The needles

Last updated: 22 January 2006

The floor of a ride is needles. After rain it is needles and standing water. After a dry week it is still needles, and they move under the boot. In October they are the colour of the larch. In January they are the path, if snow has taken the rest of the line. They are not a waymark.

Walkers who follow a needle-line as if it were a path will come out where the planting was last thinned, which is not always the green. The stile is the place to turn if the waymarked line has gone. The measured cut from that stile to the hall is given as half a mile on one paper and as three-quarters on another; both are current. Take the shorter if the light is going.

Needles hold the weather. Waterproofs are ordinary kit. See the rides and in winter. Fires are not permitted.