A walk before breakfast, three quarters of an hour

Out of the back gate

Turn left out of the courtyard, left again at the postbox, and you are on the river path inside three minutes. It is flat the whole way and it drains well, but the first field is wet until about May.

The bridge

Twenty minutes out you reach the old bridge. Most people stop there and come back the same way. If you carry on over it, the path loops through the meadow and brings you back past the church.

Timing it

Forty-five minutes at a walk, an hour if the cattle are in. Breakfast runs from half past seven until ten, so there is no need to rush.

Boots

There are spare wellingtons by the front door in sizes five to twelve. Take them, bring them back muddy, nobody minds.