The Severn Vale from Coaley Peak, near Stroud

I spent the day trying to sort out rubbish from the garden and decided to do a run to the rubbish tip. I combined it with various other tasks which were becoming urgent prior to having my operation, as I will be much less mobile for at least six weeks.

Having had blood tests at the GP surgery I drove to a certain supermarket for particular products and from there climbed the steep hill up to Selsley Common following the road to Uley and Dursley. Before reaching the tip which lies about a mile from the Cotswold escarpment near Nympsfield, I stopped at the dedicated car park at Coaley Peak which is famous for its views looking out west and south west towards the Forest of Dean and the Wales mountains in the far distance. the River Severn forms this long valley which separates the distinctive landscapes of the Cotswold hills in the east and the Welsh Marches, the Malvern Hills and the heavily wooded Forest of Dean.

The views today were rather shrouded by clouds with only short gaps when the sun shone through between the scudding clouds. As Io stood watching the gaps became more pronounced and the landscape became intermittently illuminated. I tried to record the summer landscape with  harvested fields and lush meadows, but it was a hard task without a tripod. But I did enjoy the quiet and the sense of space, with skylarks singing in the air above me and a couple of kestrels and buzzards cruising the updrafts above the steep scarp slopes hunting for prey.