Our view over towards Montserratt

It was a busy day, with the men's cycling road race to follow and a trip to Bristol airport to meet Helena's niece, Maria, who is coming to stay overnight.

Soon after I got dressed after a bath, I noticed the summery light on the landscape as I looked from my desk across the Golden Valley to Montserratt, a small combe nestling on the north side below Rodborough and Bownham Commons.

This week the farmer has been harvesting his crop of hay. This entailed firstly cutting the crop, then leaving it to dry, before turning the hay over the next day before the bailers arrived to pack it in round bales to be taken away to store in their barn. All of this happened just to the left of this scene only three hundred yards away on the far side of the little Lime Brook, which flows beneath the big trees in the foreground.

I grabbed my camera and managed two shots, and this one wasn't well focused but it conveys the scene as I saw it. I like to keep a record of the views throughout the year reminding my self how beautiful the landscape is around us in Stroud. Soon enough the autumn colours will return and remind us of why the valley was so named.