A lunch time walk

The weather's been quite nice this past week and I managed to get out for a walk down to St Cross Church and back one day. I didn't want to come back mind. I wanted to keep going and sit at the top of St Catherines Hill...Never mind.
As I walked along Kingsgate Street, I saw this love big shrub - a smoke bush?? The camera on my phone hasn't done it justice - it was much pinker than this. Shame about the telegraph pole...

The house with the fabulous allotment garden looks like they've been doing a lot of picking. There's a fair bit of bare earth now, although I could still raspberries to pick and runner beans growing. Not a good picture as I was looking into the sun.

When I reached St Cross, I happened across this lovely thistle going to seed. I love seed heads like this and couldn't resist snapping several photos.

Once you're at St Cross, you can access the water meadows for a walk by the river. Very tempting! I must admit, on this occasion I did succumb for just a few minutes and started my  journey back to work through the water meadow. Said hi to the cows quietly grazing -

I stopped briefly to enjoy the view of St Catherines Hill - it was a perfect day for a stroll to the top... It didn't help that I could just make out some people up there. I'll just have to go after work one day...