If you go down to the woods today, .....

Such a busy day today. A meeting at the council turned into two and took twice as long as intended. That left me late for my trip to visit Jonathan who rang me asking me to help him set up his new iMac at home. Normally we meet in the Old Convent in Stroud, when I go to him for treatment, as he is my osteopath of many decades standing.

Getting to his home is a rather wonderful experience as it starts with a drive a couple of miles up the Slad valley from the centre of town, before parking on the steep hillside a few hundred yards short of Slad village. The lay-by sits beside a large and rather grand house with several outbuildings where another friend of mine used to live some years ago – in the outbuildings I might add.

Today I had to walk up along the road about a hundred yards before climbing steeply up a narrow footpath leading straight up the side of the hill into a thick woodland. After rising a hundred feet or so the path joins an old wider track between the wood and a meadow surrounded by woodland where I often se deer. Then a hole or gap in the stone wall appears and passing through it, I dropped down through a steep garden to approach a charming wooden house.

I walked round to the front and was cheerily greeted by Jonathan and crossed the wooden patio surrounded by plants in pots to enter the wonderful world of a nearly hundred year old wooden home. In the 1950s Laurie Lee lived here soon after 'Cider with Rosie' was first published. Jonathan thought it was a bit of a bolt hole for him, after he became famous locally.

Jonathan has lived here for about twenty years and he has gradually added and improved it. Today we were working in the 'extension' and my picture shows one end of it. It is a straw baled building on one floor with a flat roof that has plants growing above it. The wonderful windows look out under the trees and there are two more arched windows running up the side of this room.

After we finished sorting the computers out and setting up the broadband Jonathan gave me some delicious pizza and more coffee. I asked if I could take a picture or two, and he was delighted. While I set up my camera in the rather dark conditions, as it had started to rain after I'd arrived, I had to pump up the ISO and just as I took this image, Jonathan walked into the shot. I will have to come back to do a couple of extra tweaks to the system in due course, but it will be a pleasure to return again.