Sharing good times with old friends

Graham and Barbara came to stay for a couple of days on their way home to Lincolnshire from a few days at the Hay Festival. We’ve been friends since the early 1970s so have shared a lot of stories. Today Helena had to go to work but we all managed to meet up in the afternoon to visit our other mutual friends Shirley and Steve, who also live in Stroud.

In the morning I took them to the farm shop in Bisley as I needed a few supplies and from there I drove along the ancient road that even in roman times linked Cirencester to Gloucester. The local stretch crosses the various local steep valleys and we ended up in the Slad valley, made famous by Laurie Lee’s celebrated autobiographical novel, ‘Cider with Rosie’., about his childhood in and around the village of Slad.

Graham likes to walk every day so we drove up the small local road leading up towards the head of the valley, and stopped by Steanbridge Mill. Barbara likes to sketch and paint while Graham walks so she stayed by the old millpond to record what she saw. I meandered up the road with my camera watching baby coots, in the pond, butterflies, flowers and lovely Cotswold stone houses  and farm buildings. I’ve added an ‘Extra’ of Barbara taken when I returned from my walk just as she finished her painting. She has a wonderful travelling art case full of pencils, paper, pens and an array of small water colour brushes.

We met up with Graham on his return at the Woolpack inn in Slad village. Laurie Lee visited the woolpack all his life and is buried thirty yards away in the church graveyard on the other side of the road from the pub. 

I drove home to pick up Helena and we all then went to have a cream tea with Shirley and Steve. She is a wonderful gardener and it was a delight to sit chatting for many hours sharing tales and filling in gaps in all our lives. At one point I passed one of Shirley’s two studio buildings in the garden. I saw her mannequin through the open door from a distance and liked the way the light shine into the space.