The Froome Valley

Yesterday, four of us met up at the Daneway Inn for a walk up to Pinbury Park and back via Dorvel Wood. We saw a trip of goats (all black), a rag of colts (destined to be polo ponies, and waiting for the vet to geld them), and a bevy - there must have been a dozen or more - of roe deer, showing us a way into the woods. There the wild garlic reminded me of the bärlauch on so many menus in Germany and Switzerland last month. (My photograph shows the sign I followed when looking for a bed in Märstetten - and very comfortable it was too.)

The new service station on the North-bound M5 near Gloucester is "Hofladen" (farm shop) writ large: we stopped there for (very expensive) petrol en route home from supper with Edmund in Bristol last night. On the one hand, I can't conceive of any reason beneficial to the environment why more commercial outlets should be needed: on the other, if you are going to have motorway service stations, they might as well be on this (the Westmorland Tebay) model.

Today, I've been in amongst my not-so-wild garlic. (Only the weeds have gone wild, but they pull out readily after the rain.) And this evening, we went to Cineworld (along with half the rest of Cheltenham, it seemed) for the National Theatre's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. This, with its dizzy-making camera angles and Pirandellian roots, hugely benefited from the big screen relay. Fabulous drama!

The Frome Valley

We had a gentle outing today, exploring a couple of areas North-West of Cirencester. We parked first at Daneway, to inspect the Gothick West portal of the canal tunnel, restored by Cotswold Canals Trust in 1996. The canal itself is barely visible, but one day...

Up the hill behind the pub, we peered over the electric gates of Daneway House, to admire a weather vane by the Miserden blacksmith, Michael Roberts. It's in the form of a golden phoenix alighting on a blue sphere - but alas too distant for me to get a decent photograph.

This unspoilt view down the valley was taken when exploring the site of Sapperton Manor, demolished nearly three centuries ago. Some of the panelling was salvaged for embellishing St Kenelm's Church, just to the East. But where did the church's Jacobean bench ends come from? Atlantes on each of them, and all different.

We were guided round and asked to lunch by a friend, a widower for eight years now. Not one to complain, he nevertheless admitted that "Living alone is lousy."

After lunch, we detoured to snoop at Middle Lypiatt, some or all of which has recently been on the market. A Bentley sits in the garage, overlooked by a polo player weather vane, which I could and did capture - maybe for an updated edition of my book.

A beautiful day, mostly sunny, no wind to speak of, and the colours splendid.