June Squares | Roofs

It’s June and another 30 day challenge from Becky.  ‘The Life of B’ This month she is looking for a roof or roofs or even rooves. Follow the link for the rules.

My first one is the thatched roof of the tiny shop / post-office in the little Gloucestershire hamlet of Adlestrop in the Cotswolds. Open Mon / Thurs / Fri from 1600 – 1700 and Thurs 0930-1230.

Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

~ by Edward Thomas (1878 – 1917)

June Square | 1st June

Published by

Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

41 thoughts on “June Squares | Roofs”

  1. Oh, how I love the thatched roofs of England, Jude. This photo brings back happy memories of visiting villages in the Cotswolds and admiring the abundance of cute cottages.

    1. Yes, the Cotswolds are pretty special. And this hamlet was very quiet too, but close enough to lots of wonderful places.

      1. It’s not on any major route so I wouldn’t think so. I can see why you’d think that from the shape.

  3. Those were the days. You could get a train to anywhere, and Sherlock Holmes would look in his timetable for the train in which he and Watson would be the only passengers. Off to a peaceful Cotswold village, always met by a cap doffing driver with his horse and trap. 🙂
    Nice thatch, Jude! 🙂
    (Oops…Sorry, Matron. x)

    3. Ah, yes, trains where you could actually get a seat! Of course the point of the poem is that this particular train wasn’t supposed to stop at Adlestrop 😀

  7. Nice combination, poetry and poetic image of olde worlde England. Just read that some of our commuter trains don’t/won’t stop at every station on the timetable if they are running behind time. The reason being they have to be able to quote stats that every train runs on time. Waiting passengers are understandably furious.

    1. That must be frustrating if you want to get off at one of those stops too! Our train network is in chaos at the moment with a change of timetable with hundreds of trains being cancelled. It’s a shocking system that doesn’t put the customer first.

        1. OH going to visit his mother in Shropshire. Last month he could get a train in both directions with only one change at Birmingham. Next week, he has 3 changes on the way there (not via Brum) and on the way back one change involves having to catch a bus from Tiverton (Somerset) to Exeter (Devon) in order to catch a connecting train. The Brum route suddenly went from 1 change to up to as many as 5 changes! Now that’s what I call crazy! The services are not for customers anymore.

        2. And the big question is WHY. Certainly seems crazy, not like the good old days when the customer was always right.

      1. I would expect they would be expensive. I was sad when I found out that the gorgeous cottage in the movie The Holiday was a fake purpose built and then removed. It was lovely in the snow.

        1. Was it? I didn’t know that, but it was supposed to be in Surrey and not the Cotswolds. Not a typical Surrey house I have to say.

Comments are closed.