The Cotswold Way England 2013: Day Three: LIttle Sodbury to Wotton-under-Edge

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run

This Folly Was Built to House Barn Owls and Swallows Which Nest in Buildings and are Losing Their Habitat

Oh Keats ~ how can I not think of these lines today? Now I'm feeling the distance ~ Not only in my toes and calves but in my mind. I'm actually doing this and I can do it! Why did I ever doubt? Today was the kind of English countryside walking I know. The track lead through plowed rich soil and fall planted fields, small hamlets of climbing roses and fuchsias bursting with color. The roadsides were a riot of blackberries I couldn't resist. Lunch was under the willows on a bridge by a running stream of the clearest cold water in Kilcot - and if those aren't enough prepositional phrases......I think my neck is a contender for sprain from looking around me so much, not just from looking down to avoid a huge cow pie. Everywhere is beauty and inspiration. We saw black faced Cotwold sheep, pheasant, Highland cattle to name a few. Sometimes, looking down right in the road, I would find a piece of pottery or red brick with its edges rounded by time, evidence of an earlier life. What happened here and why in the middle of seemingly nowhere? I took time to reflect at the hill forts and touch the earthworks built on the highest hilltops by Iron Age men. This was a day when the feet keep moving forward in rhythm with the ground, the wind blowing chilly and fresh, and I could keep going forever, just the nature around me and joining this history.
If only our mortal weaknesses didnt interfere!

A Sunken Road ~ How Many Feet Going to Market Passed Along With Mine?

The Guidebook Called This Church of St Mary Intriguing for Its Cubed Shaped Yews - Meh!

Sir Slug the Slimey! I Am Thy Savior!

HIghland Baby at Kelston Round Hill. Don't You Want to Just Squeeze Him?

Planted in honor of Queen Victoria, the Jubilee Clump is at a viewpoint which was also an ancient beacon site. Trees were planted here in 1815 to commemorate the victory at Waterloo. It had become thin by the end of the Crimean War and was replanted and given an enclosure to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, when this spot was also chosen to house one of a chain of beacons that were lit across the country. The clump was replanted again in 1952.