A visit to the Morton Horse Chestnut Tree

The pursuit of visiting the 50 Great British Trees continues! Yesterday we took a shortish road trip to visit the village of Morton and its Horse Chestnut tree.  The village is quite pretty around the church square and although most of the housing is the typical miners' lodging it does have a bit of a peaceful and slightly quaint feel to it.  I am slightly bemused as to why that particular horse chestnut tree was chosen though...it's not particularly old and according to the parish council site it might not even be the original one planted in that location.  The prettiness of it can't be denied though! However if anyone has any inside knowledge about the Morton Horse Chestnut or the process of how the 50 Great British Trees were selected please leave me a comment.

Morton Horse Chestnut Tree

We also had a wander about the churchyard to see what interesting things we could find, unfortunately the church itself was locked up so we couldn't have a peek around inside.  I'm not sure what it is but while I can't stand funerals I love old cemeteries but that's a subject for another time.  

The church 'gate'

Old grave markers

Water spout, there was another identical but more worn one on the opposite side of the church

More water spouts

While doing a bit of research on Morton I did discover another interesting tidbit...the parish claims to be the centre of England (based on north-south axis and the east coast/Welsh border) and it's marked by an old oak tree!  Of course a newer OS (Ordnance Survey) study has now shown this is not quite accurate but it's still cool.  

The centre of England?

Morton Parish Council Plaque

Me in the centre of England!

This trip marks 4 out of the 50 trees (plus a bonus!), we just need to decide on which one to road trip to next. I was considering the Lebanon Cedar in Childrey but a google maps search shows that it might not be accessible to the public now as it appears the old rectory garden is blurred out on street view.  

Rambling around

Whew, I am knackered.  Last night was the running club's handicap 5k (not quite a 5k per my garmin but close enough) and I managed to pull a 23:21 out of somewhere.  Don't ask me where it came from because my last two 5ks back in the summer were 25 and 26ish each, the spring races were in the 23 minute range but that has been a while back and speed training has only recently restarted.  Gives me hope that last December's pb of 21:50 is achievable again.

Top that off with heading out mid-morning today with Elsie for a ramble through the area with a local walking group and my legs are ACHING.  We put down approximately 9 miles in just over four hours--there was a pub stop, hence the longer time.  Most of the route I'd already explored while running but it was a welcome change getting to traverse it with people who knew the history of the area.  Elsie was a huge hit, she was loving all the extra attention and at the end when the group was continuing on she kept pulling on her lead to go back to them when I cut off to take a shortcut back home.  Kind of fun being one of the two youngest in a group as well, lol.

Elsie leading on the Monk's Way stones

If only these walls could talk

Parts of this church is from the 13th century according to a web search, but most is from late 14th century

Love the doggies and horses welcome sign

Great view across the valley but marred by the telephone line

Bad attitude

Some days it is hard to force yourself out the door but usually once you do and you get that first mile under your feet then everything else falls into place. Today was not that day for me.  For some reason the not having anyone to share my long run miles with this morning hit me harder than usual and I just didn't want to go.  Yes, Elsie the Miniature Schnauzer Menace usually accompanies me on my easy runs but she doesn't talk back when you're trying to make conversation.

So today's suckfest included my feet hurting for the first 1.5 miles (think it's time to replace my Brooks PureFlows), Elsie getting harassed by a big black dog that kept running from its owner and charging at her repeatedly, a headwind on the return portion, I accidentally cut off a cyclist twice (he didn't let me know he was behind me until the 2nd time), last night's pizza coming back to haunt me, my back started aching, and my garmin lost satellite reception at mile 7 and never got it back.  Oh and I didn't have anyone to commiserate with! Mostly it was just my bad attitude causing the run to suck and I AM thankful I have the ability to complete 9 or so miles.  Bright spot of the day: a woman cycling telling me "Cheers, duckie" when I stepped aside to let her pass by.

I did stop and take pics of a bridge and church that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago

Quality is terrible but it was horribly overcast and my phone camera couldn't compensate for it

Looking back over the post I'm a bit ashamed my attitude was so bad, there really wasn't any reason for it but I just couldn't get into the groove with things this morning.  Maybe it's because I didn't have my usual cup of tea before heading out.......or maybe I'm just a grouch, lol.  Things could certainly be worse weather-wise, back in my home state of Arkansas it is a whopping 23.4F/-4.8C while it is 46.4F/8C here in the UK Midlands.