#14: Stroudwater Navigation Canal - Nympsfield Long Barrow

Old Style Stile - with a teepee on the horizon!

Himalayan Balsam

All Saints Church - Selsley

This stretch of the Cotswold way offers two alternative routes from Ryeford (where the Stroudwater Navigation Canal passes through) which split and rejoin, the western route being 1.5 miles whilst the eastern route is 3.5 miles making a 5 mile loop. As I'm walking The Way in both directions I chose to walk them both as a clockwise loop. The eastern route turns south off from the canal towpath and takes a route that leads into a field that eventually passes Ebley Mill. That field is one to take note of for two reasons. As I enetered the field I had my second bull encounter along the Cotswold Way. This time I saw it in plenty of time, saw that he had his six wives with him (and no calves), and I concluded that he was more interested in scratching his leg that chasing me. So I chanced it - and I was totally ignored - whew. At the far end of the field was an incredibly churned up thick gloopy muddy couple of hundred yards which had been liberally supplemented by the cattle and which I couldn't avoid. So, a lot of scraping and cleaning at the far side was called for.

I'd anticipated some interesting photography in All Saints Church at Selsley so I was very disappointed to find that it was under wraps for roof repair. Strictly no admittance whilst work was in progress. It is a church associated with the Arts & Crafts movement so I was hopeful of something a little different. I'll have to return.

I first became aware of Himalayan Balsam about 30 years ago when I saw a few plants alondside a local river. Now it grows profusely along so many of our river banks and damp boggy areas. It shows just how successful an invading species can be away from its home.

I'm looking forward to processing a couple of today's b&w images - one of a disused quarry whilst the other is a conventional landscape view - clouds and fields. I keep hoping that one day there'll be absolutely no breeze whilst I'm walking past a bank of hartstongue ferns. There have been a few banks of these beautifully photogenic ferns along the way, but they've always been swaying. And as they grow in very shaded areas a slow shutter speed is always needed.