Little bit of Chilterns culture

We had a friend to stay this weekend, and she's famous for not enjoying walking very much. She and I once went on a trek with camels through the Negev desert (we were much younger...!) and every picture I have is of her sitting on a rock with a bottle of water, or draped over the back of a camel. Needless to say, I suggested that we go on a walk that I'd found in a leaflet in the library, which takes in an Iron Age fort and is only about two miles from where we live. She agreed - partly because she's very amenable, and partly because I think she thought that since we were going with a four year old and a three month old that we wouldn't be walking long.

And she was right - we'd intended to do the short walk (2.5 miles), but even then we cut the corner, if we did 1.5 miles I'd be surprised. But we did have a lovely wander through the fort, which was very cool. OK, there's no battlements or anything of that ilk (it was 2000 years old, for goodness sake!) but two enormous concentric earthen mounds which were great fun to explore. We even went into a local church which we came across en route, so felt very cultured by the time we made it back to the pub for a well earned Sunday roast.

A cheating photo so I don't have to describe what an Iron Age fort looks like.

Beautiful Chiltern beeches
Isabel took a picture of a very enterprising snail

The tree was like this when we arrived, honest.

How did I end up carrying the baby?! Surely I did my stint!