What a lovely photo – you obviously had a brilliant family day out. The children won’t forget that lovely little lamb and the nice farmer at Craswall Abbey in a hurry. I hadn’t even thought of that walk as one for children to enjoy, but of course it’s absolutely perfect.

It is always a real pleasure to get a letter like yours. One fires these articles off like arrows into the blue, and it’s a big encouragement to know that one has hit the spot – especially with young children.

Happy walking for many years ahead. And if the children become refuseniks in their teens – they’ll get over it, and will enjoy walking with you even more afterwards – experto credo!

I will pass the letter and photo on to the Weekend Editor for her to consider, but I will certainly post it on my website (www.christophersomerville.co.uk) if you’re quite happy about that.

With good wishes, and many thanks again,

Christopher

I am writing to inform you of a fantastic day out we had enjoying a good walk of Craswall & Monnow Valley, Herefordshire ( April 7th 2012). My father had read your article prior to kindly taking our children on holiday ( & treating us to a weekend away on our 11th wedding anniversary!!) nearby in Grosmont & we set off on April 14th with my parents, husband & children.

The children managed the majority of the walk extremely well & what we encountered on route was nature at its best. An abundance of Spring lambs jumping & playing together with very newly born lambs evidenced by wobbly legs, umbilical cords & fresh placenta in the field!! The children were curious to see this!

We came across Abbey farm which was just great. As we arrived the dogs greeted us along with the farmer & his family. We were peering into the barns & saw lambs, cattle & a huge bull. Much to the children’s delight the farmer’s wife came to feed the lambs & brought one out to show them. We were then joined by the dogs & a puppy. We spent a fair amount of time here before trudging around the ruins of Craswall Abbey which was intriguing.

As a family who love the great outdoors this proved a big hit. We saw no one along the route, the views were amazing & best of all it introduces the next generation to an alternative enjoyment to screens, rollercoaster rides & inflated cartoon characters.

I have attached a photograph which my mother took which I think shows the enjoyment we all had that day.

We will be walking with our children for years to come, thankfully encouraged by my parents and reading articles such as yours.

Yours sincerely,

Alexa Elliott

I am very sorry, but the fact is that the Times only allow me 600 words for story and info. You can imagine that is a great compression, and very often there is not room enough for the proper, detailed instructions I like to give. If that’s the case I always flag it up in the info section by inviting readers to go to the website for more details, and I have to rely on them to notice that and act on it! Please feel free to contact the Weekend Section directly if you’d like to press your case for more words – I won’t object!

I’m glad you liked the walk, anyway.

With good wishes,

Christopher

Well, I don’t think I have ever had such a lyrical and delightful thank you – so thank you!

I’m so pleased that you did this walk on a day like that – it really is a beauty, and having by coincidence been reading this week about Edward Thomas and Eric Ravilious, I can picture your ‘pure heaven’ in its proper setting.

With good wishes, and many thanks once again for taking the time to write me such a lovely note,

Christopher

I’m so delighted you liked my piece on the Maharees,and thanks for those exceptionally beautiful photos. You might be interested in the work of Adrian Warren, who died last year – he was the best aerial photographer I’ve ever come across, rendering landcape as art. Have a look at the gallery on http://www.lastrefuge.co.uk and see what you think.

Happy snapping and flying!

With good wishes,

Christopher

After discovering your lovely and very complementry piece on The Maharees, Ireland-(January 23 2010), through a repost on Facebook by ‘Spillanes Bar’ in the Maharees, I sent you a link that you might be interested in. Thanks for being so positive about the area!

I use a kite to bring up my camera and one of the last posts on my blog features The Maharees. You might have happy memories by seeing the pictures of this great place, and the images of other Dingle peninsula scenery on the blog sofar.

This is the link: http://ckitepics.blogspot.com/2012/03/maharees-special.html

Kind regards,
Jos Liefkens.