BIRDLIP...

Birdlip

Focussed,

Thumbing a map,

Finding the route

Travelled in previous summers.

Fascinated, resolute;

No M5 freeway built to suit

The long journey to the south-west in those days

And I searched for the names of those places,

Which always impressed…

Focussed,

Thumbing the route, 

Finding such delight,

Determined by previous trips.

Fascinated, couldn’t wait

To reach Birdlip, hunger to sate.

The long journey to Devon was broken in those days

And I peeled hard boiled eggs near an RAC box,

Which always impressed…

Pete Ray

January 2016

True story...

My dad bought a blue Austin Mini in 1965, DOX 251 C and he was pleased to drive it to Devon early one Sunday morning, on the well-worn route via Cheltenham, Stroud, Painswick, Nailsworth and on towards Exeter and the agonising last miles through Plympton to Plymouth… 

We always ate hard-boiled eggs and bread and butter at Birdlip, where the view was as remarkable then, as it is now. Dad would wear a suit to drive to his holiday destination… 

How annoying…