A game of Chess

Brief Description Chorleywood to Amersham
Date 19-Mar-16
Actual Distance km 26.00
Actual Distance miles 16.16
People 15/16

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Chorleywood common and Saturday golfers
The muddy green banks of the River Chess
Uphill to Sarratt Church and village
Copperfield Common and pretty Flaunden.

We lunched at the dainty Swan at Ley Hill
Wandered the woodland past Moors Farm
Botley and down to the greening river again
Up a wooded hill to Amersham town station.

The weather that day was grey and windy
But comely views of blowsy Chiltern hills
Viewed through breaks in forest trees
The limpid flowing waters of the Chess
in verdant groves of newly budding plants
Made a perfect day of spring in March.

Delta of Wandle

Brief Description    The lower Wandle
Date     9-Mar-16
Actual Distance miles    5
People    3

The bustle of Wimbledon High Street at dusk
Crowds of people doing their evening shop
Luminous puddles reflecting darkening sky
A commuter train whizzing past above meadows.

The river goddess gurgled happily at our feet
While cyclists, flashing headlamps, hurried by
A Gothic dome of leafless branches over us
The winter twilight gradually closing in.

Private apartments now line the open river
Where factories and workshops once abounded
The Wandle delta is now quite different
With Putney lights reflected in the Thames.