Postcards from our holiday: Cotswolds June 2019

June saw my BFF from Melbourne, Kerri, over in the UK with her sister Sharon. They hired a cottage in Broadway, the Cotswolds for three weeks, and we joined them for part of that time. In between ME resting, and Kevin being in The Hague part of the time for work, we visited a few places local to Broadway. But the best bit was of course spending time with Kerri. This is a collection of 'postcards' from our holiday.

Broadway
This is a classic Cotswold village, i.e. ye olde Englande Cotswold stone buildings, and all a bit posh. Very lovely though. Unless noted, it's just random photos of pretty buildings.

Broadway Hotel area

 A wonderful old Pear Tree growing up the Lygon Arms Hotel.

 Kerri, Sharon and Kevin outside our cottage

 Looking towards the village from our bedroom

 

 

Hidcote Manor Garden
This is a kind of famous, in gardening circles at least, garden, and it has some connections to the Arts and Crafts movement. It was a very wet day when we visited, and unfortunately the ME took a bad turn and energy levels crashed after about an hour, so Kevin had to take me back to our cottage to rest. Therefore, this is just a partial view of the garden.

L-R: Sharon and Kerri

 The pond, which if it wasn't raining, I could have sat by for hours. So beautiful and peaceful.

I fell in love with this Verbascum, V. phoeniceum 'Violetta'.

This is a greenhouse to die for, with moving doors/windows that could be opened in summer

and closed in winter to protect tender plants. One can dream...

View towards the manor house from the greenhouse.

Also from the greenhouse, from a different angle.

I think this is the Long Border. I've lost the map of the layout...

That's all I got to see this time around. I'll have to return another time.

Snowshill Manor Garden
I visited Snowshill one afternoon for a couple of hours with Kerri and Sharon. They explored the house as well as the garden, whereas I just mooched around the plants.

Kerri (right) and I at the entrance to the Manor

 Looking from the pond up to the manor

 The Elder Court, in the process of being regenerated, with many plantings of the gorgeous

Sambucus nigra 'Purpurea'

Tiger Lily, unknown variety. I love the contrast of the pink of the petals to the orange of the pollen

The Well Court

Geum 'Prinses Juliana' - another one to get for my front garden

 

My favourite border in the Well Court.

 I adore the wonderful purple of the Lupins with the orange of the Geum.

It 'feels' like an impressionist painting.

Looking down at the Well Court and Cotswold countryside

The Well Court was my favourite part of the garden, the purples and oranges, and the lush planting, was both warm and peaceful.

Anne Hathaway's cottage
People visit Anne Hathaway's cottage for the Tudor cottage and connection to Shakespeare (her husband). However, I find getting around 400 year old cottages difficult with a walking stick and limited energy, so I again mooched around the garden on my mobility scooter whilst Kerri & Sharon explored the house as well.

It's very much a classic 'cottage garden' garden, including fruit and vegetables, and ornamentals. Whilst not a 'great' garden per se, it was a perfectly lovely way to spend a couple of hours.

They had a lovely annual wildflower meadow and it included two of my favourite wildflowers,

Cornflowers (blue) and Corncockles (pink).

Kiftsgate Garden
This was both the last day of our holiday, and the hottest. But this garden is worth the heat.

There was no accessibility to some areas, but the garden it is partially on a cliff, so that's understandable. However, some other areas could have been made easier with some very simple ramps. So I had to rely on Kevin to lift my scooter at times, which was frustrating.

Despite the accessibility issue, I loved this garden. The old Manor is an elegant backdrop to the different borders and areas of the garden.

Left to right: Sharon, Kerri, and I.

Looking from the top of the garden down to the swimming pool and the Vale of Evesham, beyond. I don't think the photo really shows how steep it was, so you'll have to trust me on that.

The Wide Border

I discovered a new 'must have' for my garden. This is Dictamnus albus var. purpureus, an evergreen shrub. It's also known as the 'gas plant' because you can set the seeds alight with a lighter and they will make a mini explosion. I can't wait to try that!

The White Garden

 

In the North Border I came across this gorgeous Cornus kousa 'Satomi'.

The Yellow Border with a beautiful Acer (I think it's A.shirasawanum 'Aureum') stretching over part of it.

A stunning blue Delphinium

The Water Garden.

Kevin playing/dancing to the gold leaved fountain

View from the Four Squares garden

Kiftsgate garden was fun, as well as including lots of interesting plants, many new to me. Accessibility issues aside, it's a garden which is worth a return.

* * * * *
So that's what I did on my holidays. The best part was being able to spend time and explore with Kerri.

Photo Essay: Llanthony Priory, 8th April 2019

Our recent holiday was in Pembrokeshire, but on the way there we stopped at one of my favourite places, Llanthony Priory (Welsh: Priordy Llanddewi Nant Hodni), in the Black Mountains, between Hay-on-Wye and Abergavenny.

It was a day with really low cloud, so much so that we had to drive very carefully through the clouds, up the single-track road to the priory, where sight was often no more than a few metres ahead. So this is the priory on a darker gray day, which I think gives you some idea what it would have been like when it was first built in the early 12th century.

 

Kevin here gives you some sense of the scale of the priory

The building on the left is now a hotel, and has a bar in the monks old cellar.

Moi!

Cycling the Avon & Kennet Canal

As mentioned in my last post, I'm keeping to my promise and telling you about Kevin's and my cycle trip along the Kennet & Avon canal in Wiltshire. Be warned, it's a tale of woe...

The idea of the trip was to be a gentle cycle ride in the early spring sun over a couple of days. We were to do the trip in two stages: Hungerford to Devizes, then Devizes to Bath. It didn't quite work out that way. It helps to know that Kevin, my dearest love, is a keen and regular cyclist. He cycles 23 miles daily to/from work, and thinks nothing of a 90 mile day trip. His idea of fun is cycling from Oxford to Edinburgh, via Wales (he did this in 2005 for the Make Poverty History cycle ride). I, on the other hand, pootle about in Oxford on my lovely lecky bike (electric bicycle), if I'm lucky doing 23 miles in two weeks. Therefore, the suggested route, about 35 miles per day, seemed quite reasonable to Kevin. I was concerned whether I could really do it and suggested we stick to about 20 miles per day. But Kevin had no doubts. Bless.

What we got was almost constant rain from Hungerford to Devizes, getting heavier as the day went on. Ok, it wasn't all bad. Here I am on my smart lecky bike, cycling alongside the canal at Little Bedwyn in a moment when the rain held it's breath for a few seconds.

Ok, more than a few seconds. Here is a lovely picture of Little Bedwyn 5 minutes later (below).

What I like about this picture, is that it has the medieval church, the late 18th century canal, and the 19th century train line, within its borders. Clearly the cycling about wasn't all bad. However, the rain got heavier, I got tireder, and then bugger and blast, 3 miles outside Devizes my battery died. ugh. I wasn't a happy bunny. I was having an Anne of Green Gable's depths of despair moment. After much grumbling and the using up of the last remnants of my pitiful strength (woe!), we got to our B&B, Rockley House and was welcomed by the friendly owners, who didn't bat an eye at us coming inside soaked and dripping. Amazing how getting dry and a warm cuppa makes things seem so much better.

That night I got little sleep. My legs were killing me. Woe was me. 35 miles?! Kevin was starting to feel a little concerned that maybe 35 miles was a bit much for me. 35 MILES! Ok, now Kevin realised 35 miles in one day, in the rain, was definitely too much for me. Thank you dear.

On Saturday we wandered around Devizes dodging bursts of rain. I'd really wanted to go to Devizes to visit one of the key strongholds of Queen Matilda. Matilda should have been queen of England after Henry I died in 1135, but that evil Stephen nicked her crown. Bloody men. She had an amazing life, including an incredible escape from Oxford Castle whilst surrounded by Stephen and his army in 1142, in the middle of winter, and walking straight through his army and on to safety in Wallingford to fight again. I think she is pretty damn wonderful. So I was chuffed to be in Devizes, walking Matilda's steps, even if I couldn't visit the castle as it is now a private residence (when the revolution comes it will be returned to the people and then I'll be able to visit), and the fact my legs were achingly painful, AND the rain just wouldn't bloody stop. If all else fails and I'm not in a garden, nothing like English history to keep my spirits (woe) up.

There is a positive turn to this pathetic tale of woe. Sunday we woke to blue skies! Wow, blue skies, remember those?! Ok, my legs were still aching, but my lecky bike battery was charged up and I was ready to cycle Devizes to Bath. Well, that was the idea.

Just outside of Devizes is the Caen Hill Locks, 16 canal locks in a row going down, or up, a steep-ish hill. Apparently it can take a canal boat between 3 to 5 hours to get through all 16 locks. You would have to have patience and lots of spare time. My picture doesn't really do them justice. Not just because they are working on them at the moment, but also coz, well, I couldn't really do them justice and you cannot see the full effect. Suffice to say we were impressed, and of course it was down hill all the way. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee. See how happy I am in this pic. Blue sky, going down hill, let's pretend the legs are not aching...

Kevin had fun playing with the locks. As a canal boat was going through one, he just had to have a go at opening and closing the lock gate. The boat owner was rather pleased and Kevin got his moment of canal glory.

 
cycling by the 'Barge Inn', near Trowbridge

But it wasn't all blue skies and fun. By the time we got to Bradford-on-Avon, I realised that me cycling from Devizes to Bath by the canal was a cycle-dream. For another day. So we changed our plans and decided to lunch in Bradford, wander around, then catch a leisurely train on to Bath, and from there, home.

Bradford-on-Avon is a lovely town and has some good history that kept my mind occupied. For example, the lovely Saxon church that the town managed to 'lose' for several centuries. As you do. And the enormous 14th century Tithe Barn. To get an idea of scale, on the right is a little Kevin in the middle of the big barn.

We made it to Bath and then home. Our fluff-ball (Merlyn) welcomed us. Well, I suppose he was wanting dinner, but we decided he must have missed us. The time of woe was over. And Kevin agreed that cycling 20 miles a day in future would be quite enough for this Gwenfar.