Pools of light under the beech canopy

We got to sleep far too late this morning and I have been suffering somewhat today. The weather was fine, with a cold dawn having produced swirling mists in the valleys above the frosted ground. The sun has been shining all day but a cool chill has hung in the air under the blue sky and elongated, intermittent clouds which have rolled in slowly on the light westerly breeze.

I kept to my plan of going shopping in Gloucester but preceded it with a trip to the farm shop in Bisley to get good fresh vegetables. From there I took the small old but metalled trackways, up hills and down dales, as I crossed the two river valleys to reach the Cotswold escarpment and Gloucester which lies below in the Severn Vale.

The Slad valley and its village were looking gorgeous in the midday sun, with a definite turn towards brown of the abundant leaves of the woodlands dotted along the hillsides. Then I crossed over the sharp ridge and down into the valley formed by the Painswick stream, before heading up the steep Tibblewell lane into the old and elegant village.

After crossing the A46, which follows the line of the valley, I ascended up towards Painswick Beacon, which is the site of an ancient camp high on the escarpment. I love this section of the old road just before it reaches the ridge, where the beech trees form a tunnel like the span of a cathedral. What catches my eye are the patterns formed by the pools of light on the tarmac. It won't be long before this whole scene becomes bathed in the orange light of fallen beech leaves, and the sky is allowed to peek in again until next year.