To The Woods..... Nearly St.Lukes Little Summer

It was said that near the date of St. Luke's Day, the 18th of October, there would be a brief last glimpse of summer, with a bright low sun, blue skies and autumn colours.
Well I think this year, it has come a little early.

The above picture shows the sun breaking through the leaves of the Brockworth Woods.

It was taken yesterday (8/10) during circular Cotswold Way Walk No.7 " Cranham, Cooper's and the Beechwoods." a  four mile ramble, starting and finishing in a car park, near the village of Cranham, conveniently near to the 'Black Horse Inn' (more later).

Once again those splendid chap/ess's have marked the route with those green signs. that I showed you in a previous posting.

The route itself followed the Way  for approx. half the distance, including the climb to the summit of Cooper's Hill and down towards Witcombe.

Cooper's Hill 8th October 2010 

This, as you may remember, is the site of the annual cheese rolling event. Last year, due to 'Elf and Safety-pins,  it was not run and it was interesting to see how nature in the form of thistles, weeds and bramble bushes had taken over at bottom of the slope, after one year unused.

Although I have rightly praised the marking of the route, I have to report one major blemish.

It happened near the end of the route, near Monks' Ditch car park.

The instructions required you to "Keeping a good look-out, cross the road and take the path directly opposite. As you reach the small car parking area under the trees, make for the track at the far side, and head downhill past the large house."

Two points to make:

1   The path was not directly opposite the road. It was about 50 metres to the left and by a post box.

     please can we have a green sticker on post near box?

2   From this point, all the instruction needs to read is:

      Follow this track, all the way down to open common  land, before Cranham Village; passing a large house and a trickling stream on your route.

This should simplify matters and, in so doing  stop any anxiety on the last stages of a memorable walk.

As I already reported, near the finishing post, is the Black Horse Inn, mentioned in the guide: 

" Should you have a thirst in need of quenching turn left opposite the next footpath sign, up towards the inviting Black Horse Inn" Later it describes this event as "This most pleasing of detours ." I couldn't agree more.

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In the evening I attended The Cheltenham Literary Festival, To hear Mark Kermode's  witty speech on being a movie critic.

As every week I listen to his movie review podcast, when he is interviewed by Simon Mayo, it was a real pleasure to hear him live.

After the event, Mark did a book signing stint.

I dutifully joined the queue with  copy of his book. When he asked me for an inscription. I asked for " Hello from the Doctor " (he has a Ph.D.), he obliged me and had he asked why I didn't want my name in the book, I would have replied that it spoiled the re-sale value. I think he would have liked that.

As usual,

Ciao4now

Ck.