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?

Our England Trip, 2018

I know, I know.  That was a long tome ago, but in my defense, I did do the post of the BIG birthday meet-up with fellow Shutterchancers (SCers) on our last full day, 3 September, at Croome Court.  As you may recall, the timing of that trip related to granddaughter Hailey's due date, 4 September, the day we flew back.  Lucky for us, she didn't make her arrival till the 12th.

Anyway, it's time to finally show what ELSE we did that trip, starting with Astrid's 64th birthday the day we arrived, 24 August.  What follows is the Facebook account of those days, often by both of us:

Once again, Lisl and Michael were our gracious hosts in Bath for the week.

Lisl had commissioned a magical unicorn cake for a surprise birthday party, 

joined by Chris and Jackie.  Talk about a sugar blast!

That sugar blast was Friday.

On Saturday we joined Lisl and Gaye for a pre-walk in Kilmersdon for their walking group

the following month.  Planning ahead, in other words.  And we were the lucky ones to tag along.

Guess what Kilmersdon is known for?

It's supposedly the "home" of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme!

The next day was a stay-at-home day, rest-up Sunday,

 when Lisl treated us to tagliatelle, garlic bread and a hard cider.

[Astrid's collage]

Monday we visited 3 churches, 2 of which were open,

including this All Saints Church in Alton Priors from ca.1000.

We had actually visited it a couple years earlier but loved seeing it again.

The second church we visited was the St. Bartholomew Church in Corsham, mid-12th century.

Local folklore says Flemish weavers from Belgium had fled here from Catholic persecution.

I have seldom experienced the sense of misericordia as I did while there,

something I'll never forget.

On Tuesday the 28th, we met up for a walk in Bristol with other SCers, 8 of us altogether.

First line of business was an "elevensie" with scones, clotted cream and jam.

It's one of the things I most love about England, believe it or not!

This was our 3rd Bristol walk led by Lisl, this time through St. Anne's Wood and Nightingale Valley.

We called it our mini-meet-up (before the big-birthday one for Chris on September 3rd).

Here we all are, up close and personal!

The usual suspects are (l to r): Lisl, Astrid, 

Chad, Norma (Chad's wife) and Ginnie, Chris,

Bill and Alan.

On the way home from Bristol to bath, Astrid sat on top of the double-decker bus.

[Astrid's collage]

Have I ever told you how much Astrid and I love English pubs!

While Lisl stayed home on Wednesday to prepare a Hen's Lunch (!) for the next day, 

Astrid's Big-Bro-Chris took us to Sherborne to see the Abbey.

But first, we ate lunch in a pub, where I struck up a delightful conversation with this couple.

I fell in love with the gent...and his Oxford shoes!  More English you cannot get!

This was the Abbey we had come to see, with history back to AD 658.

While walking back-n-forth to the car, Astrid snapped these images in the market town.

[Astrid's collage]

Thursday was Lisl's Hen Lunch...a chance for us to meet some of her friends.

OMG!  Talk about a FEAST.  Definitely not a lunch.

Jane was the one who won the prize from the garden but for what, I don't remember!

On Friday Lisl picked up her elderly friend, Hugh Soar, 

to join us for a lunch in an Avon Valley Railway car. 

Hugh is a world-renown author of books and articles on archery, particularly related to the long bow.

At age 92, he is still sharp as a tack and continues to publish, even in American archery journals.

After taking Hugh back home, Lisl took us for a nice walk around Winsley.

Just what the doctor ordered after too many days of eating up a storm.

This is what Astrid saw.

[Astrid's collage]

On Saturday, Lisl and Chris took us for a parish walk around Wellow, 5 miles south of Bath.

Over hill, over dale!  We ate our picnic lunch at a long-barrow burial site over 5,500 years old!

Can I ever get my head around a place that old???

What I didn't mention is that while in Wellow, before starting our walk,

we first stopped to see the St. Julian's parish church from 1372.

The center image is at 1200 mm from where we sat at the long-barrow for lunch.

See why we have grown to love England...and our friends!

[Astrid's collage]

We rested on Sunday before our BIG meet-up on Monday.

And rest we did!

During those rest times, I saw Astrid knit for the first time!

She had already made the pink sweater card for when Hailey was born later.

Now she was knitting booties for her.

[You already know that she also knits fishermen sweaters!]

And lest you forget, that Monday, 3 September, was the BIG MEET-UP with 27 of us.

These are friends most of us have known for over 10 years.

Do you know of any other photoblog that has that kind of community?

Last but not least, here are 7 of the 80+ super-sized Minerva Owl Sculptures in Bath,

seen while driving from here to there throughout the week.

A charity auction of the owls on 17 October raised £140,000.

How fun and wonderful is that...all of it, from beginning to end!

See why I had to get it recorded here before too much more time flew off the calendar.