Rustic repose.

Trying now to time our journey down to Bath and back to Caen Hill so we can be ready for our hols. So we have crept out into a more agrarian mooring. As I sit composing this literary gem I can see, in the field on the other side of the canal,

a herd? flock? of Alpacas and just down the cut there is a field containing

a bewildering variety of sheep. There is also a llama but it's proving a little camera shy. Strangely there is little evidence of normal animal husbandry around here. Very few sheep or cows.
There is a shop in Seend, the nearest village so, being in need of bread, we wended our way up the hill.
Apart from the village street now being the A361 it was a pleasant enough place.

Several of the older buildings were roofed with these big old stone slates, it must take some pretty hefty roof timbers to hold up that weight.

Your guess is as good as mine, behind the high wall of one of the grander houses. No, it wasn't a Chinese restaurant.

The rather grand Church of the Holy Cross.

It is well endowed with grotesque carvings, although the bottom one looks more Aztec than Wiltshire. There was also a splendid looking pub but, alas, we were too early.
Next, an apology for getting the pub name wrong the other day, it is of course The Three Magpies. Thanks to n.b. Chance for pointing it out, I am suitably humbled. I have now corrected the aforesaid post. I blame the several pints of Wadworth's Henry's I.P.A. I had absentmindedly consumed.

Have you seen the latest on red diesel? The morons in Brussels are poking their noses in again and demanding that we will no longer be entitled to use it at all, unless we have separate tanks for white and red. Apart from damage to our own wallets it will kill the hire boat firms who, love 'em or hate 'em, are major financial contributors to C&RT. Many boatyards will not be able to afford the swop and all in all it will be a total disaster for the system. Will our politicians have the will to stand up to them? I doubt it.

Watch this space...........