Tortworth Chestnut Blipmoot

Grey and overcast, and yet the walk to Tortworth didn't seem an implausible challenge. I'd arranged to meet up with blipper CleanSteve for a wander around the local and legendary Tortworth Chestnut, and a chat over a pint or two. 

The thing about walking though, it's all very relativistic... that walk, which I've done time and again and which feels like a gentle stroll when taken on in leisurely pursuit - it's a bloody long way and takes a lot longer than you imagine! So, I was just about halfway there when I realised I had taken longer than half the allotted ninety minutes, and I was going to be more than fashionably late. I turned back for home and walked as fast as I could over boggy field short cuts, making it back home with ten minutes to spare. Of course, in the camper van I got to the appointed meeting place with minutes to spare, not sweating buckets at all..! There's a whole blog post about time travel there somewhere...

But we met, and had a fine old time admiring the chestnut, which is now so large it fills quite a large area. Legend has it the tree was planted in about 800ce, during the reign of King Egbert. It now measures more than 12m around the girth of the main trunk, and has offshoots where branches have touched the ground and set roots. But what resembles a whole wood is yet one tree! The chestnut is one of the fifty Great British Trees selected to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Both CleanSteve and myself are local councillors and both of us are involved in preparing Neighbourhood Plans - Steve's nearly ready for the inspection process, while mine has yet to formally begin. You can imagine the cheery discussions we had over a couple of very decent pints in the local micropub.

Apart from my brotherinlaw and other family members, I think that's my first ever blipmoot! Thoroughly enjoyable experience.