Wearing our distinctive vests, yellow for Nursery and red for Reception, we took the secret passage from the Pre-Prep playground into Rose Place and waved back to the customers as we walked past the coffee shop window. Having safely traversed St Aldates we entered through the huge gates, with our returning cohort noticing that the lavender had been cut along the path. The Rose Garden contained a surprise explosion of pink and white cosmos. We will have to ask the gardeners on another visit what their secret is to growing these as the Nursery ones, didn't reach their height this year.

There was an audible 'wow' as we passed by the Meadow building. It really is an amazing sight that we can too easily take for granted. We ate our rice cakes under the plain trees near the Pavilion, listening to Miss Rebecca read Julia Donaldson's, 'The Scarecrows Wedding. ' The thought of pasta for lunch made the journey back to school much quicker. A perfect first walk of the new year, with a happy group of good walkers whom we are looking forward to sharing lots of Wednesday morning adventures with.