An Autumn Walk through Queenswood

We have our daughter’s dog staying with us for a while so on Tuesday we decided to take her for a woodland walk in Queenswood, a really beautiful spot a few miles north of Hereford.

We have been visiting that place for 35 years, ever since we moved to Herefordshire. One of our earliest memories is of taking my mother and newborn son there on the day of  Charles and Diana’s wedding. It was an extra bank holiday and we didn’t have colour TV in those days but Mum did, so we went to her place to watch the wedding in the morning. Then in the afternoon we all went to Queenswood. Mum who was 74 was so delighted with her first grandchild that she wanted to push the pram and three generations of our family walked together through the woods.

On Tuesday it was Hubby and I and Billie Jean Cat’s 3 year old Jack spaniel.

No matter how often we go there there are always surprises. I remember finding a Monterey Spruce not long after my trip to California. I had never noticed it before. This time we discovered some beautiful Japanese maples which I haven’t seen at this time of year before.

When we got back to the picnic area there were a group of schoolchildren just setting out with their teachers for a Halloween walk. It was getting quite dark and they had torches. It reminded me of a time when I took our son Chris on a woodland walk in the evening at Harold’s wood in Pembrokeshire. I had misjudged the length of time it would take to get through the wood and it was getting dark. We didn’t have torches and my son was really scared that the wolves would get us! He had a thing about wolves as a child. I don’t think he would have wanted to go on this Halloween walk but the children there seemed to be loving it.

What a great way to spend an Autumn afternoon. Billie Jean slept well that night.