In bright winter sunshine in a crisp breeze we walked a loop of a few km from East Meon church:

From the graveyard the path rapidly ascends 100m up into Park Hill giving great views over the village. Very soon we were higher than the steeple:

 

Even higher above some red kites effortlessly circled over a corn field. A local said they had been recently introduced:

On the top of the hill looking east to the south downs stretching away in the haze beyond Butser Hill:

The rolling grassland of Park Hill near to Vineyard Hole. (Now there are some vines nearer the village at the Court House.)

On the Bereleigh Estate, Park Farm. The ice on the pond would be soon to melt:

 

Hey you forgot the hay!

 

Over open country, down through Rookham Copse, over the road to Pidham Lane. These sunken lanes with trees on the bank always remind me of The Fellowship of the Ring:

 

Old lanes eaten up by motorbikes and sodden led us to the gravel of the Greenway Track:

No cars. Look how dated the sign design is, some kind of 1960s car:

 

Frogmore lies to the east of East Meon. Only 2km from its source, the Meon turns west here into the Meon Valley proper. Old cottages and a bridge here:

 

Taking the lane instead of more mud in the fields, we were soon in the village, with it’s thatched cottages and Georgian houses and pub:

 

Then back to the church in it’s downland situation:

The old Court House c14 onwards:

 

Ventilation tile:

 

Scarecrow at the village allotments: