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?

ENGLAND 2012: The Farm

Last but not least, here's the finishing touch to our wonderful time in England 2 months ago!

In the 4 previous England 2012 posts, I've taken you to Glastonbury and Cheddar Gorge, to Clent Hill, Blists Hill and Ironbridge, to Ledbury and Wales, and on a nature walk in Bath.

Today we're close to the farm where we stayed, all within walking distance...except for the crowning surprise-dinner touch of our first day.

We arrived early enough our first day to take a walk in the neighborhood with host Chris (Astrid's "big brother," remember?).  As a reminder, we first met him on our Shutterchance photoblog, the same place where I met Astrid 5 years ago next month.  So YES, the internet is a wealth of Joy if you're liucky enough to find it.

Over hill, over dale, hither and thither and yon...we walked.

It so happens we must have brought the sun with us,

because it was the first day in weeks without rain there.

And the sun continued throughout our stay!

Chris BASKED in it.

This is so British English!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...would you be my neighbor!
(click to enlarge)

 What is it about those iconic red phone booths!

The neighborhood church is St. Christopher's Church in the Ditteridge hamlet.

It's an early Norman (1097) two-cell building constructed of local stone.

Notice in the bottom-left image how close the living live near the dead!

I LOVE that these churches are open throughout the week!
It was Saturday afternoon.

Look at what we saw within the first hours of our arrival.  We were short of eyes!

But the BIG SURPRISE of that first day was a dinner engagement with a mystery host and hostess that evening.  Chris loves surprising us, over and over again.  He doesn't ask; he just DOES.  So when we opened the door and saw the hostess....

...we both stood dazed, trying to guess who was standing before us.

Lucky for me, I remembered that Lisl had recently joined us on Shutterchance.

I just didn't know she lived in the Bath area near Chris!

Think about this for a minute:  Lisl had never met us but was hosting us at her house for dinner.

Did I mention she and her husband cooked enough for an army?

They were basing their generous hospitality all on Chris' word!  It blows my mind.

And that's how we started our stay in England this 2012 year!

Speaking of food, enough for an army, Chris served this twice for breakfast.

Can you imagine eating that every day?  NO.  But it's typically English.

One of the reasons I love the farm where we have stayed two years in a row, is watching how Jackie works with her horses.  One early morning she gave this fella a workout.

Jackie's horses are used by her students in horse shows.  And they win!  

Jackie knows what she's doing...but she's been doing it since strapped to her parents' backs from birth!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From England 2012, the weathervanes.

Now you know why we say it's a sin not to go back, year after year!

Just an hour's flight away....