Looking out of my window

I had a rather frenetic session of following two Euro championships football matches on my computer and a radio whilst checking on Johanna Konta eventually winning a big tennis match. Then the sound of an  helicopter became louder and louder and I was reminded of former times when Stroud used to have a police training centre where police helicopters would circle relentlessly as they tracked people and cars on the ground.

I got up to look out of the window and saw this green chopper circling as it gradually homed in on the valley bottom in Thrupp just across the fields and down the road from us in the Golden Valley. Several circles later it dropped down out of sight behind the trees in the back gardens. I realised that it was actually an air ambulance and was trying to descend to flat ground, which is a rare commodity in this valley.

Where it landed must have been on a hundred yard wide stretch of land at the bottom of the valley where the London Road, the canal, the River Frome and the main railway line to Swindon and London all compete for space.

I got my camera as I knew that soon it would take off and I could blip it. I returned to watching my computer and as soon as I heard the helicopter's engine getting louder I went to the window and watched it rise very slowly out of the trees. It rose up several hundred feet before changing direction and heading away to Swindon hospital where the Great Western Air Ambulance base is.  I used to see it land there from the window where my mother was in hospital in her last few months before she finally returned home.  I am sure the passenger will get good treatment there.

The white blurs in the foreground in front of the tree are magpies which have been buzzing around relentlessly for days and squawking like mad. The tall chimney is a bit of the old industrial heritage, part of Stafford's Mill where there were iron works in relatively recent times in the late 19th century. There are still metal working businesses on that same site but the chimney is no longer in use.