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In this issue

• WIN! - A stylish Dorset Cereals satchel
• Best summer walking holidays
• NEW - Foot Trails summer site launched
• June, month of flowers

Hello

Here comes summer.........

In this special edition of Foot Trails news, we are celebrating and focusing on summer. Our thoughts have turned to fields of golden ripening corn, hazy lazy days out on the trail, without a care in the world, yummy picnics of local goodies and delicacies and long evenings in one of our English country inns, with fabulous sunsets.

Read on, to find out the best walks and holiday locations for June, July and August trips, win a beautiful stylish Dorset Cereal satchel and enjoy our new summer mini site, it's packed with inspiration and ideas for your summer walking holiday.

Warm regards,
Alison Howell
Foot Trails walking holidays

Win a gorgeous Dorset Cereals satchel
full of cereal bars

Our friends at Dorset Cereals believe that life really is too short to settle for second best and that simple, honest pleasures are often the most rewarding. They love being out and about enjoying the great outdoors as much as we do, and have created some wonderfully stylish satchels for you to enjoy when you are gallivanting across the countryside! They are giving you the chance to win one of three satchels full of their delicious cereal bars which are just perfect for when you are on the go. Simple, but then the best things in life usually are!

To win one of the filled satchels, just send your name, address and email address via the competition page here, closing date is 05th July 2010

For more about Dorset Cereals, tips on enjoying life´s simple pleasures and for more great competitions, visit their website www.dorsetcereals.co.uk

Best summer Foot Trail walking holidays

Summer walking is best when shady oaks and woody glades are interspersed with fabulous far reaching views, and a glass of chilled wine at a gorgeous country pub. For the best of an English summer, try one of our favourite walking holidays specially designed with summer in mind

Guided Foot Trails

05 July, Truly Madly Deeply Dorset, 4 nights, Breathtakingly beautiful, this relaxing walking holiday is based in an idyllic Dorset village where thatched cottages and country gardens can be found. Staying in an award winning country inn you will have the most wonderful place to relax after summer days out on the nearby Cranborne Chase.
Visit Foot Trails website here

01 August, There and Back Again, 5 nights, Brand new inn to inn guided walking holiday for 2010 - this is nearly full, just 2 places available. Stay at three superb country inns from where you will explore the historic and dramatic countryside of the Wiltshire and Dorset borders, encountering medieval villages, sparkling streams, ancient churches, corn fields, meadows and wild flowers.
Visit Foot Trails website here

Independent Foot Trails

Dorset Jurassic Coast, Ready at last! Our long awaited coastal and inland walking trip that succeeds in avoiding  the summer crowds, taking you to idyllic and little known secret spots.......  book yours now 
Visit Foot Trails website here

Truly Madly Deeply Dorset, An independent version of this idyllic Dorset holiday. Wonderful spots for sunsets, gorgeous country spots for picnics, chalk downs, wild flower meadows and breath-taking scenery make this a truly summer sizzler.
Visit Foot Trails website here

Click here for late summer availability

New Foot Trails summer mini website launched

Fancy some English summer walking inspiration? Looking for top tips on summer walking in the South West of England? Pop on over to our brand new summer mini website now, where you can read up on top tips and browse images galore in our special summer gallery.

Visit Foot Trails summer website here

June, month of Wild Flowers

Rural South West England knows how to put on an inspiring display when summer months come. Here are just a few of the highlights you can enjoy on a Foot Trail during June.

Downland often produces dramatic displays of wildflowers in June. If we've had enough rain they are often ablaze with colour.

The little yellow flowers of birdsfoot trefoil, tormentil and cinquefoil (like tormentil but with five petals) are perhaps the most common flowers, and you can also spot the yellow globes of black meddick (so named for its fruits, rather than its flowers). Also common are dainty yellow rock roses, as well as cranesbills, field pansies, and horseshoe vetch. You can find the aromatic leaves of wild majoram rowing right from the start of the month, but it only flowers towards the end. The same is true of wild thyme, which makes delicate purple mats.

June is also a good month to see orchids on the downs, including the common spotted orchid (its name refers to its spotted flowers and stems, not the frequency with which it is seen), and pyramid orchids. Other flowers in no particular order include yellow-wort, with its strange double leaves, dropwort (a kind of down land meadowsweet) and ribbed melliot. As the month goes on you also find restharrow, pretty purple self-heal, and meadow century - a tiny little pink flower - and eyebright, an even tinier white flower.

For those of you enjoying an independent Foot Trail, you'll find a complimentary wild flower guide in your walk pack, to help you spot and identify all these gorgeous flowers.

Click here to visit Foot Trails website.

This newsletter and its content is copyright Foot Trails. Photographs, Alison and David Howell
© Foot Trails 2010