Red Lion and surrounds

The first pic is of the rambling rear of the Red Lion, in rain, of course, from our outer door.

You might think that having to walk , in the rain, on a puddly road, in the cold, is no fun. So think what it's like to be walking on a dusty fire trail in 35 Deg C heat, under a blazing sun, having to rehydrate every so often, sweat streaming down your back with all the smaller vegetation burned up. I know my choice.

A few hundred metres away we came across the small lake and jetty that feature in several Midsomer plots, where the victim is cast, found floating or retrieved from the water at night. Standing there in moonlight  is really eerie. The lake has a genuine bad reputation for annual drownings, as you can see. Four a year. There's an extremely solid and internally warm church nearby which might have featured, as well as the very well maintained and 'popular' cemetary.

The overall countryside looks anything but menacing, except the threat of the HS2--new high speed overground Birmingham rail link--brain child of a PM looking for historic glory at 90 billion quid a go. The D Cameron line?