The bus from Oxford to London cuts through the Chiltern hills. On my way to London I look out of the bus window at the red kites floating over the hill where I imagine the hot-air balloon in Ian McEwan's Enduring Love is stranded. On the way home, as the bus emerges from the cutting, I look down over the huge expanse of the Thames valley, blurry in grey rain, or shining in an orange sunset, or dark with scattered lights. 

I've often wanted to get out of the bus at the commuter stop at Lewknor, a small village at the foot of the Chilterns with a car park, and walk up for the views. I've never done it but today the forecast was for dawn-to-dusk sunshine and I wasn't going to London so as soon as the mid-day Zoom staff meeting finished, I headed for the bus.

I don't have the lens or the patience to photograph birds but I wasn't displeased with this one, and my first extra shows how they've bred like gnats since they were reintroduced to the UK here 30 years ago.

My pictures of trees, plants and views are predictably useless but I was very excited to discover a pedestrian tunnel under the M40 catching the setting sun (extra and here). 

I also managed a shameless sunset (yet another extra).

I took a bit of a detour back to the bus stop, hoping to find a path that could make this a round walk that I can introduce to others. Success! And I was only a short run from the bus stop when I saw the bus arriving. Fab afternoon.