Theescombe spout - first of an occasional series.

I did some DIY prospecting this morning after dropping Helena off at work as she was running late. I did get what I was looking for at the second emporium, and some rather sad looking plants at the first place, as I think I can rescue them and some of them will add some colour to the garden and the rest will be good herbs for the kitchen in due course.

Then I drove up the valley to Nailsworth to deliver some of Helena's magic lotions to the health centre where she occasionally works. By mid-moprning I had finished some food shopping there and the sun was beginning to break through the rather thick mists, which were draping over the valley sides and swirling about. I chose to drive back along the small single track road that follows the side of the valley above the river, winding along through tiny hamlets connected by small patches of woodlands and fields and rather expensive estates of the wealthy. It is a beautiful area and the south facing locations provide particularly fine vistas where the trees allow.

The track runs along the side of the valley following the spring line, as you can find in most of the valleys in the Stroud area. Farms and their associated cottages all tended to be built just above the road on the porous limestone which is found laid down in layers or strata of varying thickness. They are often interspersed with layers of clay through which water cannot pass. So when the water held in the limestone reaches an edge and a clay layer it is forced out of the ground as a spring.

As I drove along this road I noticed several small springs just above the road and often they were marked with little troughs and protective shelters. I thought of starting an occasional series of blips of the springs around Stroud, and possibly including the occasional well. When I saw this particular spring I decided my series would start here.

This is Theescombe spout, and a cottage just beside it is rather cunningly called 'Spout Cottage'. On the other side of the road is a low limestone wall, below which is a piece of rough ground including a copse and some evergreen shrubs, through which the stream starts to run steeply down the hillside having come out of the ground on the upper side of the road. It is obviously now piped under the road but originally would have just flowed across it. As I stood there looking down the stream a deer must have noticed me looking in its direction and suddenly leaped away and out of view.

I will dedicate this series to the memory of the former blipper, 'Amalarian', whose real name was Molly, and who also named her journal 'Tuscany'. It was she who first introduced me to the idea of the 'Occasional series". She sadly died very suddenly in May 2011, and is still much missed for her wit, her friendliness and her wonderful view of life around her and Himself. Do take a look at Amalarian.