Bartimaeus

I bought some cards at a self serve donation touchscreen inside the Abbey. The deacon said goodbye as I left. Outside was a war memorial, but not to fallen soldiers. It was a tribute to the huge number of war horses killed, particularly in the first World War. Many other animals were also named, but horses were most relied upon and suffered heavy losses. In one day at Verdun, a thousand horses were killed. 

 We crossed the park and read notices giving the history of Pershore. The monastery had been destroyed in Henry VIII's Dissolution, but the Abbey remained. It had needed extra work to keep it up and the revidence that there had been a building attached was vsible on one side.

The next day I made a quick excursion to the shops while Shane filled up with water. The high street had a number of independent local shops and I had seen a fruit and vegetable shop. It had other foodstuffs I found inside so I stocked up on biscuits too. Almost all the greengrocer items were loose and there were some brown paper bags. I far prefer that to plastic wrapped vegetables. I also got a bunch of parsley that was sitting in a tub of water. I put local apples in a paper bag from the baskets outside. They had a lot of local products and I was surprised to see quince among them. I regretted that I didn't really know what to do with quince and didn't get any, but got a goodly haul of fruit and vegetables.

When I returned I unpacked and Shane was ready to set off. He notified me of the attractive bridges (he is a particular fan of bridges) coming soon so I would come and look. They were indeed very fine bridges. One is termed the Pershore Old Bridge, built in Medieval times, but they both look pretty old.

Shane had wanted to set off promptly as he had a plan to climb the highest point for many miles and it was accessible from a mooring. It wasn't a sunny day but being unused nowadays to hill walking, I was happy it wasn't hot. It was a steady uphill but rising gently at first through field of lively sheep , some speckled and all with long tails but neatly shorn all the same.

They had a free space with several open gates and while the sheep ignored us the lambs sometimes looked nervous or ran and flicked their tails. An adult with small speckles and a single black leg, looked a bit odd and particularly when walking as the black leg didn't seem to belong to the rest of it.

We left the sheep behind and the slopes got steeper. We met with a wall and locked gate near the top. We may not have taken the official route. There were several paths on the flatter area near the top. People were sitting on the stone at the official top so we passed there to look at the view first. I noticed a rock that looked like an elephant near the top. Shane checked later and it is unsurprisingly called elephant rock.

 It was windy at the top which was good to cool us down but it wasn't  a clear day for the view. The wind at the top helped it feel like a proper hill and it was good to have plenty of layers. We went to the official top 

After a steep slippery descent, by a different route we rejoined our sheep and by the bottom we met some that actually came over looking curious or hopeful of a feed. We had nothing for them so they wandered off. Like the weather, the sheep seemed tamer at the lower levels.