A Sunday walk with Pip and Mary

Our relaxing Sunday started well when Pip and Mary arrived as planned at mid-morning coffee time. We hadn't seen them for some time so we had lots to catch up on, particularly about the sad death of our mutual friends' daughter Sam, whose funeral I went to last Friday.

We had a light lunch and then walked up into and around the nearby cemetery which is on the side of The Horns valley just above our home. At the chapel we stopped  for a few minutes to look out over Stroud town towards the Severn Vale. You can probably just make out the River Severn in the distance in front of the hills of the Forest of Dean. When we set off on our walk it was quite sunny but dark clouds rolled in from the west with the tiny drops of rain under the black clouds. 

The cemetery is in two sections, the old and the new. This is the view from the oldest part and you can see the relatively wild nature of the graveyard, as it is maintained as a nature reserve by the Town Council. There are several interesting species there including adders and glow-worms and a lot more besides. It is a lovely place for people to rest.