Eight in our group today. It's autumn, marked chill in the air, but once the sun had burned off the fog and dew, it was a lovely morning to be out. Our destination was the Nude Tin Can art gallery, venue no 59 in the Herts Open Studios listing. It is located all of 400m from Morrisons, so we had devised a nice loop to get us there.
We headed east on the Alban Way, then turned south on Hixberry Lane. Usually this is followed by a turn into the Hill End Orchard, but today we carried on up the lane to Tyttenhanger Green. This lane can be a bit muddy, today it was merely a bit gravelly and rough. Views through the hedge of the ploughed fields, it's definitely autumn.
From Tyttenhanger we rode around to Highfield Park Drive and came through the park, past Winchfield Wood. It's autumn, and it's an early autumn for fruit. Could we pass by some tasty windfalls? No.
The Highfield Park Trust encourage you to collect windfalls. For information about the
orchards and the
apple day on Sunday 7 October and apple juice stockists - visit the
Highfield Park Trust website.
We went down Nightingale Lane and along the A414 (on the very nice cycle path) and then up Highfield Lane and round past the apples again. This time we did not stop but swung north and came through the Cell Barnes Orchard and past the Lodge, then through the spinney and back to Fleetville via the Camp Cycle Route. A wiggle along the ladder and saunter down Glenferrie Road brought us out by the Fleetville Larder. We had refreshments there - delicious food drink, with a friendly welcome.
With our sports nutrition sorted, we were ready for art, and we piled into the Nude Tin Can gallery a couple of doors along.
The Open Studios are open at various times until the end of the month - look out for the yellow bunting and signs, pick up a brochure or
look them up online.
