Butterow

Butterow is a hamlet to the east of Stroud, ona hill overlooking the Golden Valley, where we live. From my study/home office I can see the houses of Butterow. The name derives from the archery butts, or buttes. Butte-row. It used to be compulsory for young males to practise archery on Sundays. Those days are gone now. We have Cruise Missiles, but not on British soil. 

After work, I went for a walk in the Heavens Valley. Summer had returned, and I needed to kick up my heels after a week of desk jockeying. I caught this shot on my way home, on the long and winding path over fields that leads to Bowbridge Lane. There is a quicker way home, but what would be the point of that? Children were playing on the small playground on the inner triangle of the estate, building cycle ramps out of old pallets. My nephews used to do the same on their estate in Preston. Little boys learning from big boys. 

The main excitement today was a visit to a different food hub. It's only about a mile from where I live, and so different from our posh Trinity Rooms, where were can have pheasant egg frittata on a Friday! This other hub is so busy that you have to get a numbered ticket and wait your turn to do free 'shopping' or pay by donation. Some items such as toiletries or more expensive tinned foods are stickered, as are some frozen meals, meaning that you can only have one or two of them. There are also leftover pasties and pies from Greggs. Only one person is allowed in at a time, but there are tables outside, and tea, coffee, juice and biscuits are available. As Christy Moore might say, 'the craic was ninety'. Everyone knows each other, and a volunteer who is also a town councillor was offering hardship fund vouchers to those who needed them. One per month is the limit. The hardship was real, and evident. People were very friendly. The hub is located beneath two blocks of flats with superb views over the Slad Valley, but known locally as Heroin Heights. I witnessed a dog fight,  all teeth and testosterone, but the owners were friends and the Jack Russell was ok after what looked like an eye injury, but wasn't really. I had some great chats, but one of them had to be interrupted after a holocaust denier started making remarks to a woman whose family had escaped the concentration camps. I sensed this was a well-trodden conversational route. The same denier was also an anti-vaxxer. In Stroud, that's not unusual. 

I was so happy to have finally been there, and met some clients/ex-clients, and made some good contacts. I will definitely go there to meet clients if they want to meet in the evenings and live around there, or if I need food or a voucher myself. No enof us know what is round the corner, and I heard many people saying, 'thank God for this place!'

Thank you so much for all the comments, stars and hearts on my 4,000th blip yesterday. I basked in a warm fuzzy glow while reading them.