Butterow's terraces in early morning sunshine

I poked my long lens out of a narrow upstairs window to get this view across to Butterow. I love the terraces of the houses on the perched hillsides along the Golden Valley. 

The early morning sun illuminates these hillsides for a few months of the year bringing that lovely oblique light. Soon the leaves will be gone and the sun won't rise over the other side of the valley until later in the day. The road up Butterow Hill which you can just make out sloping up the hillside was used by the stagecoaches leaving Stroud for London. The valley bottom was too muddy for the coaches which needed to get to the hilltops as quickly as possible. The introduction of tarmacadam changed so much, especially economic history.

RIP Dyan Birch
I've just heard the sad news of the death of the wonderful singer Dyan Birch. I used to see her singing in clubs and pubs around London in the late 1970s in the wonderful band, Kokomo.

Here is one of my favourite songs, 'I can't understand it'. It is taken from their LP, but live was where you wanted to hear and see them.