Him and Her.

Today, for the first time since arriving in Bristle, I went out on the bike. It was only a twenty miler but it was good to get some exercise. I had a specific blip in mind, it has been there for 150 years and will be there for a long time yet but, as often happens, something cropped up so there was a change of plan.

Meandering along National Cycle Route 41 through Pill, a village that was famous in my youth for having the highest pub to population ratio in Britain, I passed this odd couple in a garden. The gentleman is obviously intent on shooting any rook that dares to steal the crop of cabbages but, the lady? Catching sea-horses, in a vegetable garden?
Perhaps she's just using it to lure the rook into range.

NCR 41 continues along the south side of the River Avon, through the Avon/Clifton Gorge and on underneath the Brunel Bridge. About half way along I found a poster for a garden emporium I didn't know - with a coffee shop. The directions were to retrace to Paradise Bottom (who thinks of these names?) and turn left. Well, I did find a Bottom (honestly) but whether it was Paradise or not, I don't know, but it was fairly mucky as Bottoms often are. It's the accumulation of water in the hollow that turns the soil into mud.

I did, eventually, find Hazel's Coffee Shop where Hazel was dealing with what is known in the trade as "A Tricky Customer," the TC was complaining that she had been in last week, had a ploughman's lunch but didn't get any bread with it.
You couldn't make any of this up if you tried.
It was an interesting outing.