Preparations

It’s almost time for our annual Summer Road Trip.  With that in mind, when I was shopping recently and spotted a pack of Heidi Swapp’s No Limits paper in a discount store*, I picked it up immediately.  I’ve actually used this collection before, because it works well for a travel journal and the colours are to my liking too.

It’s a no frills journal this time.  Just a simple 6 x 8 landscape format which will eventually be spiral bound.  I cut plain and patterned pages and will use them in whatever order I come across them.

The first page is complete, though.  Isn’t it irritating when the place you are looking for is off the map, though?

*I bought the pack at Home Sense in Gloucester, the homeware offshoot of TK Maxx.  Though it wasn’t labelled as “seconds”, the quality of the print is not good and if I’d had more time/energy, I’d have taken it back.  As it is, I’ve cut most of it up and I guess it’s no big deal.

What, now?

I came back from the hairdressers this morning and spotted a signpost for a Summer Exhibition in the Old Chapel at the bottom of the hill.  I might have muttered something to my hero over lunch that I thought I’d go and take a look sometime soon.  It’s a while since I visited one of their shows and with someone around here with a birthday coming up, well, perhaps I’d spot a little something for the wall. 

“You know, I might even walk down there.”

“I’ll come with you”, he said.

“What, now?”

“Why not?”

So we set off through the lanes, avoiding the road wherever possible.  It’s a few years since we took that particular route and on a beautiful sunny afternoon, it was lovely to stop and notice things.

I’m sure it didn’t used to be so steep, though  

 

We walked along narrow shelves and down steep little pathways.  At times, we were none too sure where the path would lead but we were confident we were heading in more or less the right direction – downhill!

There was a clue in the trees.

A bigger clue by the gate, too.  Actually, we’d come down too far and had to go up a flight of steps to reach the Chapel.  I can tell you, at least one of us was pretty tuckered out by now.

Thankfully, there’s a warm welcome to the exhibition (upstairs!) and we enjoyed looking around the paintings there as much as we always do.  It’s rather a special place with beautiful views, as you can see from their website and on a previous visit, which Mary will remember, I found the perfect birthday present for my Hero, which now hangs on our kitchen wall.

History doesn’t repeat itself though, and today there was nothing which really made our hearts sing, so before too long we found ourselves considering the return home.

Uphill.

But rather than simply turn around and go back the way we came, we took the short pathway down to the High Street (yes, that’s it, above) before going back onto the small tracks which would take us back home.  Eventually.

As anyone who has been here knows, these tracks were not built for vehicles.

There are beautiful homes in the valley here, but many of them have very limited vehicular access.

By now, I was getting very hot and bothered, not to mention a bit puffed out.

So a level stretch came as a brief respite from the uphill struggle.  If there was a small breeze too, then that was bliss!

Can it really be only last week that we were complaining that we were cold?

Just when I said that I’d love to see one of those benches they put out for old people to sit on, we came across it!

(Yes, of course we sat down for a while)

There wasn’t much of a view!

Actually, there was a fine view with not a building in sight.  We looked at the elevation and thought that surely, we must have climbed half way back up by now?

A little further along, the view opened out and sure enough, we were almost to the top of the hill.

What a glorious afternoon!  How great it is to be alive!  I’ll just take a photo (which really means, I’ll just stand here and have a little rest for a bit)

I was about to take a photo of the village sign when someone walked in front of it!  Not far now.

At last, within sight of home sweet home!

Just over an hour later, feeling hot, bothered, red faced and looking a wreck, I wondered just whose idea this had been, then?

(My Hero consulted the maps when we got home.  Only a couple of miles, but 400ft descent – and more importantly, 400ft ascent on the way back )

Sunny June

It’s been a while coming.   We’ve been watching and waiting to start our annual ritual.

There are signs that it’s going to be a bumper harvest this year.

A bit of warm sunshine this morning brought the first elderflower blossoms out though and it was time at last for my Hero and I to gather the first bowlful.

I stood in the same place, followed the same recipe and thought the same thoughts as I have been doing for the last twelve years. 

It’s just another of those punctuation marks in our life.

Another year.  Another elderflower cordial post.

Saturday morning

at work.

Not at the beach, but in the car park up on the common on what was supposed to be a sunny morning.  As you can see, it was a little overcast.  Never mind.

I wasn’t alone.

Actually, as well as the cows, there were a few people gathering for a class I was going to observe: “The flowers and grasses of Rodborough Common”.  As we got our things together, a bird was twittering overhead – immediately identified by almost everyone (except me, of course) as a skylark.  What a great start!  I’d learned something already

It’s a beautiful spot, popular with dog walkers and somewhere I drive regularly, though I’ll be the first to admit that I take it for granted.  Getting out there this morning was a real joy.

The common is an SSSI – a Site of Special Scientific Interest – owned and managed by the National Trust, one of whose staff came with us this morning.  It is uncultivated and there’s a rich variety of plantlife underfoot, so we didn’t have to walk very far at all before the botanist accompanying the class had knowledge and expertise to share. 

Because though I had thought we were walking over grass with a few buttercups, when we looked a little closer, there were actually many different varieties of grasses, not to mention wild flowers a-plenty.  Great to have people who could recognise them all and share their expertise!

Someone else was as interested as we were in what was growing up there, edging a little nearer whilst quietly munching away.

Before long, we had a new member of the group!

The hiatus was the perfect cue for me to offer my thanks and leave them to it.  Much as I’d have loved to stay and learn more, it was time to let the tutor get on with her work, without me looking over her shoulder.

It also meant I was ahead of the queue at Winstones!