First week done and dusted, now it’s time to see if the new working setup will, well, work for me. I’m working for my NZ employer, covering the after hours support as well as my usual tasks, and it’s all a big unknown for me, and for my company. There’s a cute little desk in the corner, great wifi, and hot coffee to get me started at 7am. A few minor hiccups later, and it’s all going really well – hurrah!
I’m working the mornings only, so we have the afternoons free to explore. At home if I have an afternoon off I’m usually mowing something or running errands, doing chores, but here there’s a whole new world to wander through, and of course many new cakes to eat!
The exception to that mornings-only is Mondays, where I’ll be signing back in of an evening, in order to attend the All Hands meeting. So I knew it was a split-shift day, and needed to conserve energy. I woke up early, made a coffee, and stood outside on the doorstep watching the early morning light and listening to the birds. I saw a robin red-breast! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those in real life!
Work was good, it all went pretty well considering it was my first day. After lunch we walked to the village of Box, which is very close to us and super cute. I have no idea where they quarry all this gorgeous honey coloured stone from, but I can’t imagine there’s much left as every single house and shed, plus all the fences are made out of it! And slate roofs too! The builders must have been so strong, no slipped discs for them or they’d have been out of a job!
Our neighbour/host is a dry stone waller, it’s a fairly new thing for him, and he’s certainly found a vocation that will keep him strong and fit! Plus he’s beautifying the world, and that’s a good thing to do. The fences/walls are made of smaller, flatter pieces of stone than the houses, and a lot of it was pulled from the fields that were walled in – saving money at the quarry and also clearing the fields of stones. All of the houses here are walled and gated as the free-roaming cattle in the summer are adventurous and curious and will nip into a garden and munch on the plants!
On Tuesday I had my eagerly-awaited acupuncture appointment, so I wandered down to Nailsworth early afternoon to have a mooch around the shops (and have cake and a yummy spiced apple drink). I found a rain jacket in one of the many charity shops which looks like it’ll be perfect for Lindisfarne, but it’s a bit more than I want to pay (it’s a very good brand) so I’m letting the charity shop gods decide – if it’s still there on payday I’ll buy it! (Update: it’s gone, but I found a shirt with DUCKS embroidered on it, so I’m happy!) I really love Nailsworth, it’s small but interesting, friendly, pretty, and has a lovely feel to it.
There’s a big church on a hill overlooking the town so I wandered up the path to it. I didn’t realise but I was heading up to the back door, and in the back porch was a group of blokes getting pished. If it had been later in the day I’d have turned tail and left, and as it was I hesitated before deciding to just walk past them. There was a school right next door and lots of people around so I felt fairly safe. One of them clocked me hesitating and was doing his best to sound sober as he shouted out that it was ok, they were harmless. I asked if the church was open and he said that yes it was, and the main door was round the other side and “this side for sinners!” which I thought was pretty funny.
But it’s always a bit worrisome when you’re a lone woman and there are drunk men in groups, whether they are in a pub, a street, or a church porch. I was on edge, and couldn’t really concentrate on the interesting artwork and beautiful architecture of the church, so I sat for a moment, took a few pics, and then legged it. Down the other side of the hill, of course. I’m pretty sure they were harmless but my alert antenna was up and I couldn’t put it down again.
In the centre of Nailsworth is a very ornate stone fountain, erected by the friends of a man for whom they “deplored his removal from them by a sudden death”, which really moved me, as I’ve lost two really important people this year, both of them suddenly, and both removals I deplore. If I could, I’d erect ornate stone fountains in every town for them, and for the other special people whose removals I also deplore. But lighting candles in churches will have to do instead.
Finding myself with a couple more hours to kill and wanting a sit down I went to the Egypt Mill Pub and sat by their beautiful water garden – complete with a pair of mallards! I must have sounded a bit bonkers, telling them how handsome they were and how lucky I felt to sit with them, but I’m so used to chatting out loud to ducks I forget that not everyone does that! Regan came to join me, as it really was a delightful place to while away an hour or two. It’s one of many historic mills in the area, this one converted into a pub and hotel, with a neighbouring one converted into apartments. It’s partly the long days, and partly the ever-evolving scenery, but we both commented that the morning’s work felt very far away, and that we were on holiday indeed. Early days of course, but it’s feeling like work will work!
Finally it was time to get jabbed – the clinic’s TCM doctor is just brilliant, and I was so relaxed I fell asleep! She also did a test for allergies, the results I’ll get back on my next visit. I’m hoping chocolate isn’t on that list. I met Regan at the local Balti house, and we had an AMAZING meal – colourful and flavoursome, and really reasonably priced. We’ve found you can get good cheap food from supermarkets (the joy of a competitive market) but eating out is pretty spendy. So it’s great to find places that only make your eyes water from spice, not price! (who am I kidding, I totally had a mild dish!)
I couldn’t face walking home up the short steep path so opted to walk up the long, slightly less steep path instead. The light was gorgeous, and it took me twice as long to walk as I kept filming and taking photos. I found my Official Dream House (you’ll see it in the video above), and chatted with the owner, who told me that the new extension was built around 1650 and they weren’t sure of the age of the other bit. Swoon. The garden was beautiful and I’d love to see inside – the owner is a wood joiner so I’m assuming it’s pretty fantastic. Will definitely be knocking on his door if I win the lottery!
Wednesday arvo we walked to Minchinhampton, a village on the far side of the common from us. Another gorgeous village with a beautiful church and adorable buildings and delicious cake! (cherry chocolate bakewell). And, weirdly, a loo with two toilets next to each other! I thought it was a bidet, but no, two loos. There are also two sinks, one lower down, so I assume it’s for a parent and child to use together. A bit odd though.
The church has recently been restored (and reopened by Princess Anne, who lives nearby) and was really lovely, but I found myself feeling a lot more peaceful and meditative outside in the wild and green graveyard. We spent quite a while out there, sitting and wandering. I love the grasses left to grow long for the summer, and will definitely be doing something similar when we get home. I’m planning to sprinkle wildflower and pretty grass seeds in the lawn and just mow paths through it, rather than spending an hour every week mowing. It’s good for me and great for the insects and birds.
The neighbours’ dogs joined us for our alfresco dinner on the warm and balmy evening. Casper (the yellow one) has finally stopped barking at us – as long as we stay on “our” side of the garden! Molly (the black one) is just the happiest, waggiest, loveliest dog! She’s so friendly and they love a cuddle. Feeling so calm and at peace and that all is right in the world on these lovely warm evenings.
Thursday saw a huge downpour in the middle of the day, which would normally have ruined our day a bit, but I’d befriended a lovely woman nearby who had offered to drive us to Cirencester, so we laughed in the face of rain! She’s great, friendly and with lovely energy, and the three of us chatted the whole way over, about a 20 minute ride. It was proving to be such a pain of a place to get back from via bus that I’d almost given up on visiting, so I was stoked!
It was still raining hard when we got there, so we went to the museum, which was fantastic! One of the best I’ve been to, not too big, not too small, really well explained items and interesting displays. Once the hordes of yelling and screaming children buggered off it was really great! It was easy to follow through in chronological order, and we both loved seeing the prehistoric tools. Cirencester was a very important Roman town, and there are many mosaic floors under buildings around the town, with quite a few inside the museum too, and the main focus of the museum is the local Roman finds.
In order to pull up the mosaics and move them into the museum they lay down fabric on top, with a reversible adhesive, and they’re able to lift them up that way, keeping them in order. Then the fabric is repositioned in the display area and the adhesive is reversed, so the pieces are released. Amazing! The mosaics were lovely (I found a duck!) and there were so many beautiful pieces of jewellery and daily use objects.
There’s a post-Roman section too, with a Nine Men’s Morris board you can play a game on, interesting recreations of clothing, info about weaving etc. Linda heaven! Plus the cafe had nice cake! (some kind of salted caramel situation). We didn’t really see much else of the town, which was a shame, but we were delighted with the museum and so grateful to get a lift there and back.
On Friday we decided to walk to Chalford, which was a town I had fallen in love with when I came in on the coach from Heathrow. It’s very steep, so much that the main form of transport for many years was donkey! Poor donkeys, it would have been really hard work dragging all the stones and slate and windows up the hills to build the houses. It is 1.5 hours from here so we decided to just walk one way and bus home, as a return trip felt too far for my sore wee back.
What I didn’t factor in, however, is that 1.5 hours in a hilly place is way harder than 1.5 hours on the flat. It was a good walk, through Minchinhampton, then down a very steep hill to Brimscombe, then along a canal towpath to Chalford. Brimscombe felt like a town in a period of transition, with what we assume to be industrial sites pulled down to make way for new houses. There were areas with graffiti and noisy traffic, alongside a beautiful canal, a real mixed bag. One part was very muddy – just a giant puddle really, so we walked up towards the road to skirt it, and came across our first controlled pedestrian level crossing.
It was fenced and gated and there was a sign saying not to operate the gates yourself, but to press the buzzer and wait to be let through. “Nonsense” I thought, as I pressed the buzzer and considered just walking through… just at the same moment that a very big, very fast train came slamming through! Then a wee man popped his head out of the signal box and waved us through, which I was glad of!
We made it to Lavender Bakehouse and had refreshments (Hummingbird cake) and cooled off a bit. It was a hot day and we had walked a long way. Sadly, down in the valley you couldn’t see all the lovely houses tucked into the hillside, so it was a bit of a disappointment. Which then turned to despair when I realised there was only one more bus to Stroud that afternoon, and it was up the top of a VERY steep hill. We dragged ourselves up there, happily the bus actually turned up, and after a long hot ride we made it to Stroud.
We had a good cheap dinner and a cider at Wetherspoons and had fun people watching. A mix of family groups, smoking tradies, vaping teens and random oldies, in all shapes and sizes. Then the bus to Nailsworth and another long slow walk up a hill. If I’m not fit and jacked by the end of this I’ll be gutted! Once home I lay on the floor for a long while and then slathered myself in enough Wood Lock Oil (like Deep Heat) to make the whole cottage smell medicinal. Miraculously I wasn’t sore the next day, but I did spend much of the day in bed as I was exhausted!
Sunday saw us up bright and early and off to Gloucester for the day. We’d been warned by multiple people that it was a place that has seen better days, so we didn’t have great hopes but it was fine – a bit sad and run down but a lovely historic centre, which was where we were hanging out mostly. The big drawcard for me was St. Oswald’s Priory, which is where Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians is buried. She is a heroine of mine, as a woman who ruled and who battled against the Vikings in a time when women almost never ruled, let alone for years as a widow. There’s not a lot left of St. Oswald’s, and I have no idea if her remains are still there, but it still meant the world to me to be there.
Then I managed to squeak into St. Mary de Lode at the end of their Sunday service – they were very friendly and happy to talk about the history of the church. They are right next to the enormous and impressive cathedral, but were very quick to say that they were there first! It’s thought that this is the site of the oldest Christian church in the UK, built over one or two Roman buildings. The current church dates to the 11th and 12th centuries, so about the same age as the cathedral, but that site “only” dates back to the 7th century or so. Regardless of which is older, it’s very beautiful and atmospheric.
We had a good egg and beans on toast type lunch and went to the cathedral. It’s an absolutely stunning building, definitely on a par with some of the most impressive churches and cathedrals we saw on the Camino. It seems impossible and miraculous – so high and light and airy, it must have absolutely blown the minds of the people who went inside – which is, of course, the whole point of such buildings. It really did bring me to a state of awe and wonder, and absolute respect for the architects and builders who created it. While we were there we got the sad news that Regan’s step-grandfather passed away, so we were able to light a candle for him and think of him in such a beautiful place. Rest peacefully, Arthur.
The Wayfaring Path 
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