From Swift's Hill to the sea

Helena suggested going for a short walk today at Swift's Hill, a notable SSSI site, on the opposite side of the valley from the village of Slad. We drove there along Slad Lane, the ancient track that runs from the top of Stroud, along the side of the valley at approximately the springline.

She was last here to celebrate the Summer Solstice with our friend Kitty. Today it was very bright in the sunshine, but made cold by the strong winds blowing up the valley from the sea. As we climbed up to the top of the knoll, I spotted a kestrel hovering just above the summit. Behind it the sky appeared very blue with the half moon sitting like a backcloth to the bird's antics.

As we climbed the kestrel flew away, but sadly the sun started to disappear as well behind steadily thickening cloud cover, spreading inexorably up the Severn Vale from the Bristol Channel. I turned round to capture the view before the light made everything drab again and saw this runner gathering breath behind us on the lower slope of the hill. Within a minute he had passed us and as he ran on into the old woods behind the hill.

This view is looking westwards towards the Forest of Dean in the distance, in front of which good eyes might make out the narrow strip of the sea which flows up the estuary of the River Severn, where it is tidal. Stroud is just visible at the end of the Slad Valley, just in front of the slightly forbidding hills of the Cotswold scarp, with the hills above Uley and Dursley in the far distance.

I have encouraged the colours very slightly, but there was a very vivid colour in the landscape today, possibly caused by the way the light from the sun was shining through the gap between the hilltops and the bottom of the clouds. It was very bracing to be out there today, our first true venture out for exercise after a quite long period of feeling unwell. Here's to fresh air and more exercise this year!