Towards the end of summer

I managed to find time to go to buy our vegetables at my favourite place, Stancombe Beech Farm shop, which is situated just outside Bisley village, about three miles away up on the top of the Cotswolds hills. Here the bedding plane of the limestone is at its highest as it slopes down steadily eastwards, eventually reaching Oxfordshire.

Before they closed for lunch I managed a quick chat with the owners, an extended family, including Jim and his two children, Sally and Ashley, and her son who is just ready to go to university. Jim is famous for his range of Cotswold honeys with hived dotted all over the local area. Ashley is a farmer, while Sally works in the farm shop. They produce great fresh and cheap vegetables, whilst also sourcing whatever local seasonal produce is on offer. Today I snaffled a bag full of freshly picked cob nuts, which I have been chewing and savouring after Helena got out the nutcrackers.

When I left, I immediately stopped outside the gates as my eye was caught by the recently baled crop in the fields. I am not sure that this is their farmland, but I wanted to stop and enjoy the fresh airy breezes and the colour of the straw, set against the heavy overcast cloudy sky. As autumn nears there will be so many events in the country as the everything prepares for winter.

I haven't spent much time out of Stroud recently, and as soon as I get up here I want to wander and take pictures. There is so much for me to discover in this part of Gloucestershire, with so many differing valleys running down from this relatively flat area I call the Tops. The views can take you eyes for many miles I first visited this village when I was working in the next hamlet, called Througham, through the long hot summer of 1975. I have been coming back regularly ever since, before moving here in 2003.