It’s nice to be back at Cirencester, it would have been nicer if it wasn’t under these circumstances. Good to catch up with friends that are here also. The weather has been kind to us so far which is always a bonus.

We went for a walk into town the other day just to get a bit of shopping and stretch the legs. Cirencester is a loverly old town and in my opinion better now because all the shops are closed, although not very good for the owners having to lockdown again this year. We walked past the pubs we used to go in last year. It’s strange how you really want to go in the pub when it’s closed but if it was open you would just walk on by. Well maybe with a bit of effort you could.

Our walk took us through the Bathurst estate and we had a pleasant surprise. We came across some elephants. No I did not go in the pub and then imagine it. There on the grass were four elephants. Not real ones but beautiful full size sculptures.

The elephants are made from dried Lantana camara stalks, a weed when dried behaves like willow. Next summer 125 of these elephants will transform London’s three royal parks. Green park, St James park and Berkeley square park into an Asian jungle. It’s all about bringing the awareness of elephants living in harmony with humans. You can find out more by going to Coexistance.org. It’s a fantastic thing to be done. Let’s hope it protects and saves this wonderful species forever. Elephants are really fascinating animals.

A couple of days later I went for another walk up through the Bathurst estate again but a different way. The whole area is vast and so many ways you can go and to think it’s somebody’s garden. It’s only open from 8am until 5pm. Being such a large area you are never going to be bumping into peaple which is nice. I came across this monument. It’s called the popes seat. Stood looking at it I wondered how many peaple had sat on the bench inside, how many peaple over the years had walked through that archway and where were they going.

After taking some photos and no one answering my questions I wandered off further up the estate still wondering. On the way back I approached the popes seat from a different angle and that got me wondering all over again. It would be great if you could turn back time just to have a look around.

I walked a total of nearly five miles and there are still plenty of miles still to walk in the estate with all the different ways you can go. Nikki came with me on one day, I showed her the popes seat. We saw a muntjac deer, buzzards, kestrel but only walked about two miles that day. Nikki’s legs are only small. The colours are beautiful with all the autumn leaves and that’s where I will leave this post for today with a picture of some leaves. Stay safe everybody.