Horseshoe Lake

Turning down Ambarrow Lane off of Wokingham Road, I immediately feel disappointed. Why wasn't I born a fabulous, rich, English woman with a fondness for horses? Why lower middle class Tucsonan, scared to death of my grandparent's horsies, Roqueno and Copoli? Why???

It would be nice if I could simply admire the scenery and feel happy for those living in grand country homes surrounded by acres of manicured lawns with horses, a flock of geese, or say, Sheltland ponies to enhance the effect. I'm jealous. It looks really nice...

If you look carefully, there is a flock of geese enjoying nibbles.
 Notice stalker position of camera angle behind tree and bushes.

Driving around this area, you are likely to see gorgeous young women dressed in casual riding duds walking amped up horses who clearly have close, personal relationships with hairdressers. Unfortunately,  rubber necking is dangerous while driving because the lanes are very narrow and windy, too narrow for two cars to pass at the same time. For some reason, it seems when a car comes from the opposite directions, there is always a tiny cutout, and you can just squeeze by. At any rate, take a left on Lower Sandhurst Road off of Ambarrow and turn right onto Mill Lane. Then as "Cartrina" says, go offroad.

You've made it to Horseshoe Lake!

Horseshoe Lake is close to the town of Sandhurst; the name is derived from the sandy soil and gravel subsoil, and hurst which means woods. This area was quarried for gravel, and a string of lakes resulted along the River Blackwater, which flows near Sandhurst and marks the border between the counties of Hampshire (Jane Austen's home county) and Surrey and Hampshire and Berkshire, pronounced "BARKsheer" (our little town of Crowthorne is in Berkshire, thus the lesson in pronounciation, one I have had repeatedly). There is a path around Horseshoe Lake, that takes you along the River Blackwater. Mike and I took the boys there on Sunday, and we asked three people the distance around the lake. The estimates varied from 1/2 mile to 3 miles. I did my own estimation based on a map of the lake with a 1/4 mile scale, I'm sticking with 1.5 miles.




A lovely feature of England is the network of Public Right of Way Footpaths.
This path goes around Horseshoe Lake and connects with other paths in the area.



I didn't see any cattle, but there are definite signs of their presence. Mooseturd pie?? My favorite!
And by the way, every single pie had a foot print in it! Watch where you're going, people.

Take a break and soak in the view.

The path around the lake is covered here and there by planks.



Blackberry bushes are everywhere.
I think we are at the end of the season, but they keep coming.
I told the boys that blackberries contain a special ingredient that makes you feel better if you fall and hurt yourself.
Our new medicine.

Following the path after passing the horse pastures, you come to the Moor Green Lakes Nature Reserve, which is open only to members of the conservation group. It can be seen through heavy vegetation and it is a great place to birdwatch, with viewing points alongside the hides for non-members. In the winter they expect to see Goosander, Wigeon, Pochard, Gadwall, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Tufted Duck, and Coot.

Continue on the path to the left towards Horseshoe Lake and you will come to the River Blackwater, a tributary of the River Lodden, leading to the the River Thames. It is 20 miles long and according to Wikipedia, the path runs the entire length! I must return to investigate...

River Blackwater

Layers of trees, including Willow, Ash, Hazel, Maple and scrub.

Left of path is Horseshoe lake, on right is River Blackwater.

Are you sharing my ecstasy?

The river is home to many fishies, Roach, Chub, Perch, Pike, Stone Loach, Bream and Barbel. In spring many of these larger fish move upstream to spawn. Does this mean anything to anyone? We saw a few anglers, or I should say, we scared a few anglers with our Two Loudsketeers...sooooo loud...

'Ello Willow!

Very pretty little flower I was surprise to find.
It is getting chilly here, as I type this I am in my casita wearing a coat!
Teresa Cowan Jones, help me out with the name of this sweet thing.

This is the strange part. At the beginning/end of the path there is an obstacle course. Why not? It is perfect for little people, and not too bad for their moms and dads. Now Mike is better than I am at absolutely EVERYTHING. There is nothing I do that he couldn't do better if he had the desire. Except, it turns out, crossing a wobbly log suspended by rope from the two ends. I followed him on the obstacle course, and the wobbly log came last. "It's HARD!" He annoyingly announced. I wanted to kick him for putting that into my head...so I stepped onto the log and repeated over and over in my head..."it's easy, it's easy, it's easy..." And it was.  No biggie, I hopped off and went to play with the boys. He held back and attacked that log over and over. If he lost his balance and stepped off, he would start over. The boys and I were making sand castles and the boys began exclaiming, "Wow! He just won't give up! Look at Daddy! He's determined, he's a fighter!" He got it, of course.