Sunday afternoon with the woofers, on the River Soar around Kegworth and Sutton Bonington. We leave the tiny car park due east of Kegworth on the far side of the eighteenth century bridge over the Soar. We have to cross a hairpin bend, further complicated by a y-junction, to pick up the path on the east bank and walk southwards, which is to say upstream.
The Otter. I’ve passed it many a time, but always on the wrong bank to drop in for a pint.
The cooling towers at coal-fired Ratcliffe upon Soar are visible for many miles in all directions, including from my kitchen. Here my feet are in Leicestershire, eyes looking northward at towers blocking my gaze across the Trent to the Notts and Derbyshire border.
Two miles to the west is East Midlands Airport.
By three pm the skies took on a more sombre aspect. Textbook November.
The first snowflakes soon followed.
Back to the lock on the canal stretch of Soar where we’d parked.
Long Lane, connecting Kegworth and Sawley, might soon be impassable. With the white stuff intensifying, we sped north to cross the Trent at Sawley then swing east to Long Eaton …
… though at the right-angled bend due west of Ratcliffe on Soar, we did stop for a few more snaps …
… and pat a solitary horse.
Then home for tea and mince pie, and check how my casserole is coming along after five hours in the slow cooker.
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Great pictorial chronicle of a November walk. The gradual setting in of the snow is so well captured. Bet that casserole was good!
Thanks Bryan. The casserole was indeed good, but better still – I’d made it in industrial quantities – the next day and positively ambrosial the day after!
The key to culinary happiness; cook once, eat many times. Are you going to reveal the nature of the said dish?
Well if you insist. I’d like to say roadkill hare or pheasant but it was Lidl chicken thighs, allegedly free range, with whatever vegetables I had to hand – which turned out to be onions, carrots (the only veg I insist on being organic), a wilting stick of celery (I’m not a fan but it does work magic on stews and the like), two or three leeks surplus to a sea food chowder made a few days earlier, and a capsicum or two.
Plus several tabs of acid, added in the final few seconds of cooking and stirred well.
Great photos as usual, Phil. Especially the one with all the leaves!
Thanks Jams
Wonderful photography.. I love the smudged snowscapes .. I’ll have a go next time it falls from the sky !
Love the bird photography too .. how do you manage to get such detail and action .. patience and skill ?
Hi Eleri, and thanks for your kind words.
In response to your question, my investment in seriously good kit – lenses in particular – does rather flatter my skills and compensate for a good many shortcomings!
Essential not to skimp on the pounds shillings and pence when it comes to a casserole.