What I enjoy most about going back down to my home county of Berkshire and adjoining counties is the opportunity to spend time by the waters of the Thames and Kennet and that is what I was able to do this month often accompanied by different members of my family who still live there.
An old school friend and her family used to live in the above pub which has been restored rebuilt (*see Amy's comment below) since those days. It was interesting to go back there as the attraction for me was the walk along the tow path by the River Kennet, which is part of the Kennet and Avon Canal or the Kennet Navigation as it's known on this stretch of the waterway, before we had our lunch.
ragged robin and wood forget-me-not
bugle right) on the left is ladies smock also called
milk maids
comfrey
Burghfield Bridge in the Kennet Valley, which is south-west of Reading town centre. On an old map of 1790 the area is shown as 'World's End'!
Crossing the nearby Bath and Bristol main road is 'Honey End' where my old high school is located. It was a girls' school (now amalgamated with a boys' school) and at the time students travelled from every district of Reading to attend it. I lived east of the town and caught two buses to get there.
The waters of the Kennet join the River Thames at Reading and run through the Kennet Valley south-westward to towns such as Newbury and beyond as far as Bristol as the canal meets up with the Avon.
