Happy days are here again

Yesterday, four hundred cows were released onto their summer grazing pastures on Minchinhampton Common, a National Trust controlled area of traditional Cotswold grassland. The Common is a very large expanse of open grazing area, which encompasses numerous pre-Roman and Roman bulwarks and other landscape features. In the background you might just see one of the ramparts running across the picture.

The area has been a common since before the Domesday census, and the Commoners' rights to graze remain. The date for the release of the cattle back onto the land is carefully controlled by the Commoners committee to ensure that the land isn't trampled too much in springtime nor overgrazed by the end of autumn.

There are several through roads across the common which get heavy traffic from cars, including this stretch of the old turnpike from Cirencester to Rodborough, a hamlet on the hill above Stroud Town. Just beside where I was standing is Tom Long's Post, the signpost that marks the cross-roads at the centre of the common.

When Helena and I drove up there a group of about fifteen cows had assembled right by the cross-roads and were all loving the lush grass, rich with herbs and wild flowers. There are thousands of cowslips, purple orchids and buttercups all flowering in and just above the green sward.

Cows have right of way here, so when they cross the road, often in large numbers, the traffic can grind to a halt. When I took this picture I had just been sitting beside this cow and heard horrible sounds coming from his mouth, where he had been crunching on a squashed tin can of a fizzy drink, which he must have picked up in the long grass. I was quite worried but after a few minutes he regurgitated the object, and i was able to remove it and take it away.

Today marks a seasonal change and I will be up here quite often over the summer. There is so much to see and hear let alone photograph. Skylarks, starlings, people, kites and frisbees; ditches and dykes, clouds and blue skies, valley views in all directions and all the delights of the open Cotswold landscape on the tops of the hills.