The Minotaur and the Hare

View the pink headgear in large

In search of a street blip today I wandered through the park in Stroud, to check on the swans. The female is still sitting on the nest, mainly sleeping, as she has been doing for the past several weeks. (It takes at least six weeks to incubate the eggs once they have all been laid). In the distance I saw some mad-looking hippies with scarves and children, and reckoned I probably knew them! Turns out it was my friend Dam and her three daughters, enjoying their home education in the park. They were just on their way home and I had a bus to catch, but we agreed to meet soon, as it's been a couple of years!

The destination today was Tewkesbury, which was highly impractical, because by the time I'd got there on two buses, it was almost time to turn round and go back! Nevertheless, there was no better day to sit by the river Avon and eat ice cream; to watch boats putter up and down; and observe the flag of England flying from the Abbey tower on actual St George's day! (if there was an actual St George, that is...)

Tewkesbury is full of leaning Tudor buildings, half-timbered, and warm brick as opposed to Cotswold stone. There are a great many independent shops, and I only saw one closed down. The town floods often, because of the confluence of the rivers Severn and Avon, so I didn't even fantasise about moving there, but it remains a place that I would like to explore more. This applies particularly to the vast open area (flood plain) beside the river, and the John Moore museum of almost everything. The Abbey is already one of my special places; it has an intimacy about the interior that the larger places, such as Gloucester cathedral, lacks. Perhaps I will return to the town on Saturday, as I will still have a bus pass, and am going to Cheltenham for the evening, anyway.

The blip is actually a street scene from the Promenade at Cheltenham, which I had to pass through (and yes, unseen hands forced me into Lakeland and L'Occitane while I was there!) on my way to/from Stroud. The sculpture is by Sophie Ryder, and is entitled the Minotaur and the Hare. It was first displayed in the town in 1995 as part of a sculpture exhibition, and was bought for the town in 1998. Most of the townsfolk seem happy to ignore it: it's not very Cheltenham, and features (shock horror ) naked animals with genitals! I almost snapped two children playing beside it, but they ran away, and anyway, they were children. So you've got these shoppers instead. As you can see, the sun was shining, and everyone was wearing their summer clothes, except for woodpeckers, that is, who was feeling the heat.

I will put up some Tewkesbury shots, maybe, if I can work out which folder of the blipfolio is not yet full up! There were some I liked, but this is the most 'street'.

Tewkesbury shots now available!
In my folio, in the folder called "Out of county, and Tewkesbury".