Suppertime on Minchinhampton Common

I didn't achieve what I had hoped today, but I did buy a flashgun, ready for my two day photography course in Bristol next week. I also decided that I must forsake the committee meeting that I should be chairing next week in order to go to the memorial of an old friend in Somerset. It will be the first meeting I have missed and it has quite important issues to deal with, but I also need to prioritise, and that means people first.

I did get some 'stuff' done and managed to dig over the soil again in the riased beds to sift out the last vestiges of bindweed and couch grass. The bindweed's relatives, our Morning glory plants, are looking very good and we now have at least five flowers a day from three different coloured plants. Sadly those flowers only last about twelve hours so, we need to appreciate them when they appear.

I promised to pick Helena up from her old clinic in Nailsworth this evening as she had a new client and then needed to go out tonight for a quiz night. I drove 'over the top', which is a shorter route, and means traversing Minchinhampton Common. The cows are used as part of the management of the traditional Cotswold grasslands, which the National Trust is responsible for. The owners of the cows have to be Commoners, those people with the ancient right to graze these lands. I must admit I haven't seen Highland cattle here too often. Belted Galloways are quite often used as they are very happy on exposed hillsides, but this year I haven't seen any. A few horses are also roaming, and mingle happily across the many miles of common land.

I took this picture looking north-westwards towards Stroud in the distance with the line of the Cotswold escarpment moving northwards beyond the housing. You can see our house, the last on the east side of the town, just above the rump of the right hand cow. From where I am writing I can see where they were grazing but they are now long gone to pastures new. We feel so lucky to have all this on our doorstep.