Ickworth Winter Walk

A favourite, indeed (as you will see), a must-do walk around this time of year is in the grounds of Ickworth House. Keeping the main attraction to the end of the walk, we set off down the hill past the vineyard and across to the other side of The Canal. Here is the view looking back across at the summerhouse with the church and rotunda behind the vineyard.

The water was pouring merrily over the weir beneath this bridge. Ooh look. Big Miss has been growing while I was away - she's nearly as tall the Missus now.

We continued along the western bank of the River Linnet.

As the woods close in from each side of the river, you get to a point we call Echo Valley. It works best on a calm quiet day like yesterday. Little W had great fun shouting at the trees and hearing them echo back.

As the valley got to its narrowest, we crossed the river and went up alongside an ancient hedgerow towards the wood. Here there is a spooky tunnel that gets you through to the Albana Walk.

But what we were really there for, and the reason why Little Miss had to carry a bag of carrots all the way, was to feed the 'Reindeer'.

Yes. Well, actually they are Fallow Deer, not Reindeer, but we pretend otherwise.

At first they weren't interested. But after Little W and Big Miss had thrown their carrots over the fence, one of them came up to take a carrot from Little Miss.

Yeah. Job done for this Christmas Eve!