Up on the roof

I arrived on time for my appointment at 9-30am, which was quite hard on a damp and misty Saturday morning when all I wanted to do was have a long soak in the bath. But I'm glad I made it as I was able to meet Kaye, who lives in Rodborough and she was going to be my final portrait subject for the book the Preservation Trust is producing.

Kaye only returned from southern Africa on Wednesday and I have been waiting to hear from her for about five weeks. She was delightfully friendly and we had a few minutes of chatting before we went out into the cold and still misty garden where I would take the picture. I had to be quite quick as she didn't have warm clothes on and wasn't used to the temperature difference between Stroud and Africa.

I had to leave swiftly as she and her husband were going to the Farmer's Market, whilst I had to do some final shopping for the late breakfast I had promised to Pip and Mary. They are dear friends of ours from Bristol and arranged to visit us for the day, so that Pip and I could watch the international rugby whilst Helena and Mary would go prowling around the shops and markets of Stroud.

Pip and I watched the first rugby match at home in front of a lovely warm fire, sipping tea and trying to solve the Araucaria cryptic crossword in The Guardian. At half time though we decided to change matches to watch the All Blacks play England, but this involved a short walk to the pub which had the satellite reception. It was a good move because we saw a very good game and managed a pint of fine Budding ale from Stroud Brewery.

On our return after we'd settled back into the difficult crossword, set by our favourite compiler, I looked up and through the window I noticed this small cat rush up the roof of the house opposite, chasing a big crow which was sitting on the chimney pot. The crow flew off to the bottom of the roof as the cat climbed onto the pot. It peered down inside the pot and I thought it was going to drop down the chimney, but it thought better of that. I don't think the chimney is now used for its intended purpose. I got up and told Pip that I thought this would be my blip, and went out into the road to get close enough to get a reasonably sized image. The cat seemed to feel threatened by my movement and soon dropped down and ran along the ridge of the tiles before disappearing.