Day's apple juice at Stroud Farmer's Market

I forced myself to get up and out of the door early this morning to get the haircut I need badly.  I found that my favourite barber shop Dann's of Stroud, opened at 8am and by the time I arrived at 8-30am there were six people in the queue ahead of me.  I brought my Lightroom's 'Missing manual' which kept me occupied and didn't have to wait too long.  

The light was wonderful this morning and the mists had cleared from the valley bottom by the time I reached town.  The view down the valley looked really colourful and I'd wished I could go wandering with my camera.  So after my haircut I went to the Stroud Valleys Project shop to buy some wine glasses made from recycled glass and was served by Stella a friend and former subject of my blips.  Then I walked up Threadneedle Street and around the corner into the Farmer's Market  which was getting into full swing. 

One of the advantages of this time of day is that the crowds haven't yet gathered so that walking around the market is much easier and the stall holders have more time for you.  I took a few odd pictures and tried to cope with the strong sunlight and the contrasting shadows under the awnings.

I spotted the light shining through the bottles of apple juice on the Day's Cottage stall which has always occupied the same prime spot since the market started.  I asked the man running their stall if i could take some pictures which he was happy for me to do, and even offered to set up special shots for me.  I explained that I just take pictures of what is there and he needn't bother, but thanks all the same. In fact we then began to chat and established a mutual interest in landscape history and Dave suggested that their farm land where the Day's family's traditional apple orchards are sited are very interesting to visit with tracts of ancient woodland as well.  He also drew me a map of a very special ancient perry orchard on the slopes of the escarpment  close to their farm which I will definitely visit for blip purposes and more.

As I wanted to show the light filtering though the different coloured juices, Dave set up various bottles hanging from the stall's canopy supports while I clicked away.  Dave asked me if I had an online gallery and I said I have a Flickr gallery which I occasionally add to.  I then explained about my blip journal which I hope he will visit here, because I said I would add a link to my Flickr gallery which is here.  I have aded another clearer picture of the various juice bottles on the stall to the gallery.

I want to thank Dave for our chat and his advice.  Before I left a bought a litre of perry which he recommended, and reminded me is quite alcoholic.   Have a look at the Day's cottage website here and learn a lot about their apple juice production and the traditions of Gloucestershire's apple heritage, which they are upholding wonderfully well.  I'm already looking forward to visiting him and Helen again quite soon to both explore and to buy more juice!  He recommended seeing the April blossoms of that perry orchard.

(Edit:
I have just remembered why I don't use Flickr much.  There are now so many adverts getting in the way, and for some reason it duplicates some images, apparently randomly.  So annoying and it seems very hard to remove them.)