Showing posts with label cotswolds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cotswolds. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Cotswolds Birthday Treat



It was my Birthday on Sunday. Alan and Miss P had a surprise lined up for me. A much needed break! A trip to Bibury in the Cotswolds. Home to the Arlington Row cottages owned by the National Trust. Bibury has a watermill, a couple of tea rooms, an antique shop, post office, a couple of gift shops, a trout farm and more...




















The Swan Hotel - Bibury


Alan capturing the next photo



Although Miss P did appreciate the beauty of this village,
the highlight for her had to be the wildlife.

It was lovely watching the young coots being fed




As coincidence would have it, one of my birthday cards looked like this:

My parents chose this card as they thought it was very "me"
and could picture me sitting in the garden. Neither they or
me knew that I would be going there on my birthday and
see the same house!


This cottage looked just perfect!

Filled with pretty flowers and...

...a vegetable plot




Another lovely house! You can't beat the Cotswold honey coloured stone and the stone roofs, the perfect combination.

I had a fantastic day! I love the Cotswold, I am always inspired by the stone walls, cottages & their beautiful gardens and how well kept the villages are.

Monday came around all too quickly, back to work. Speaking of work....

MY ABSENCE:
You may have noticed that I have been absent for a while. I have had a lot on lately as I am working on several projects at the same time including my website. It is all taking longer than planned.

I would like to be able to concentrate on one project at a time (the best way of doing things) but with the nature of it, I am having to deal with all of it at once. When you have an old property, some repairs and work just can't wait. With summer here, it is the time when they have to be done now rather than in the winter months. The garden is still giving us a lot of work too, we have recently discovered that our sewage pipes etc. need to be completely rerouted via our back garden. We have an underground well there which we need to take into consideration. Sadly, some of the work we have done over the past couple of years has been for nothing....a stone wall and steps that Alan built will have to be dismantled as the pipes will have to go through there.

One of the reasons that you have not heard from me much lately, is that I been having migraines...being on the computer for long periods of time is a trigger. It is also why I had to cut down on how much time I spent working on my website and blog. I really wanted it launched by now but at what cost? Looking back, I have been doing and expecting too much of myself over the past few months.

Over the past couple of weeks I have decided to postpone the launch of the website until the Autumn. July & August are not the best months to launch a website. I will however sell a few things on my Suzy Gaby and Maud blog until my website is ready to be launched.

That's it for now. I hope that you are looking forward to the holiday season whether you are staying at home or going away.

I'll try not to leave it as long until my next blog post :-)


A bientôt!

Isabelle X

Friday, 18 June 2010

Celebrating in England's prettiest's village!


Following on from my previous post, Alan and I spent the day in Wiltshire yesterday.
Our destination: Castle Combe which is part of the Cotswolds. It is often referred to as the prettiest village in England and when you arrive there, you can see why. Neither Alan or I had been there before. We both love discovering new places and were pleased to have discovered this special one on our anniversary.
Castle Combe has been used as a location for films and TV including Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) "The murder of Roger Acroyd" TV episode, Dr Doolittle (1967), Stardust (2007) and The Wolfman (2009).




Top right, we bought a piece of lemon drizzle cake from this stall outside a house and got chatting with the owner as he was painting his windows. He told that us he has lived there for 20 years and loves living in Castle Combe.



We had lunch at The Castle Inn Hotel. We were blessed with clear blue skies and sunshine. As it happens, the same kind of weather as we had on our wedding day 4 years ago.
We chose to sit outside in the small stone walled garden. As we sat down, the delicate scent of roses perfumed the air. It was fairly quiet, we were lucky enough to have the garden to ourselves the whole time. Had we been there at the weekend, it would have been a lot busier.
The garden overlooks the church and little cottages. It all made for the perfect lunch!

Alan soaking up the atmosphere


I quite liked the sink in the "Ladies" and couldn't resist taking a picture of it! I was keeping my fingers crossed that no one would come in whilst I was taking a picture of a sink. They had matching toilets too...Sorry no pictures! ;-)








Market Cross



On our way back home, we decided to stop in Corsham which is not far from Castle Combe.



There were some nice shops









I saw this old type writer in a shop window but unfortunately the shop was closed.




I was really quite taken by this "modern" alabaster effigy. It is a memorial to Eleanor, Lady Methuan who died in 1958. The detail and art work are incredible! Alabaster makes it look more real than stone. The effigy had a beautiful translucent quality and looked peaceful.


We didn't have the time to visit Corsham Court as we arrived in Corsham towards the end of the afternoon. That will be for another time.

Thank Alan for a wonderful anniversary!

I wish you all a very good weekend.

A bientôt!

Isabelle X

P.S: Thank you for your anniversary wishes and lovely comments ;-)