The park, woodland and the Octagon
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Blast from the past – Jun 2026
Dad would have been 100-years-old on 4th! June was a hot, dry month, setting the pattern for the entire summer in the Cotswolds in 2026. On 19th I walked into Cirencester Park for a short visit, and took this photo of one of the many tracks and footpaths that connects the straight rides and small roads threading through the woodland here. Down at the end you get a glimpse of a curious building. When I was a child it always called ‘The Octagon’, though some modern maps call it ‘The Heptagon’. The shape is more complex than either of those names suggests. It has six large, arched faces with two more smaller faces, the whole topped by a seven-sided slate roof. Strictly, it should be defined as an irregular octagon with a heptagonal roof. Most unusual!
The following day I managed to get this photo of a Gatekeeper butterfly on ivy leaves. I could have done better with an SLR camera with a telephoto lens, but all I had with me was my trusty, old Pixel 7 phone and this was the best image I could capture.
The final image for this month is meadowsweet, a fragrant wildflower, closely related to the garden Astilbe. This patch was growing alongside Riverside Walk not far from Gloucester Street.
We had a quiet month in June, with no family visits and it was, frankly, too hot to walk any distance during the day. Instead I took to strolling around the village after dark when conditions were much cooler. We made a trip to the recycling centre, which always reminds me of clearing ‘Churnside’ in 2006. I planted a Philadelphus in the back garden to help shade the east facing bi-fold doors to keep the house cooler in hot summers.
JHM: I reposted Loving more fully and widely; and wrote APEST in Jesus . World events: In Barcelona, the blessing ceremony of the Sagrada Família‘s tallest tower was held, 100 years after the death of the architect; and Elon Musk became the first US dollar trillionaire with the initial public offering of SpaceX.
See also:
- Cirencester – Wikipedia
- Cirencester Park – Website
- Gatekeeper – Wikipedia
- Meadowsweet – Wikipedia
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