Lyddington-Seaton-Bisbrooke-Uppingham-Lyddington

A fine frosty morning, crisp ground underfoot, sun shining, clothing well layered. Seven miles with Maureen. The same route as on several previous occasions, the last one around eighteen months ago. 

Across the village green, church away to the right, we head north past the ancient fishponds of Lyddington Bede House. Is that a ghostly monk? Maybe not.

We turn and skirt the wooded hill, through a gate and onto a path which used to be a mudbath, but has been surfaced - bliss! Uphill to open fields. The path is clear and well-marked, under a line of pylons, and soon turns left slightly and over a stream to Seaton Grange. From here a road climbs up into the village.
We turn right and walk until we find the footpath sign and steep steps up to our left. We've reached the plateau and the wind is blowing.
The signs are very good, the fields are clear, the path goes north as far as the dismantled railway, then turns to the northwest.   We can see Bisbrooke church with its tower away to our left before we go downhill then across a new footbridge. A lot of the stiles have been replaced by gates. That makes life easier!  The path goes between hedges and brings us out close to Bisbrooke church.

Someone has put windfall apples in a basket with an invitation to "Help yourself", but we don't want to carry extra weight.
We cross the Glaston Road and take a track (labelled Inmans Road at the start). This track heads directly west into Uppingham. It comes out on another Glaston Road and takes us into the town centre, past the cricket ground. 
We have a luxurious warm indoor cup of coffee at the Coppergate cafe, before taking our own sandwiches outside to a sunny bench, sheltered from the wind.

Then it's the footpath beside the cemetery, up a short steep hill, with a great view of the town behind us.

After a flat section, we reach a wider track where we turn left then right to go downhill again. Here be sleeping pigs warming themselves in the sun, looking like heaps of rich black soil near the fence.

And here be goats, an almost invisible donkey - and another sleeping pig, we think! 

Of course what goes down comes up again - another short steep climb before we cross the school playing field, and then descend an agricultural field to the Uppingham to Lyddington Road.
We meet horses who come to say hello, but are not interested when they realise we are foodless.

 We take the footpath across the road which takes us into Lyddington the back way, past a couple of large ponds and fields with more horses.

This route can be muddy, but today the ground is still frozen.