Apologies to Pippa - I walked for about 13 miles today without once going through a wood!
I had a lovely walk just NE of Luton, where there is some suprisingly nice countryside and a couple of Nature Reserves at Barton Hills and Pegsdon Hill. It was cold and a bit foggy at first, but it soon became a warm and sunny day, though a bit hazy.
Near Lilley - you can see that it started quite foggy this morning
View from Galley Hill, Luton - the fog now clearing
Barton Hills
Barton Hills
These Dartmoor ponies are used to graze the Barton Hills Nature Reserve
From Barton Hills looking over Barton and beyond
Deacon Hill behind Pegsdon
Looking back from the path up Pegsdon Hill
The path up Pegsdon Hill
The view from my lunch-spot on Pegsdon Hill
The view from Deacon Hill
Returning to Lilley
I saw my first Speckled Wood butterfly of the year, my first Whitethroat of the year, and my first Yellow Archangel of the year. I saw a Red Kite at Pegsdon, and two more later on.