Our England Trip Overview

 

It was a month ago that I posted our ICELAND trip overview, after which the next day we left for England!  It's been that kind of whirlwind, from which we're still catching our photographic breath.  Seriously.

Not that I'm complaining!

Our England trip, a week after Iceland, came in two distinct parts because of being hosted by two different Shutterchance friends.  Still, it was all ENGLAND, and that's what counts:

1.  With LISL in Winsley, Wiltshire, England, from May 24-June 1:

From the get-go, she's the hostess-with-the-mostess!

After her husband died 2 years ago, she moved from Bath to Winsley, 6 miles away.

It was a move from the big city (ca. 100K pop.) to a village of ca. 2K pop.

Besides Five Crowns, a new game for us, we played Qwirkle almost every day.

We're all walkers, so, of course, we took walks!

This one was from her house in Winsley to Bradford-on-Avon, 2 miles away.

The center weathervane is on Lisl's garage, a gift from friends for her 80th birthday last November.

The fish vane is of a gudgeon...a new fish for me.

Lots of impressions along the way for my Shutterchance (SC) photoblog.

These are just some of the flowers I saw on that walk.

And this is just one of the irises in bloom all along the way.

These were in Lisl's garden.

Speaking of which, she's been working on making the garden what she's used to from her past,

but her challenge is getting rid of all the rocks, she says, of which there are boatloads!

Another special walk was up in the Cotswolds where Lisl's husband's ashes were spread.

It's also where Lisl will be "spread" when it's her time, so it was very touching to feel the moment.

Surprisingly, in all the years we have visited friends in England, this was our first time there.

Unbeknownst to us, Lisl took this photo of us!

Nearby, we visited 2 long barrows (burial chambers) from approximately 5,500 years ago.

The first one (top row) no longer has the "hill" covering it, but the second one does.

When I see something like this, I know I'm not in America...or the Netherlands, for that matter!

It so happens that I call Lisl my Big Sister.  

Our fellow Shutterchancer, Chris (bottom-left), calls Astrid his Little Sister.

So to mix things up a bit, one day Chris picked us up to take us to the Steam Museum in Swindon,

32 miles from Winsley, where we were joined by his friend, Katy.

Guess where we ate lunch!!!  WAGAMAMA.  

It's one of our favorite restaurants of all time but a first for them...and they loved it.

Chris took us there because it's a photographic paradise.

I haven't even begun to work on those images for SC but what a heyday that was!

Speaking of Chris, one day he, Lisl and Astrid took a walk without me

because I was under the weather with a cold.  I slept all morning to restore myself.

But these are Astrid's photos that I put into a collage.

Once restored, I continued with the activities, this time with another SC friend, Suzanne,

with whom we met up at the Chief Trading Post in Bristol.

What a crazy, quirky place, full of ins and outs, twists and turns, all stuffed with...stuff.

It was a great place for a coffee break before we drove to Suzanne's for fish-n-chips and Qwirkle.

On the Sunday we were with Lisl, her childhood girlfriend from Ireland, living now in Wales,

came to visit Lisl so as to meet us.  How special is that!

After a fabulous roast pork lunch/dinner at the nearby pub, we walked around Winsley to work it off.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

2.  With CHAD and Norma in Rudloe/Corsham, Wiltshire, England, from June 1-4:

The day we switched home base, Chris picked us up to go meet his partner Jackie at her farm, 

from where she took us to see the Norman parish Church of St. Christopher in Ditteridge.

The front arch/porch is Saxton, which means it's older than a thousand years!

This was when the switch took place...to Chad and Norma's house...who joined us at the church.

They live just 8 miles from Lisl!

A view in the back yard from the church.

Chad and Norma, with whom we have stayed before, had also recently moved, 

so it was time to get acquainted with their new environs.

Fun fact:  Corsham has 15 resident peacocks who are free to roam the town wherever they want!

As you'd guess, we, too, went on walks.

We even stopped and waited for the train to come through the Box Tunnel after we ate at a pub.

Then one day we visited visited the Fox Talbot Museum at the Lacock Abbey in Lacock,

known as Britain's birthplace of photography.  How fitting for us photographers, of course.

Chad is one of our fellow Shutterchancers. 

I used this ceiling boss from the ceiling of the 13th century Lacock Abbey cloisters 

for my birthday greetings on June 13th:  from my heart to yours!

These are just some of the flowers seen on the grounds there.

While at Chad and Norma's we watched most of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee,

just as we would have done if we had been at home.  We loved it!

If you could sum up all the time we had with Lisl and Chad (and Norma), 

you could say it was all around great food and fellowship.  Kinda like how I picture heaven!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Now, for the main reason why we went to England so soon after Iceland:  our Shutterchance Meetup in Oxford!  It happened while we were staying with Lisl, who, sadly, wasn't able to join us because of a funeral memorial she attended.  

It was an all-day trip by 3 different trains, coming and going, with Chris, who orchestrated the entire travel, thankfully.

There were only 12 of us this year, 9 of which are SC bloggers. 

Normally our meetups have been at least twice as big, but it made this one extra cozy.

After a delightful walking tour of the Oxford campus, we all stopped at a pub 

to have a drink/toast to say good-bye, until the next time!

Astrid and I come from these people we have grown to love, having met each other virtually

on our Shutterchance photoblog back in 2007, and then, against all odds, getting married in 2010.

These are the friends who love and support us, as we do them.

Does life get any better?

Bradford on Avon, England

If I told you I'm nearing the end of our England trip from May, would you believe me?  HA!

Well, Lisl and Chris know us better than just about anyone and took us to all the right places...this day, to Bradford on Avon.  Strap on your seatbelts!

But first, on the way, we stopped off to see the White Horse at Bratton Camp.

You can see a peek of it in the bottom-left image above.

And there she is, bigger than life on the side of the hill.

It's believed to have been cut into the hillside in the 16th century!

Astrid climbed down to take a picture of the horse's eye.

What a way to start the day!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Straightaway from there, we drove 2 miles to the priory church in Edington....

 To be specific, the Priory Church of St. Mary, St Katharine and All Saints, Edington!

It's from 1352.

The sense of history is palpable, don't you think?

I always want first to see the nave...and then the details.

You know how the organ and pulpit are important to me because of Mom and Dad.

That's an old Book of Common Prayer, from 1718!

The green man (top-right) is hidden...but we found it.

And remember, I'm collecting church cushions.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

By then, it was time for lunch in Bradford on Avon, 10 miles away.

A picnic lunch, right on the Kennet and Avon canal...

 ...right next to the narrowboats, many of which you can rent.

See what I mean about how our English friends know us.  It still amazes me.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Then we started walking (and playing) all over Bradford on Avon. 

This Barton Farm Country Park reminds me of an open-air museum.

It's where the Saxon Tithe Barn is from the 14th century, also known as Priory Barn.

The barn is empty of tithes now but is worth seeing for the wooden vaults alone.

From there we could view the medieval stone Barton packhorse bridge, crossing the River Avon.

As we walked around, we came across several Asian painters at the landmarks,
like the Holy Trinity Church from 1150. Later I wished I had asked who they were!

I had no idea we were climbing up to the top of the city till we got there.

The overview was spectacular.

And yes, that's the more famous Town Bridge (bottom-right).

Impressions.  Always impressions.

Near the Town Bridge we saw two more churches, one right after the other.

 First was the St. Thomas More catholic church in the old town hall.

You can see how modern it looks, converted on the second floor of the building in the 1950s.

But my Hart & Soul are with these older churches, as you'd guess.

This is the Saxon Church of St Laurence, perhaps as early as 700, if not the 10th century.

You can sit there with Lisl and just be amazed.

 All that AND weathervanes.

And flowers everywhere, in May....

...and I do mean everywhere.

Remember that Chris calls Astrid his Little Sis.  I call Lisl my Big Sis.

(All from meeting on the internet, as Astrid would say!)

It doesn't get much better than this, except that it does, when we go next to Bristol....