Saturday’s walk showed what a beautiful county Hampshire is. Woods with the ground completely covered in wild garlic, fields with sheep & lambs with varying ear arrangements-some at the more usual horizontal angle & some with vertical, sticking up ones like llamas. Lovely buttercup meadows & some small valleys that hadn’t been cultivated recently & were almost wild looking. The pub wassmall & packed but friendly & efficient with good food & the weather got better & better as the day wore on.  3 of us decided to sample the delights of Petersfield rather than leaping onto the first train home. There is a nice square, sadly very spoilt by all the ubiquitous chains but the Cloisters Continental Café, understanding our great need for tea/coffee & reluctance to patronise the dreary chains, delayed closing up just for us. I think they deserve a star for that & would urge anyone passing through Petersfield to go there.

Harriet

mike adds; We  followed The Hangers Way for a while. This takes it’s name from the steep sided valleys (hangers) which are a feature of this part of Hampshire and  give  rise to fine views and occasional lung bursting ascents. The curious ear shaped fungi are apparently edible though I didn’t see any Poly’s picking them for their suppers. D. however picked some wild garlic leaves, with a view to making a pesto. How did it go?