Walking East Stoke's Lanes this March

Two in a month - I’m getting back to my original planned schedule, well closer anyway. Though not wanting to get your hopes up too much when I looked back over my photos for March I saw there weren’t many. That’s an indication of the weather we had - in summary, rain, rain and more rain with quite a bit of wind thrown in too. None of which is conducive to pop out for a walk, but that’s how it is and it’s worth noting the weather too, and hoping that this time next year is more favourable.

It’s another month without a visit to the Red Gutter, and this month we didn’t even make it down to the Trent either. However, taking our chance with a break in the weather, and after another dismal weekend, we headed out on one Monday and one Saturday heading along Moor Lane on both occasions, so that’s where all of this month’s photos were taken.

That said, it was great to see the blossom appearing bringing with it hope that the seasons were changing, and that the rain and wind would stop at some point!

And there’s proof it didn’t rain the whole month, it just felt like it.

The hedgerows and some blue (cloudy) skies

We made it to the bridge in Moor Lane which there and back is a decent three miler, and taking about an hour is (or should be) relatively easy to fit into our days. I’m writing that to convince and remind myself that all of this is on my doorstep and it doesn’t take that long, so needn’t be a great expedition.

It was really good to see the water levels much lower than they had been, and I’m sure I’m not the only one to be pleased with this. I can’t imagine the aggravation and hassle that the weather this winter has brought to farmers and builders, and anyone who’s work is primarily based outside.

There were other signs that Spring was on its way, daffodils growing in the wild always bring a smile. In fact daffodils growing anywhere are guaranteed to raise a smile from me.

A clump of daffodils in the verge by the bench on Moor Lane

But the fencing that was laid previously wasn’t showing any sign of growth just yet, though I’m sure it’s early days and for the ones that were cut, I’m sure it’s been quite a shock so that will take some time to recover from. (Spoiler - they look different in next month’s instalment!)

Thanks for joining me this month, I’ll be back to sharing the next instalment around the third week of the month, but in the meantime if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?