Well, well, well

Its Colin's birthday today, he travelled up from Dawlish last night and is staying over at Emma's flat for a few days whilst she is swanning around the world.

We decided on a day out at Bisley today. This is the village in Gloucestershire where one of Ann (and Colin's) ancestors used to live many years ago. We wanted to see the pub (The Bear) where he would have drunk and checkout the church cemetery and the famous wells. It's a lovely Cotswold village, obviously seeped in history; what we didn't realise was today was Ascension Day.

Apparently on this particular day of the year the entire village turns out for a church service, well dressing and a knees-up at the village hall. I thought the place was a bit busy for a quiet May Thursday afternoon.

The pub was very busy, but I did manage to get a pint of Tribute, then we sat in the beer garden with Dylan. By the time we returned the glasses the pub had emptied.

We followed the sound of a brass band where we found the villagers, and all their children, gathered around the wells - beautifully decorated in garlands of flowers. The children were dressed in Victorian school uniform and everyone was taking photos.

Luckily the food from the village hall beckoned the residents, and I was able to get some crowd-free photographs of the wells. We then went for a very pleasant walk around the village.

The photo here is of the five main wells, decorated with flower garlands spelling the word 'Ascension' and 2012. It's just as well the drought is over and there was plenty of water flowing.

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