Saturday (My Birthday)

My birthday was in two parts – a morning part and an afternoon part. The morning involved a short walk round Selsley Common near Stroud, and the afternoon part was a picnic on the hillside followed by fun and games in the sunshine.

For several weeks I had been wondering how many people would turn up, as I had invited 2 walking groups and some of my friends. I was concerned that 50 or 60 people might turn up. In the end, there were only 12 of us (probably due to it being a Saturday, when people do other things, like shopping for example), but I found this to be a nice cosy number.

We walked anti-clockwise round the edge of Selsley Common. There were wonderfully clear views across the Stroud area and over the River Severn. Everyone seemed really happy, and was really enjoying the lovely weather and leisurely walk.

Later on, after we had walked all the way round the common, we walked into the woods. It was lovely and cool in the shade, with the dappled sunshine falling down through the gaps in the deep green summer leaves. It was almost mystical. I didn’t chat much at that point. I was too busy admiring the beauty of the woods, looking up the slope at the trees. Nobody really knew where we were going, and I was kind of making the route up as I was walking, which was kind of beautiful in a way.

Afternoon Picnic & Games

I assumed that everyone would just bring enough food for themselves, but a young Welsh woman called Christine had bought loads and loads of food for everyone, like she was expecting there to be far more people (maybe she thought I was important or something).

I left the cakes alone, but ate some of the strawberries. In fact, I think I ate a bit too many (along with my own food), because my stomach felt too full when I started running around playing Frisbee with James in the long grass. It was great fun, and wonderful exercise. I kept smelling dog poo, and eventually discovered a huge squashed pile of it, which we tried to avoid.

John went all the way back to his car to drive down to Sainsburys at the bottom of the hill, so that he could buy a football. He was gone for over an hour. I had started to wonder whether he had gone to a different Sainsburys in another town. He surprised me when he came back, because I hadn’t seen him turn up. I’d been lying on my front having a lovely chat with Christine, when I turned round and saw John with his new football.