A swan grooming at Sellars Bridge, Hardwicke

I ventured carefully to Gloucester to buy my fresh tofu supplies for the next week. It is delivered to the Chinese emporium on a Wednesday so I didn't want to leave it any later.

I then headed out into the country just to the south of the city where the River Severn and the nearby Gloucester to Sharpness ship canal form a physical boundary to urban spread. 

I parked by Sellars Bridge, which is a swing bridge that allows tall ships and high boats into the Gloucester City centre docks. I hoped to spot a kingfisher further along the canal. This lone swan carefully grooming itself on a perch in the lee of the bridge caught my eye.

Soon after, with no kingfishers spotted, I drove on two miles towards Hardwicke and Longney to buy fresh farm milk and cream from Jess's Ladies Organic Farm. 
'We make it personally.
My family have been farming at Hardwicke Farm in gorgeous Gloucestershire for three generations. We've always looked after our land and the wildlife whilst producing the highest quality organic pastures for our herd of 80 beautiful cows. We know ‘the Ladies’ all by name and we milk them personally everyday to ensure they’re a happy, healthy bunch. Because we believe that happy, healthy cows make better milk. In our view nature is best so we do not homogenise our milk, preferring to leave all its nutrients as nature intended. And because ‘Jess’s Ladies’ graze on luscious organic pasture, our milk typically contains higher levels of natural omega 3. The Ladies, my family and I love producing and bottling milk on the farm – and we hope you love our milk too!

Jess Vaughan'