going to the chapel …

A long walk this morning - long for us, anyway - about an hour and a half.

We walk through the Linear Park - a long ribbon of green, which runs through Milton Keynes.  It’s not too far from our house, so it’s nice to be able to walk somewhere green without having to get into the car first.  

We stop to look at the medieval carp ponds - or rather what’s left of them (and yes, Milton Keynes does have such a thing).  Anniemay’s quite excited by all this, because it’s years since she’s been this way.  “Is that one?” No, it’s a puddle.  “What about that one?” No, it’s a slightly bigger puddle.

The ponds have long since drained away and all that’s left are a series of depressions in the ground.  The expert eye though, knows what they are.  And I know what they are because a few years back I was riding my bike along this part of the park and came across historian Micheal Wood (one of my long time heroes) and a film crew making a programme about them.

The end point of our walk is this old chapel which is now a rehearsal hall for a classical music ensemble.  

It’s much further than we anticipate because we usually whizz past this particular spot on our bikes - it’s only about 10 minutes from home by road.  But it takes a good half an hour to walk back.  Just in time for coffee.