And did those feet...

Stroud had its fair share of Dark Satanic mills during the golden age of England's wo0llen industry. The town was open to the use of steam-powered machinery, though weaver's cottages still survive in Old Stroud, where weaving was done at home by hand on large-framed looms.

These are the only remains of the area known as Capel's mill: the railway viaduct and the bridge over the river Frome at Stroud. The Thames and Severn Canal passes close by, but the course of the canal is currently being diverted and the landfill of a 1970s rubbish tip excavated, resulting in a long diversion for pedestrians. The most surprising thing about this scene of rural tranquility is that it is less than two minutes' walk from the busy A419 Stroud-Cirencester road, and Waitrose!

After I'd shot these scenes in the gathering gloom, I popped into the supermarket to get an English cider I haven't tried yet, a Sheppy's Dabinett Somerset medium dry, to be exact. It is part of my (ahem!) service to humanity to try, and report on, as many varieties of English cider as I can, before I die. The Sheppy's is currently chilling, owing to a minor distaster that occurred shortly after buying it.

There was a rainbow when I emerged, and I shot a few (disappointing) images of it, and got soaking wet on the way home. When I arrived home I was completely knackered, and had to sit down for a while before looking at my images, prior to supper.

How this happened I don't know, but I managed to delete 160 images from both my camera AND my computer: that's all the shots I took yesterday, and earlier today, of the Severn Bore tidal wave near Minsterworth. They weren't wonderful, because the bore/single wave was not exceptionally high , but nonetheless, I lost a good-ish shot of a tumbledown brick dwelling at Rodley, by the Severn, and some interesting ones of Gloucester cathedral. All gone.

That's when I decided to postpone the cider tasting till after eating, and blipping. Never upload on an empty stomach.