Elham from Chalk Pit Hill

It was a beautiful, bright morning, J and S were busy screen printing, and I had not climbed Chalk Pit hill in months. It's one of the steepest routes up the opposite side of the valley to our house, and provides probably the best views of the village. I had only my compact camera, having discovered on leaving the house that the SLR had a very low battery, but I enjoyed taking quite a lot of photos. On downloading them, I was taken aback to discover that the bright midday sunshine was captured in colours reminiscent of a 1970s postcard, with vivid blues, greens and yellows which have proved difficult to tone down into anything which looks balanced. I eventually realised that the camera dial was accidentally set to "creative control - expressive". I've never used any of the so-called creative settings, and am definitely not likely to explore this one any further.

I have always worried about meeting vehicles when walking up the narrow lane between high banks (see extra), and today it happened; fortunately it was a normal sized car, not a tractor or an oil tanker, so I managed to squeeze close to the bank with my toes tucked well in while the car edged past me. For anything larger, I would just have to turn and walk back to the bottom with the vehicle following me at my pace - it's happened to P a few times on his early morning walks. At the first big bend I left the lane and climbed the muddy steps to the footpath across the hillside. The rough grass was wet but the ground was not too soft; but at the top of the ridge, through the gate into a flat cultivated field, the ground was very waterlogged and I soon turned back. Instead, I followed a sheep track along the hedgerow until it rejoined the steep footpath above the lane. It was lovely to be up there, with huge views up, down and across the valley, windswept grass and trees and an entire hillside to myself.