Sunday's spotlight - An autumnal day out

BY GUEST BLOGGER PETE

Last week I went down to Cheltenham for a couple of days to meet up with Ruth and John. It was great seeing them both again and we had fun that first evening deciding where we would go on the following day.

In the end we decided that our first visit would be to Malmesbury and then, in the afternoon, the Arboretum, whose name is, possibly Westonbirt or something similar. In the end we restricted our visit to Malmesbury.

For over seven years we lived in the county of Wiltshire but I can't remember, during that time, ever making a trip to Malmesbury. That was our loss because, once there, we decided to spend the day rather than go on to Westonbirt, which we had visited a couple of times before any way.

If you've never been to Malmesbury then it is a place I can definitely recommend. It is rich in architecture covering a number of centuries. It has a few steep hills but if I can manage them then I'm pretty sure most of the readers of this blog could as well.

In some ways Malmesbury reminded me of Gold Hill in Shaftesbury, -- although the hill wasn't as steep in Malmesbury as it is in Shaftesbury. The whole town was a blaze of colour -- natural colour.

We have had an extremely good autumn this year and only moderate rain and reasonable winds has resulted in the trees producing a wonderful array of colour. At one time Ruth and John lived in New Hampshire and, on couple of occasions, we visited them during the American fall season and became "LEAF PEEPERS". England, this year, had most of the variety of colour that New Hampshire displayed but the big difference is that we don't have the density of trees that are found there.

Each autumn Pam attempts, not always successfully, to catch a falling leaf. This year, in Cheltenham whilst walking home one evening, proved to be a success in the leaf catching challenge. The next challenge will be to eat 12 mince pies between December 1 and Christmas Eve. If you want to join her in this challenge then you've got to remember that each mince pie has come from a different source. Try it!

The colour of the leaves set off the architectural beauty of the old houses in Malmesbury. One house that really caught my attention was a comparatively ordinary building but rising from its roof was a three-storey stone tower. There was nothing on the outside of the building to tell what the significance of this was. Guess I'll have to go on the Internet to find out -- unless, that is, one of you, dear readers, knows the answer.

I have enclosed a photo of this house, complete with its tower, plus some other shots I took during our visit to Malmesbury.