Blog

June & July 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

June and July were crammed with events, so much so that the original writer gave up before even starting.

Commencing with another Pheasant birthday it was all guns blazing into the 2^nd and final phase of the Kings Lynn Camino. Four intrepid Pheasants tackled the Great Bircham to Walsingham walk early in June. This was the third pilgrimage covering the West Side of East Anglia and regular readers will note that the meals and celebrations in Walsingham have come a long way since the three-in-a-room situation of the first pilgrimage.

The brutal summer heat restricted the group to sporadic catch ups at the West End for planning sessions for future walks and events.

The end of June saw an up-tick in the number of Pheasants turning up for the Castle Rising walk following rumours of cream teas.

July flew by with more informal discussions on future events including wistful planning of Malta 2027, which has driven significant (if unrealistic) interest within the group with great anticipation.

July finished with a walk around Rattlesden and Woolpit as the group took in three local churches. Again, increased numbers were fortunate to witness the ancient and mythical (yet strangely new) Pheasant induction ceremony. Steve was welcomed with open arms into the venerable and worshipful order of the Dead Pheasants, taking the membership into double figures.

August has a couple of things planned and no doubt more discussions on Malta 2027.

May 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

Birthday celebrations continued into the month of May with Pheasant Mario reaching another dubious milestone, which was commemorated with the presentation of his very own stick. The wonderous artefact was lovingly crafted by the well known wood turners of Old Hunstanton and features an owl as the pummel.

This was followed by an inaugural whisky tasting session at which numerous drams were sampled and a sophisticated evening turned into carnage as the fiery liquid flowed uncontrollably. It took days for some of the attendees to sober up.

A couple of Pheasants ventured to Bury mid month to continue the celebrations and follow a new ale route through the town. Regular readers will be pleased to know the Pheasant Tom remained awake throughout. All that remained in May was the monthly walk, which started in Orwell and looped around Wimpole Hall. Coming in at just under 15km in full sun, the hike provided a stiff challenge for the company. They remained resilient to the task and with the help of an ice cream break, white chocolate puds and Thai inspired cuisine, were ultimately successful.

April 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

April proved to be a busy and sun drenched month. With one pheasant birthday, two book events and a beautiful April walk, the society was in full flow.

Pheasant Bellars had an anniversary this month and was presented with the customary pre-used Nethergate Brewery membership. As per tradition, this membership is deemed transferrable and to be passed around upon request.

The first book event was at St Peter’s featuring Richard Hayman, talking about Illuminated Manuscripts. This was nearly too much for Mario to handle, who had a hard time dealing with the speaker’s soporiphic ramblings concerning growing up in New Zealand. The evening was livened for the team when they found themselves waylaid by a curious lady with questionable mental faculties in the Albert pub afterwards.

Next followed Tim Parks’ “Across Sicily” with Garibaldi’s thousand red shirts. This biscuit laden talk soon had the group thinking about booking a walk in Sicily and take in Palermo. Having learnt the lesson from the previous talk, the group headed for the safety of the West End House for the customary post-talk cordial.

The month brought the curtain down with a walk in Dedham Vale, though only four Pheasants made the trip. These were however treated to a beautiful and varied trip in an enchanting corner of Essex. Only the extortionate price of food in The Marlborough pub let the day down.

With yet another anniversary for Pheasant Mario in May, expect further exploits soon.

March 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

March burst into life with an eventful society calendar, starting with two Pheasants attending a book signing by Thant Myint-U at St Peter’s church.

There was great excitement for the start of the new Camino season after several weeks of planning. With multiple logistics options exhausted, Bellars magniminously stepped up to the role of second driver, allowing the walk team to position the Toyota in Great Bircham which was used to get home.

The end of the month saw the first visit of the year to Bury. This trip was used to procure a birthday surprise for a fellow Pheasant, and Mario provided further surprises by being amenable to visit new locations. The team started jollities earlier than usual, but this was hardly an excuse for Tommy to fall asleep in his chair by 6pm.

That just left the March walk in Everton to be squeezed in as five intrepid Pheasants tackled the undulating countryside and pylons. This was not quite as challenging as finding space in the pub at the end of the walk.

April looks to be a busy month as planning for the 2^nd Camino stage, various book events and the month’s walk all need to be addressed.

February 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

February started with the annual Maltings beer festival as four Pheasants sampled the delights of what Camra had to offer including various forms of pocket meat and a much delayed portion of chips.

The Pheasant marketing department was in action again making sure the Dead Pheasant logo was front and centre throughout the event, culminating in Mario convincing one of the volunteer servers to don the badge on his head band. The evening finished with a superb curry at the Indian Edge.

Following an excellent recce, which found a treasure of a farm shop serving lovely bacon rolls and other culinery opportunities, it was realised that the monthly walk wouldn’t reach this gem so the start point was relocated to Barrington. This second walk of the year was attended by five hardy Pheasants after three withdrawals within the last 24 hours. All made it around safely despite several rail track and busy road crossings.

Following a succession of bar snacks the organisers, feeling sorry for the group missing out on the farm shop, took a diversion on the way back to allow the remaining pheasants to enjoy additional sustenance.

With the walking season well under way, days getting longer and weather improving, thoughts started drifting towards Camino planning for 2026 and other future Pheasant events.

January 2026
Author: Pheasant Tommy

The year started with a panic and the dawning realisation that the plans for the new season’s walks had somehow been lost. Blame was apportioned in a zealous and indiscriminate manner but the cold reality was that the original list of hikes had been misplaced and no back up existed.

This resulted in a 2^nd arduous session back at the West End House to once again plan a corpus of walks for 2026. Luckily there were a few breadcrumbs in the encyclopaedic Pheasant library for the rebuild process to take place. With a new series of routes planned and chiselled into granite for safe keeping the Pheasants were once again ready for another year’s adventuring.

January itself finished with a new record as 10 pheasants turned up for the Great Massingham walk, marking the first time a pheasant outing had a double figures attendance. This event also allowed us to welcome a new Pheasant applicant to the group and the hope is that he becomes a regular across the remainder of 2026.

December 2025
Author: Pheasant Tommy

December got underway with the final walk of the year, culminating the sublime planning introduced into the schedule by Mario.

This was hotly followed by the annual pheasant trip to the “Beers of Europe” warehouse, where the disappointment from the sparsely populated shelves was compensated for by serious pheasant browsing around the antiques section in a forelorn effort to unearth hidden gems for the annual awards. Having failed to find anything in their exceptionally low budget, the pheasants did succeed in enjoying themselves immensely.

This was followed by the annual Christmas lunch at the Hare Arms, where there was plenty of food but decidedly unequal plate dimensions causing some consternation for the youngest member, who got the child sized portion.

The following week saw the next annual event in the Christmas calendar as a number of pheasants took the Ely locomotive to Bury for an enjoyable evening followed predictably by a Mario request for a festive curry, saving the interlopers from an overpriced steakhouse experience. Rules were apparently harshly modified to thwart this sort of democratic behaviour in 2026.

This left the remainder of December to find pheasant awards, kick off voting season and sit back to watch the pheasant polling process majestically navigate this exercise in democracy.

Awards night occurred just before Christmas, where the group enjoyed a Thai dinner and were treated to a special guest. The unique awards were duly presented and treasured by the winners.

Team Pheasant ended the year with a chaotic planning session which after much effort yielded a number of walks for 2026 or so they thought….

November 2025
Author: Pheasant Tommy

November began early with the delayed Abingdon Pigotts walk and the debut of the Mrk2 Pheasant footwear, due to one Pheasant turning up for parade and forgetting his boots. Early reports showed that the new footwear held up well to all terrains encountered on the day.

The middle of the month saw a few pheasants attend a book talk by Andy Wilman about his new publication. The talk also included a slightly comical quiz of questionable success.

The end of November saw a pheasant trip to the Ely Cathedral Christmas Fair, which included a very large observation wheel. It was with much hilarity that three of the pheasants and a junior fledgeling tried to squeeze into a small gondola. Having succeeded, a complicated choroegraphed dance manoeuvre was required to allow the group to swap places and get an all round view.

The rest of the month was taken with planning numerous Christmas events including booking in the Christmas awards extravaganza and there still remains one final walk to be completed in December.

October 2025
Author: Pheasant Tommy

October ended up being a strange month for the fact that no walk took place. This was due to Mario inspired shenanigans which resulted in the month’s walk being moved, an additional hole in Rachel Reeves’ budget and stubborn resistance in the inflation rate for the UK. Arguably not all were Mario’s fault.

In a strange quirk of fate, the walk, now slated for November, is proving to be quite popular and likely to be one of the best attended in 2025, justifying Mario’s sage rescheduling. Regular readers will be shocked to discover that Mario has been asked to attend a Pheasant hearing on the matter, though his heroic demeanour and understated good looks are bound to see him fend off any frivolous charges. However, one must never underestimate Pheasant chicanery and the episode may well affect his chances in the 2025 awards.

Despite no walk, the Pheasants flocked together for Olly Smith’s wine tasting evening at St Mary’s church. The event was advertised as showcasing eight wines, but shockingly there were only three to sample on the night and no breadsticks. Olly put on a good show and the Pheasants were crafty enough to leave the venue with the remains of a bottle of Taylor’s late vintage port for research purposes.

The added gaps in the late October window allowed a few Pheasants to try the Octoberfest at the Drayman’s Arms where society business was discussed over cheese platters and a few 0.5% beers from the sensible Mario. Creeky eventually joined once several taxis had tried and failed to reach him, and the trio became four as Bellars turned up for last rites in the Albert.

October ended with a lot of planning discussions for the festive calendar and a date for the Christmas award event was agreed upon. In true Pheasant tradition, with the date fixed, the pluckers have actually yet to book a location for this annual cultural highlight. The species can never be accused of being hasty.

With the remaining walking calendar for 2025 in disarray, Tommy did at least do a recce for the October-in-November walk.

Sepetmber 2025
Author: Pheasant Tommy

September continued to bring good weather for Pheasant walks and events.

The beginning of the month saw numerous pheasants flock to the Poets House for Whiskey Tasting with Joel Harrison. A generous selection of five different offerings, coupled with some fancy tumblers to take home saw the attendees well taken care of and suitably squiffy.

Following increased public recognition of the Pheasants we were asked to help advertise a walking quiz around Ely. After an inglorious start by Mario and Tommy, further reinforcements were drafted in as Bellars joined the fray to help finish both quizes.

The end of the month saw a new walk being undertaken, with the Pheasants making the most of ideal Autumn weather to visit picturesque Pakenham and the surrounding area. A preponderance of cows on the walk caused Bellars undue anxiety.

With October just around the corner and Christmas and award season looming, it will prove to be a busy period for the group.