Belinda the otter keeping Daphne's neck warm

We drove across to the far side of Stroud and then up one of the Five Valleys, whose streams all converge on and flow into the River Frome, near to the centre of the town. Our objective was to go to Randwick Wap, but because I was so forgetful and distracted, it took rather longer than we hoped, by the time we reached the field where we could park.

Randwick is a small but very vibrant hamlet with a busy and 'green' community. Their Wap is a revived ancient festival from the Middle Ages, with a fair, a costumed procession and ceremonial cheeserolling. A Wap Mayor and Queen are carried through the village accompanied by various officials including a Mop-Man, who clears the way and wets the crowd with water, before the Mayor is dipped in the pond. A real cheese and mock wooden cheeses are rolled by the Queen and Mayor down the bank, then the real one is divided and eaten. This is not to be confused with the Cooper's Hill Cheeserolling competition on Spring Bank Holiday.

Because we were late we missed all this, but we did see the Queen and her entourage being enthroned on a stage on the playing field, below which were the usual assembly of stalls, skittle alleys, ice creams and demonstration arenas. Helena was most amused by the demo of Irish traditional dancing by three year-olds.

A couple of sheep with lambs and also some goats were somewhat perturbed by the attentions of so many young people. But I was most attracted by Daphne and Bertie Neville, who had brought their two Asian Small-Clawed Otters and were showing and playing with them in a fenced-off area where we could all get very close to them.

They were so playful running around inquisitively sniffing, climbing the fence, clambering over some blankets and jumping in and out of containers of water. I think this is Beenie, or Belinda, who is now about 12 years old, and who was the most active of the two. Rudi Potter a.k.a. Master Bee, was much more restive, quite content to lay on his back with his feet in the air, absorbing the warm sunshine, completely unfazed by all the people.

Beenie was fed while I was there, but I've decided not to blip the close-ups of her gorging on the lower half of a raw chicken, with two claws hanging out of her mouth, as it would probably be x-rated. Daphne talked to anyone who was interested in otters and talked about how they look after them. Beenie would leap into the water, swirl around and then jumping out, would search out Daphne and crawl up her clothing towards her neck, before climbing over her head. Then pushing with her nose, she would find a way under Daphne's sweat shirt, saturating her in the process, before going completely inside her clothing trying to find a way out through the sleeve, which wasn't possible. This whole scenario happened over and over, as it was obviously what the otter loved doing. They were very relaxed and affable in this show arena. In fact it reminded me of how Bomble likes to come and nuzzle up close to us, falling asleep with his head purring beside my neck, or then trying to get under the bedclothes for a good long warm sleep.

I did blip the Neville's mill house, where the two otters live by the lake above the mill buildings. You can find a link there to more info on their otters. I will never forget when I saw two otters in the wild when looking out one morning from our bedroom at Helena's mother's house, beside Loch Etive, near Oban, in Argyll. I may eventually get around to blipping the pictures I took then.