Slad church from Swift's Hill

I have been a bit forgetful today and managed to miss a meeting.  I think I am running on empty at the moment and really need our imminent holiday. After doing the round of financial institutions checking on where money was coming and going to, I went to stock up with vegetables at the farm shop near Bisley.  This is always a delight requiring a three mile drive out of the town and the valleys onto the farming land on the top of the Cotswold hills.

I then needed to get to Ebley Mill on the far western side of Stroud  and realised that the cross-country route was the most direct. It took me to the area called Catswood, where the old drove road drops down towards the Slad valley.  It then passed along the side of the valley at the spring line and I drove slowly looking out for possible scenes to photograph.  I stopped to catch some crow antics in the stubbly field and on the adjacent hedgerows.

A bit further along the valley the single track road passes below Swift's Hill, which has been designated as a nature conservation area.  It is a much loved spot for Stroudies who come up the three miles from town to enjoy the wonders of the famed Slad valley, made famous particularly by Laurie Lee and one of his books, 'Cider with Rosie'.

I stopped and parked in the old entrance to a former quarry cut into Swift's Hill.  I spotted this view back across to the village of Slad where you can see the village church where Laurie Lee is buried just a few yards away from the Woolpack Inn, the building at the centre of this scene with a long wall.  This was his local and he was often there throughout his life. It still retains the atmosphere of a small roadside village pub despite the gastro pub meals now served and the newer clientele. If you cn zoom into the picture on the 'large' version you can see several people sitting outside the Woolpack on a wall beside the road.

I love these valley views that pop up wherever you seem to look in the Stroud valleys. As I continued along the road I within a hundred yards I came across five ponies standing perched on the hillside where they graze the hillsides. Then I dropped down to cross over the Slad Brook and drove into Stroud on the far side of the valley.