Four-mile circular walk from Ashdon, Essex, yesterday. A long, rather straggling village with some distinctive buildings – a good pub, the Rose and Crown. Attractive countryside, hilly compared with its neighbour, Cambridgeshire. A landscape of rolling arable fields – cereal and beans growing on stony ground – copses, hawthorn-decked hedgerows and occasional poplar plantations. Narrow roads between banks of cow parsley; and fine houses in timber, plaster and mellow brick. Skylarks, buzzards, blackbirds and chiffchaffs welcoming a sunny day under a Joni Mitchell sky. Newnham Hall Farm was an aberration.