A carpet of primroses

I was very tired this morning. Clean Steve came over at about midday and at my request took B and me to Black Books cafe in Stroud. I chose it because it's dog friendly, but it has gone downhill and lacks any atmosphere. It was almost empty, yet our drinks took twenty minutes to arrive. I am sad about its demise, but Stroud has more cafes than any other town I know...

We came back to Woodchester and had lunch, before setting off on a slightly winding route to the old churchyard. On the site of this churchyard there once stood a Roman villa. Excavations on the site in the 1790s revealed an enormous (47ft square) Roman mosaic featuring Orpheus charming the birds. It was the grandest Roman mosaic ever seen this side of the Alps. In the 29th century, 1973, the pavement was uncovered and displayed to the public for a limited period. Few could have predicted that 150,000 people would descend on this small village, up the narrow winding lanes, by motor car and charabanc....

For Woodchester village, this was too much. Plans to reveal the pavement every ten years were abandoned. All would have been covered over forever had not two local brothers taken photographs during the uncovered period and set about making a life sized replica, tessera by tessera. This labourious task took them several years. When finished, it was first displayed in Wotton under Edge, then Bristol, Stroud, and other places, before being bought by a local millionaire and placed in the former pottery works of a local monastery, Prinknash Abbey. This was supposed to put the Abbey back on the tourist map again, as well as providing a large enough space to house the pavement, whose size had always been a problem when it came to displaying it.

In 2005, my sister and I and her daughter Christina went to visit the mosaic at the Abbey. It was closed (because unfortunately it always closed an hour before the shop closed) but I ended up getting a job in the gift shop and visitor centre! That was where I net my friend Dave, whom I still ship and dine with in Cheltenham, as readers may know.

The mosaic was housed underground, and never really took off as a tourist attraction. The shop was failing, too. Some years ago, the millionaire mosaic owner was killed in a freak boating accident, and the mosaic was finally sold overseas. The Abbey shop and tea room were halved in size, and became more homely and attractive. An auctioneer took over the other half of the building and basement.

The monks had already moved out of the 1972 monastery building, which we had nicknamed the telephone exchange, thanks to its unprepossessing architectural style. They moved to the Tudor building elsewhere in the extensive grounds. Those who used to stay there on Retreat cam now no longer do so, but the Benedictine monastery endures, at least for now.

So, no Roman pavement in today's blip, just this splendid carpet of primroses in an uneven but undisturbed corner of the cemetery. CleanSteve held B on the lead because she was scampering so, and I lay on my tummy on a tombstone. It's still not quite what I wanted, but I go there nearly every day....