An afternoon treat

Helena was straight back to work again today, after returning from the music festival near Nottingham at the weekend. She had a great time with good music, camping (in the rain at times!), and general fun with Lesley and some new friends they met there.

I offered to pick her up after her teaching job this afternoon and suggested going to have an ice cream from the local factory called Winstones, which is set on the hillside opposite in Bownham. The old family firm is very well known and loved around here with many shops and restaurants stocking their nearly home-made ice creams. We drove there from Brimscombe by a beautiful roundabout route, along the old road halfway up the hillside, and arrived at the factory site where their ice cream shop is always busy. People come, as we did, to just sit with their ice cream and enjoy the views of the landscape. I had the honey and ginger flavour. Mmmmm!

We sat on this old bench looking north towards our house, which we could see in the distance on the edge of Stroud town. I noticed some of the cattle, which roam freely across the common, were walking up one of the roads, so I snapped this picture. It was the only one I managed today.

You can see a couple of the old paths across the grassland on Rodborough Common, which is on the top of the hills here. Just below the ridge formed by the hilltop are thick woodlands on the very steep slopes that drop down on either side into the Nailsworth and Golden Valleys.