Well

I had a busy morning walking and bussing around Stroud, and having a Tibetan singing bowl played on my back (amazing, and not cold because I was clothed, and wearing a few blankets to boot).

As I walked up the road towards home,  I could see CleanSteve about to set off somewhere so I asked him where he was off to, and decided to go too, when he said his destination was the Lady Well by St Swithun's church in Hempsted village on the outskirts of Gloucester. It was too fine a day to stay at home looking at emails!

I worked at the after school club at Hempsted school.some years ago, which is how I came to discover the well. The traces of the old village lie not far beneath the surface of the more modern developments. Here the driveway to an old farm, there the remains of an orchard. We even spotted traces of ridge and furrow ploughing, on land adjacent to the school playing  fields. The school has submitted an application to annex this strip of land and turn it into a new improved driveway. In six months' time, those vestigial ridges will no longer delight the eye.

I don't know much about the well, except that it's called the Lady Well, and occupies an elevated status in it's fine limestone building. I believe it was a sacred well though probably not spring-fed. I peered through the opening, but could only see that there's now no evidence of it ever having been a well. A lone juice carton littered the floor.

While CleanSteve too hundreds of shots, I realised it was warm enough to lie on my back in the grass and attempt to soak up some vitamin D, which is what we Brits need so badly in winter, apparently. Very pleasant it was, too, to feel some actual warmth at last! The fields were quiet and still, with not even a dog walker about. I could tell from the hoofprints that cattle graze there, but the beasts themselves were not to be seen.

All this, and more we did, in just a couple of hours of free Friday time, before coming home to dine handsomely on twenty types of salad. For me, tomorrow is another market day. I hope the sunshine will stay with us!