Elf Land Footpath

This is a walk five minutes from our house that I'm ashamed to say we've never explored before today.

We knew there was an ancient footpath there but didn't know it was cleared and useable.

Years ago, my Dad - who was a great local explorer and walk organiser - said there was a path there and asked me about it but I was completely ignorant of it.

And then yesterday the father of one of our daughters' friends told us about the walk and how lovely it was. So today we decided to investigate.

It was lovely to be down below the banks and hedges - out of the wind and cushioned from traffic sounds - looking at stone walls gone green with age, streams and twisty old holly trees, thinking about the feet that might have walked that way hundreds of years ago. Having family on my mother's side that have lived in the area for many generations I can imagine that my ancestors walked there before me and I looked around for signs of past lives. All we came across though were bits of hideous ripped black plastic from bales and a broken clay pigeon.

The tree branches had joined together in places and created these gorgeous little tunnels that I couldn't help thinking made Tess look like something out of a fairy tale.

Or a hobbit.