A five mile walk around Renhold, on the outskirts of Bedford, started at the Polihill Arms carpark, then past the Church  whose origins date back to the 12th Century.  Then we crossed open fields and walked through avenues of trees where the sun made a rare and welcome appearance.

We crossed a road to read the list of names on the village war memorial and I knelt down to look at a handwritten note to a Renhold man killed at Gaillipoli.  His descendants remember him to this day.

Jenny hadn’t mentioned the field of cows as she was concerned that some of the group might not wish to tread that footpath.  All of the intrepid walkers followed her as we gazed on some stunning cattle and they gazed back at us.  There were White Park cows that had been dehorned and some glorious English Longhorns with calf.

Near the end of the five miles we walked beside the crematorium and cemetery with its spring flowers decorating the graves.  Then we passed a new development of houses which looked so alike that I saw an orchid in one window and an almost identical one three doors further on in the street.  Frances and I began to sing “little boxes made of ticky tacky” and I felt a bit guilty.  We all have to live somewhere and the cars were very posh looking and beat my micra hands down!