Our garden's tulips

A lovely sunny day greeted Lozarithm today as he headed up to Stroud to meet us both. He arrived in time for a late morning coffeee and quick chat, before I herded him away in my car for a quick guided tour along the Golden Valley. We went up to rodborough common and then on to Minchinhampton and beyond where we parked outside Princess Anne's estate at Gatcombe.

I wanted to show him the ancient Long Stone, at Crackstone, which is a tiny hamlet amongst farmland. The Long Stone actually has holes right through its eight foot height as it stands elegantly in the corner of a field. Recently there have been repair works to the stone walls of the field which had suffered badly from frost damage this last winter and much of it had fallen down. The wall repairs had been done well and now an individual gate has been erected into the field to allow special access to the lone standing stone. As we walked the few yards to the car, a large car drove up the road and turned into the rear entrance to Gatcombe Park. A woman in a hat peered at us who looked very like Princess Anne.

I then drove about ten miles to the head of the valley of the River Frome, before crossing over it through old woodlands at Edgeworth and then heading back down to the valley bottom below Sapperton, where we took the chance of a small glass of ale at the Daneway pub, beside the old course of the canal close to the entrance to the Sapperton tunnel. Birds sang as we sat chatting and reminiscing in my case about my occasional visits there since 1976.

then we followed the course of the river so I could show him Chalford and its weavers houses, and the mills that start to line the valley floor. As the volume of water increases so the number of mills and ancillary industrial building s escalated in the industrial development since the 17th century. We stopped at a millponds and still occupied mill buildings to admire the wooded valley sides, the general views, the canal and to mull over the possible continuation of the canal's restoration to working condition which is the hope of many local people.

When we got home, to meet Helena, we had lunch and then sat in the garden drinking tea and sunning ourselves for the first time this year. I pottered about with my camera, chasing butterflies and other insects, before resorting to this shot of the tulips. the yellows have just begun to open as the red tulips stat to 'fall over'. I do like them, and just wish the rest of the garden was going to pop up as easily. I fear the grass is already too long and I am regretting my inactivity in the last few weeks, but I really don't think my shoulder was up to much exercise , until now. I must get into action!

It was good to see Lozarithm again and he says he hopes to be returning to sTroud for an afternoon in a couple of weeks. Perhaps we can visit another pub, with Helena hopefully, as she keeps missing out on blip meets. That is two in two days for me!