Thursday 18 September 2014

Nicest times of the day

One of the nicest times of day is early in the morning, when, for the last month or so, I have been wandering up the garden to pick the autumn raspberries.   The raspberries grow like weeds and are threatening to take over one of the vegetable beds.   It's very satisfying being able to pick fruit and then, within half an hour, the fruit salad is complete and guests are starting to tuck in.  We are getting towards the end of the raspberries for another year.  Roll on next August!



The other particularly nice time of the day is when I take Betsy for a walk.  Today we walked through a field with sheep grazing, and decided to sit for a while.   Betsy sat quietly, and I suddenly noticed that a group of sheep quite close to us were giving Betsy their fullest attention.


And Betsy was watching them with interest.


All very amicable, and probably quite educational on both sides.

Sunday 14 September 2014

Walkers are Welcome



I provide a selection of walk leaflets and suggestions for guests interested in walking holidays.  I tried out the Laurie Lee walk today - a wonderful walk around Slad - beautiful views and a nice mixture of footpaths through open countryside, woodland paths, and a few country lanes.



I picked up a the walk leaflet a few weeks ago, and thought I would see if I could follow the route (I am notoriously bad at map reading - so if I can follow it, there is a good chance that guests will be OK).  I had one moment of slight uncertainty, and I only got lost once, because I missed the turning into a small lane (I thought it was a driveway rather than a lane).



The walk has a number of wooden 'Laurie Lee' markers, and also some Laurie Lee poems printed on acrylic set within wooden posts, which 'frame' the views rather nicely.




Clearly the walk could be very muddy, so be warned, and there was a fiendishly steep slope to ascend near the beginning of the walk.  Walking boots essential.  Enjoyable but quite tiring (clearly I'm not as fit as I thought I was).




Tuesday 2 September 2014

Natural Traffic Calming

Minchinhampton has a very natural form of traffic calming in the summer months, in the form of cows.  Cows (and a few horses and one donkey) graze the common from May until November, and the cows are free to roam through many of the streets, taking light refreshment in the form of flowers in hanging baskets and window boxes.  The highland cattle (my favourites, as they are so fluffy) often wander through the town, and yesterday, a whole herd of them strolled past my driveway.  Then, when I thought all of them had gone, there was one straggler, who put on a little burst of speed, trotting down the road to catch up with the rest of them.

Cars and cyclists have to wait for the cows gradually to move on, at their own pace.  Perfect traffic calming.  Every town should have them.