Great weather for ducks

Well, the reputation of the English summer being only one day of the year seems to be more than just a myth. We had that one day the first Saturday we arrived! In the last few days we’ve had not only heavy rain (and in other parts of the UK there are flood warnings) but the temperature has been quite low too. On Tuesday we were out and about in 9 degrees, colder than back in NZ right now.

However, despite the weather we have managed to get out and explore The Cotswolds.

On Tuesday we went to places that seem to need more than one word for a name – Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Chipping Campden.

In Bourton-on-the-Water Brent went through a model train museum. There were a few different rooms with different scenes being depicted in each, such as a theme park with ferris wheel and roller coaster, mountains with steam trains going around. One room was interactive where you could press buttons to stop and start the trains. Very good value for money. (Sorry no photos) While he was there, Raewyn wandered around the many gift shops in the town, resisting the urge to spend, spend, spend. (Having to consider transporting items back to NZ is a good deterrent from buying breakables and heavy items)

All these villages are really picturesque, even in the rain.

Bourton-on-the-Water – apt name for the day we were there

Had to get some new ‘wellies’ – with all the wet weather I was sick of wet shoes and socks.

That evening we were in for a real treat. The village we are staying in is called Burford and this week, unbeknownst to us when we booked to come here, they are having their bi-annual town festival which showcases art, crafts and literature. Each day they have a variety of different things you can choose to attend. On Tuesday night they had the well known chef-restauranteur-author Prue Leith there for an hour’s interview, promoting her latest book. (She is one of the judges on British Bake Off, a favourite show of Raewyn’s) We bought tickets at the door and the hall was packed, with a lot of reserved seating, we found seats in the back row. An usher than came up to us and offered to move us closer to the stage, not knowing that he was taking us to the FRONT row. What a treat! Prue was very entertaining and down to earth. We were allowed to take photos doing the interview and at the end we met her and got a photo with her. Wow!

On Wednesday it wasn’t raining in the morning so we decided to walk into Burford (only 10 minutes from where we are staying) and have a look around the village. After lunch we went to view another National Trust home called Chastleton House. It was built over 400 years ago and would have been very grand. However, over the intervening years the house remained within the same family but none were particularly successful in business and became so impoverished that they were unable to maintain the house. No upgrading was ever done. Finally in 1991 the current family member living there sold it to the National Heritage, who decided that rather than spend a lot restoring it to it’s original “glory” they would just preserve it as it was when they took it over. Thus it has peeling wallpaper, cracked windows, cracked stonework, borer in the woodwork and even cobwebs in places. All the gardens have been maintained in the same style as when it was first built, including some very productive vege gardens. One of the most interesting things about it was that there is a rather large croquet lawn. One of the owners became obsessed with croquet and started inventing rules for the game, which didn’t have any til then. He eventually had his rules published and made official back in 1866.