Edgelands: the Slad Brook in Stroud
Edgelands: the Slad Brook in Stroud ‘Just take my advice, there’s nothing so nice, as messing about on the river’: and that’s true, even when doing that means walking along a brook, that is only intermittently visible, and which is hidden under tarmac, in the middle...
Robin the Poet: Rodborough Fields
Here’s a poem I wrote about the proposed (and still lurking) development plans on Rodborough Fields. It’s vital to keep these things in present consciousness lest we let slip our guard! (note: you may notice in the poem that the Lion is Lion Court,...
Laurie Lee Wildlife Walk: Lit-crit on a bike
Lit-Crit on a Bike I had no idea, when I started out for Slad in the morning, As to what voice I would use on the Laurie Lee Wildlife Way – I decided to be guided by the first poetry post I encountered, And I know there are mixed views about poetry posts in a...
Death after a Night at the Woolpack
Death after a Night at the Woolpack and other Great War Stories resulting from A Guide to the War Memorials of Stroud and the Five Valleys 1. Sheepscombe and Slad: I am indebted to Karen Frank who put me onto this tale of truth and woe – Karen gave me a lift to Zeta...
100 Years of Apples: For Day’s Cottage and Rosie’s Kiss
100 Years of Apples: For Day’s Cottage and Rosie’s Kiss I was re-reading Pat Barker’s ‘The Ghost Road’, But thinking about the apple tree trunks In our old back garden, how thin they must have been, When cold-wind planted almost a...
Robin the Poet: Time Raft
Time Raft Feet on the grass, walking a steep track, up to the cow grazed common. A raft when I reach, its level plain, ferrying flowers, over its rumpled turf, and travelled tracks: cowslips in spring, knapweed and orchids in summer. A raft as i trundle along needle...