Double decker

... on Minchinhampton common!

It's It's England's answer to a machair; a common grazing ground, but in this case several hundred feet above sea level. Anyone who lives in a property with centuries-old commoner's grazing rights can allow their beasts to roam free range on Selsley, Minchinhampton or Rodborough commons (as long as the animals are tagged) between May and November. Cattle, horses, ponies and the odd donkey graze freely. Their grazing and manuring is good for the grassland. This common is managed by the National Trust, but others are managed by other organisations. There's a rough golf course on Minchinhampton common, and people also ride horses or play games of various sorts wherever they like. There is also a historic ice cream factory, that I have blipped before, not quite centuries-old! Of course there are also roads, but the cattle have right of way and they take their time...

I'd never seen a double decker right up on the top of the common before, but this is a school bus: it goes from the Catholic high school near Gloucester, some twelve miles away, to Chalford, another three miles distant, via Stroud town centre. Rural school buses around here are really extraordinary, but it does mean that not many people walk. Some parents in Stroud prefer their kids to go to Deer Park school in Cirencester, 14 miles away, because they believe it's better than the Stroud secondary schools. BUT I've heard some Cirencester folk say they'd rather their children went to Kingshill, Cirencester's other comprehensive! Hey ho, what do I know, I haven't got kids and I work in a special school that is unlikely to be plunged into 'special measures', as seems to happen rather a lot round here.


A square-cropped blip for Square September.

I'm writing this on Saturday, as blip went off air on Friday evening, and I had a date with the pub! CleanSteve has blipped the band setting up, and very good they were too. Mellow, and there was still a possibility to talk without shouting.

We had gone up on the Common to blip some cute calves, but CleanSteve had forgotten his camera, and I found the white faces hard to blip without overexposing. I saw the bus coming towards me, and had the camera stuck on the dramatic filter. Fortunately it worked out well. It's a bit like my Riders on the Storm blip of several months ago, though I now prefer this one. Apparently I just missed getting a golfer in shot!

vintage Cadbury's ad, for those of a certain age...