The Weekly Escape

 The weather was somewhat more clement today as we pulled up behind two other cars at Normanby-Le-Wold Church.  It was our weekly escape to make sure that the battery on the Kia was kept well charged.  Our plan was to walk along the Viking Way to the Rambler's Church at Walesby for lunch and return via the low path to Claxby and back up the hill to Normanby.  The Four Churches Walk.  We hadn't been going for more than a minute or two before we met the occupants of the other two cars: long-time running friends Steve and Susan Green and their daughter and husband.  It was good to catck up.  The views from this section of the Viking Way are spectacular, it being the highest part of the Lincolnshire Wolds. To the west, across the Witham and Ancholme Valley we could see Lincoln Cathedral perched high on the Lincoln Edge with the Trent Valley power stations beyond.  To the east we could look down on the attractive Otby Valley, whist to the south the Rambler's Church was visible beyond Walesby.  It was a very peasant wander down to Walesby and as we pulled up to the church the sun put in a brief appearance.  After lunch it was back down into the village to visit the current church and then we followed the old byway to Claxby where we enjoyed the view of our fourth church with a foreground of primroses.  Pulling up the steep woldside to reach the car we were amazed to come across a huge badger sett with a great deal of fresh excavation.  The badgers had obviously been dragging fresh bedding into the set from the plentiful dry, dead grasses in the meadow, leaving several grassy trails into the wood.

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