Copper beeches in a hedgerow beside a crop of rape

I've managed to start driving again although rather in trepidation of hurting my shoulder and my arm muscles. We went up to the top of the hills to get some food from the farm shop which was very busy. It was good to see the owners again and have a bit of a joshing about my capacity to injure myself.

Keith was telling me about what stage the farm is at and how the good weather had been very favourable to them coping with the new conditions when serving their customers. This has taken priority for them over and above Keith's need to go out to tend to their bee colonies spread widely around the county. A few years ago I had the great fortune to go with |Keith on a day like this in springtime to check on the condition of the queen bees in the hives. I'm hoping to do it again before too long.

On the three mile drive back to Stroud I pulled off the road at a field entrance to record the rape crop's flowers. I like the copper beeches on the old hedgerow on the far side of this large field. It probably belongs to the Lypiatt Estate, which a hundred years ago was a massive and dominant economic and social force in the Bisley area. After the First World War the estate was carved up and auctioned off as small lots of houses, farms, land and woodlands covering a very wide area. This fi/eld is on ,ly a few hundred yards from the 'big house' which eventually became owned by the famous sculptor, Lynn Chadwick.