Meyricke Serjeantson

Jan 1

Streatley

After another early morning and quite a lot of work before breakfast, I set off on foot along Rectory Rd in the direction of the main road.

The trees form an arch in many places along the lane. In others, they open up to reveal the lane's position at the foot of quite a deep valley, with hills rolling upwards to either side.

The Golf Club is an ugly building and many of the cars which forced me to take evasive action were heading there.

One main road merges into another and this road then enters into Streatley. The village now contains some very smart houses, a major road junction and an old pub. Down the hill towards the river are more fine houses and the village church.

Posh houses in Streatley	The Bull

The Thames separates Streatley in Berkshire to the South from Goring in Oxfordshire to the North. There is a complex network of weirs, locks, islands and bridges which, on a warm summer's day would look very pretty. On a dull and cold winter one, it wasn't quite as impressive.

The Thames at Goring

Goring is the larger place, with quite a few shops although, on New Year's Day, many of them were closed. The church is smaller than the one in Streatley but there is a magnificent village hall.   Right: Goring Village Hall     On the return journey, I realised that there were lots of pretty berries on the roadside, a mixture of hips, sloes, ivy and some more cultivated, ornamental, ones. After about two and a half hours and about five miles, I returned to the house again. The afternoon was spent working and planning my itinerary for the rest of the week.

Can't remember what these were	Sloes
Hips (or hawes)	Something cultivated