Coberley bubbly

As last week, we were today only three Wednesday walkers. Though the sun was shining in Cheltenham, we hit the mist as we drove up Leckhampton Hill: it cleared as the morning went on. Happily, we were at lunch (at the Star Bistro) before it started raining much.

After climbing half a mile or so along the Cotswold Way, we swung down South of Hartley Farm and along its secret valley. Crossing the A436, our peace was shattered: my "Stay!" was heard as "Okay!", with near fatal consequences.

Having admired the Berkeley tombs in Coberley church, we found ourselves sitting down in the porch. Whereupon a bottle and glasses were conjured up, so we could drink to the health of a birthday-boy walker. A nice surprise, this convention, to me as a relative newcomer to the group!

As my photograph shows, the stained glass in front of which we sat was appropriate to the occasion: Arts and Crafts-looking, but in fact late 20th Century.

"John Craxton: a life of gifts"

This is the title of one of the Presteigne Festival art exhibitions: we went to The Workhouse Gallery to see it after my talk this morning. (I took the photograph from upstairs where beautiful carpets and rugs are to be found, above the exhibition space.)

Craxton was brother to the oboist, Janet, Nick Daniel's teacher, and friend of the Berkeley family. Hence "Into the ravine", the name Michael has given to his new work, matching that of the Craxton painting owned by Michael's father Lennox.

There is something a bit Samuel Palmer-ish about Craxton's work, as you see it in this fine show. Maybe it's because of other influences appearing so strong that his name is less celebrated than that of his contemporaries, Graham Sutherland's for instance. But as Michael said in the course of last night's discussion, "We are all a synthesis of our own experience."

Presteigne

Pausing for lunch at The Feathers in Ledbury, we drove to Presteigne today. We are staying at Radnor House, opposite the Assembly Rooms, where I am due to speak tomorrow morning about Peter Davis' Diary.

After the Diary period, Peter Davis moved North to Diddlebury, and then 20-odd miles South to Milton Farm, near Shobdon. From there, he was married - in Pembridge Church. On our final run in to Presteigne, we stopped at both the church and the farm to inspect. Each impressed by its size, and what a view it is from the farmhouse!

This evening, there's been a concert by the Carducci String Quartet, 87.5% of whom you can see in my rather poor photograph - together with Presteigne Festival President, Michael Berkeley. Michael's Oboe Quintet ("Into the ravine") received its premiere, oboist Nick Daniel being out of my picture. "My pieces are much more spare since my illness," Michael said. (Before the concert, he had shared an interesting platform with Nick, David Matthews and Sally Beamish.)

Hill

Another first today, visiting the hamlet of Hill, right down by the River Severn beyond Berkeley. We were supporting the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust and in the process enjoying a jolly lunch in a left-over marquee pitched upon a sodden lawn. Never can loitering within tent have been such a prevalent activity in any recent Summer.

St Michael's church is no contender for any revised edition of Jenkins, but it has a certain atmosphere, thanks to the generosity of various Fusts. One of them married a Jenner - not the famous doctor's family - and Jenner-Fusts still live at Hill Court. (Indeed they are cousins both of Caroline and of Nicky Talbot Rice, GHCT's enthusiastic and welcoming Chairman.)

Had a bomb dropped upon that lunchtime tent, much of the fun would have been taken away from Gloucestershire's social life. Not that I would have survived to bemoan it of course.