Grantchester Meadows and Back Again

As you may have gathered from earlier posts, despite living in the Cambridge countryside for almost thirty years (and that's a long time), there are a number of local places that I haven't visited and things that you are supposed to do in this neck the county that I haven't done. Maybe proximity breeds contempt, or, because it's so close, you think you can do it at any time and then don't.

A very Cambridge thing to do (for undergraduates, tourists and poets) is walk from Cambridge to Grantchester across Grantchester Meadows to have tea at the Orchard Tea Garden. I've had tea (or other liquid refreshments) in the tea garden on a number of occasions (check out my June 2024 visit to Grantchester, for example), but I've never done the walk, until this June that is. I'm a great believer in "better late than never".

So, here are some of the views on the day I walked from Cambridge to Grantchester across Grantchester Meadows, and back again.

Arriving at Grantchester

Teatime companion at the tea rooms

Adult swan looking for its head

The entire family looking for lost heads

Walking companion for part of the return journey

Snow in January

And yes, I know social media is full of everyone's snow pics as soon as a smidgeon of the white stuff appears. Sorry, not sorry. I'm just as susceptible to the lure of the white as everyone else. 

Photographs taken inside and out during the first snowfall of January in this bottom corner of Cambridgeshire. Even the photograph of the pheasant, though the snow is not making its presence strongly felt.

Wimpole Hall Winter Lights

I've visited Wimpole Hall many times over the years - it's just up the road from me. I've never got around to visiting its winter light show, however. See my post on Longstowe Hall and Gardens for other things I've not previously done because they are so close to home.

This year has been a time of doing things I've been meaning to do for a long time, but have never got around to. December was the month for visiting Wimpole Hall's winter lights. 

There follows some of the many, many photographs I took on my camera and on my phone as I wandered its muddy but wonderfully illuminated trails. Photographic quality is variable, but the lights were entirely magical.