I came back from the hairdressers this morning and spotted a signpost for a Summer Exhibition in the Old Chapel at the bottom of the hill.  I might have muttered something to my hero over lunch that I thought I’d go and take a look sometime soon.  It’s a while since I visited one of their shows and with someone around here with a birthday coming up, well, perhaps I’d spot a little something for the wall. 

“You know, I might even walk down there.”

“I’ll come with you”, he said.

“What, now?”

“Why not?”

So we set off through the lanes, avoiding the road wherever possible.  It’s a few years since we took that particular route and on a beautiful sunny afternoon, it was lovely to stop and notice things.

I’m sure it didn’t used to be so steep, though

We walked along narrow shelves and down steep little pathways.  At times, we were none too sure where the path would lead but we were confident we were heading in more or less the right direction – downhill!

There was a clue in the trees.

A bigger clue by the gate, too.  Actually, we’d come down too far and had to go up a flight of steps to reach the Chapel.  I can tell you, at least one of us was pretty tuckered out by now.

Thankfully, there’s a warm welcome to the exhibition (upstairs!) and we enjoyed looking around the paintings there as much as we always do.  It’s rather a special place with beautiful views, as you can see from their website and on a previous visit, which Mary will remember, I found the perfect birthday present for my Hero, which now hangs on our kitchen wall.

History doesn’t repeat itself though, and today there was nothing which really made our hearts sing, so before too long we found ourselves considering the return home.

Uphill.

But rather than simply turn around and go back the way we came, we took the short pathway down to the High Street (yes, that’s it, above) before going back onto the small tracks which would take us back home.  Eventually.

As anyone who has been here knows, these tracks were not built for vehicles.

There are beautiful homes in the valley here, but many of them have very limited vehicular access.

By now, I was getting very hot and bothered, not to mention a bit puffed out.

So a level stretch came as a brief respite from the uphill struggle.  If there was a small breeze too, then that was bliss!

Can it really be only last week that we were complaining that we were cold?

Just when I said that I’d love to see one of those benches they put out for old people to sit on, we came across it!

(Yes, of course we sat down for a while)

There wasn’t much of a view!

Actually, there was a fine view with not a building in sight.  We looked at the elevation and thought that surely, we must have climbed half way back up by now?

A little further along, the view opened out and sure enough, we were almost to the top of the hill.

What a glorious afternoon!  How great it is to be alive!  I’ll just take a photo (which really means, I’ll just stand here and have a little rest for a bit)

I was about to take a photo of the village sign when someone walked in front of it!  Not far now.

At last, within sight of home sweet home!

Just over an hour later, feeling hot, bothered, red faced and looking a wreck, I wondered just whose idea this had been, then?

(My Hero consulted the maps when we got home.  Only a couple of miles, but 400ft descent – and more importantly, 400ft ascent on the way back )