Redevelopment

Not one, not two, but FOUR workers were spotted on this sorry-looking building known as Badbrook Hall, situated at one of the gateways to Stroud. I've blipped it before, from the front, in 2012. I haven't been able to find out much about its recent past, before it fell into disrepair. The 1923 Stroud Trade Directory lists it as The Centre for Cookery, Laundry and Housewifery, with Miss Stenhouse-Minton as Mistress; and also as the Badbrook School (for Senior girls) under the watchful eye of Miss Elderkin.

Now it is being developed into 14 co-housing flats, with some communal facilities, and a separate retail unit. I still wonder if it is a wise place to build high-intensity housing, right next to a busy traffic interchange, with a brook running underneath. You don't have to be a Feng Shui practitioner or to have witnessed the great floods of 2007 first-hand to feel the vibes there. Stroud leads the way in urban co-housing projects, as the property developer who kick-started it all lives here. Some people call the smaller flats rabbit hutches. It remains to be seen what these will look like when finished.

The Good News: I finished the first week of work at school with my new responsibilities in the nursery (I love it!) and I saw the osteopath. Now I am hopeful of no longer having to walk like a gaucho, to resume jogging to work, and to start climbing again once I feel certain of my prowess. (I've had a leg injury since July which has rendered my left leg muscles extraordinarily tight, and has started to affect my back).

The Bad News: I seem to have lost my phone. It is neither expensive nor smart, but I have had to cancel the SIM, and order a new SIM, and a new basic phone from Amazon that turns out not to be in stock. Grrrr! I think I will return to the cinema tomorrow to ask to search the auditorium for the errant device.

These are the only photos I took today. But at least the blippers were spared the supper-blip, though Bomble certainly enjoyed our Spicy Cod and Puy Lentils, as did we. Bomble must surely be the cat with the trendiest diet in our street!