St Martha's Hill.

While I was off work over Christmas I mainly stayed inside all day every day gorging on chocolate and mince pies and all the other delicious foods while watching films. However on one particular day I woke up and looked out the window to see our garden shrouded in fog and frost. I grabbed my coat and scarf, got Dylan over-excited with the promise of 'walk!', and jumped in the car.

We drove up to St Martha's Hill. It's the perfect place to go for a misty winter walk. It isn't as good as Leith Hill, but that's too far away and I was worried the frost would disappear. Even just going to St Martha's it had disappeared a little and the clear blue sky was out, but it still looked lovely and frosty in some parts.

We parked up and Dylan jumped across the car seats and onto my lap so he could be the first one out the door (he lacks any kind of patience to just sit and wait until I can get round the other side of the car). He ran off towards the hill and I followed him, slinging my camera bag over my shoulder and pulling my thick scarf around my neck to protect my poorly throat from the biting cold.

We ran up the sandy hill and stood at the top to admire the view. It was quite busy up there with families trying to burn off Christmas calories, but Dylan and I still managed to play a few games of fetch and everyone complimented him on his dashing Christmas bow-tie.

St Martha's Church sits atop St Martha's hill. The church was re-built in the 1800's after the 12th century one fell down, but they retained a lot of the 12th century features so it still looks quite Norman. The prettiest time to go to St Martha's is at Christmas for the Christmas service, and May Dawn when the Pilgrim Morris Men dance at the top of the hill at the day break of 1st May (usually around 5am). I went a few years ago and it's quite a sight to see and feels as though you're in another time. 

I tried to get some decent photos of Dylan but he wasn't having any of it (I guess I wouldn't either if I was forced to go out with a spotty bow tie on), he just wanted to play in the bracken and chew on sticks. He looks so bloody miserable in the photo above haha! I managed to get the one below while holding a stick and saying 'wait....wait....wait...' while I snapped a photo, then threw it for him and he went charging after it!

After wandering around the top and playing far too many rounds of fetch that one person can stand, we headed back down and drove back home. Naturally I spent the rest of the day eating more mince pies, Christmas cake, and watching movies.