I planned to be up at seven and hard at work on my new business venture by nine, stopping only for a brief sandwich lunch before laying down my keyboard at six.

Hmm.

In the event I got up at about nineish (okay ten then, if you want to be picky), frittered away the morning reading the paper and drinking four mugs of coffee, had a snooze, then went out for a walk.

I had a reminder of my new status when I encountered the council bin-men collecting from Frieth. I hadn’t realised that people actually had to work in the Chilterns. And anyway, deep down I’d assumed that any refuse that far from civilisation would be wholesome stuff like potato peelings and carrot tops which would somehow just, well, compost itself, spontaneously. Yet here was the usual detritus of a modern lifestyle, widescreen TV packaging and 7-Up bottles, being crushed on its way to Badnell’s Pit or wherever it is they bury the stuff. It was a disturbing and unsettling moment. Like when you find out Santa’s actually your dad.

I was in the mood for a breezy walk and got what I was after on the path through Hatchet Wood. It follows the brow of a ridge running from Parmoor down to Skirmett, and the wind whipped up the slope and through the leafless beeches and hawthorns either side of the track. Bare trees, bright low sun and a sprinkling of scudding clouds - these are great conditions for being out and about in the Chilterns. There’s a large stone memorial in a cornfield off to the right. Mysteriously it bears no inscription.

I used up a few megabytes trying to photograph some Old Man’s Beard, but as it was cavorting wildly in the gale I needed the fastest shutter speed I could find, and sacrificed depth of field. With the added complication of backlighting giving a huge range of contrast these were very demanding conditions for me to be trying out my new Sony (nee Minolta). I’ll get through a few hundred shots before coming to any conclusions about it – although I’m pleased at how intuitive the controls are.

I crossed the road at Skirmett, where there used to be two nice pubs, the Crown (now sadly closed) and the Frog, which surprisingly I’ve never frequented even though it gets good reviews - see link at the end.

I clambered up the steep hill towards Luxters Farm, now a vineyard and brewery, simply to be able to walk through the vineyard car park and down the other side. This magnificent path through Cadmoor Wood seems to me to be bursting with photographic potential. The thing is, though, I haven’t yet worked out how to capitalise on it. There’s a winding path bordered by fine big beeches, and cracking views off to either side and ultimately down the length of the Hambleden valley. There’s just too much in one place, for me at least. To cap it all there were now dark grey clouds on the eastern horizon, and suddenly a bright golden sunset in the west. A cool head was needed to assess, prioritise, and isolate - but I ran around like a blue-arsed chicken* taking snaps of anything and everything until the sun disappeared.

The wind abated and a gentle drizzle started to fall as I walked up the hill from Colstrope to Pheasants, and then along the road past St Katherine’s Convent.

Childish isn’t it, but there’s always something about convents that makes us blokes grin. Which reminds me. These two nuns go into a camera shop and the first one says to the assistant - -

ERROR TV/0654/1: TASTE VIOLATION DETECTED. ARTICLE TERMINATED BY WEBMASTER.

Click here for map > FriethMap

Chiltern Society Photo Group: http://www.chilternphoto.org.uk/introduction/photogroup/locations/fingest/index.htm

Frog review: http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/49/4975/Frog/Skirmett

Choose another walk > TheWalks

* Once common in the Chilterns. Now endangered.

-- RodBird - 07 Jan 2007