Horses in Highfield

These horses clip clop up and down our street from time to time. They live at the nearby Horns Farm stables, but need a bit of road training. Our neighbours' daughter is a keen rider and competitor. She must be in her 20s now.

CleanSteve got a much better close shot of the horse.

We live on the edge of town. I've been wanting a shot of our street for ages, because it is so like the 'scheme' where my Granny lived, though hers was Forestry Commission housing and ours is mainly council/social housing.

The hill you can can see behind is Rodborough hill. The hamlet overlooking us is called Butterow. I've written about it before. Sadly the bright sun of the early morning had gone in in before I took this shot, but I had a lovely time in town moseying round the charity shops and bargain basements, bumping into a friend and going for coffee, discussing the meaning of everything. I never did go to see any printmaking exhibitions in Stroud, as planned, but that means CleanSteve and I can try again tomorrow, though it is a bank holiday. There is also an Easter procession. Watch this space...

A bit of info for the social historians:
Every second Thursday (like today) is recycling day. The council gave us wheelie bins for recyclables last year, but we have to put paper and cardboard in a recycling box. Non-recyclables are collected weekly, and are collected earlier the same day, but we have to provide our own bins for that, though the council gives us one bin bag per household per week. If you don't put the rubbish in a bin but just in a bag, then it gets ripped open by badgers and strewn around the street. Many local authorities in England now only collect all types of rubbish (including food waste) fortnightly. Our council encourages composting of uncooked food waste, but of course does not collect compostables, as was the case when I worked in North London two years ago.

Most of the cars look rather posh. What I've noticed is that the households that do have cars tend to have several, fairly new ones, but many of the other households ( for example in the bunglalows, or my two nearest neighbours on the left) don't have any and walk or take the bus everywhere. I am a non driver so walk a lot, too. The bus passes the estate about three times a day. CleanSteve's car is about ten years old, so would be untypical. In the houses where there are council tenants, adult children are living at home too, so that would account for the large number of cars.

I will not say any more because I've just watched Searching for Sugar man on DVD, and it's blown me away. Music changes lives. This film thoroughly deserves its accolades and awards, and I cannot rate it highly enough.