christmas and cotswolds
Happy new year everyone. I had a very small celebration when sydney celebrated, but then had to work tonight, so just stayed at work until midnight, rather than going out. it is too cold here anyway, doesn't quite feel right.
Anyway, I had a lovely christmas break, spent christmas with Richard (cousin) and Hillary and Hillary's family at a little village partway between Loughborough and Nottingham called Costock. Went to midnight service on christmas eve at the local church. It was a lovely little church, with a board listing all the rectors who have served there since 1268, amazing. Christmas day was very relaxed and enjoyable. We had christmas dinner, rather than lunch, but a large hot meal didn't seem so silly when the temperature was below 5. Unfortunately there was no snow on christmas day, so i will have to come back to europe another time to get a white christmas.
Boxing day i joined in the game of football (soccer) played on the school grounds, many people from the village turned up for this, although i was one of only two girls on the field. I showed that i am a much better hockey player than football player, i also was very lazy and hardly ran at all. however it was fun, even if it was cold and wet. The hot mince pies in the hall afterwards made up for it. In the afternoon Richard and I and a few others went to see Nottingham Forest play Doncaster - they showed how it was meant to be played. It was a great match with Nottingham winning 4-0. The evening was taken up with meeting Hillary's relatives then heading to the pub with Hillary's brother and his friends.
Woke up to snow on the 27th! it was great. There wasn't enough for a snowman, but quite enough for a snowball as Hillary's brother showed me. I headed out to the Cotswolds on the evening of the 27th for a few days of walking.
The Cotswolds are a really pretty area of England, with lots of very stereotypical English villages. Apparently the place is covered with tourists during the summer, but just after christmas it was pretty quiet. I stayed with a relative in Blockley, a little village off the main road, and so not very touristy. The village was quite industrial at one time with the stream apparently going through 4 watermills, one of which powered a piano making factory! Now it seems to be lots of weekend and holiday houses, with just enough permanent residents to keep it going. The most amazng thing though was the christmas tree on top of the church tower. Apparently this is a tradition for the village and takes many people and most of a day to get it up. It was quite a big tree and lit up really well, a great beacon almost.
The first day we decided to go for a walk around a tiny village near Winchcombe. The map suggested that there was the remains of a pre roman settlement as well as a couple of roman villa remains in the area. The settlement was little more than a circular mound in a field, but it was interesting to see the size of the circle and how obvious it was still. Just as interesting was seeing some men layering the hedges in the opposite field. It was so neat.
After wandering around the settlement ring for a while we then walked down to the woods where the first of the roman villas was meant to be. The map showed it to be a fairly large villa, and the walking path was meant to go right through the middle of it. Despite that we almost walked right past it. I noticed some raised mounds off to one side of the path and David noticed what looked like a forest store or shelter on the other side. We each went to explore one bit, I wasn't sure that i had found anything interesting as the mound seemed to jujst be the bank of the creek, however David's woodland store was much more exciting. The floor was covered with a tarp and help down by some rocks, when lifted it had a roman mosiac floor under it.
It was quite amazing to find this in the middle of the woods with no signs or explanation. The rest of the walk was through some lovely country, but there were no more exciting finds. At various hilltops I would wonder how lovely the view would be on a clear day, especially as it was quite nice even though the day was misty.
After getting back to the car, we drove a short way towards another walking path that lead to a long barrow (burial mound). David and i walked up to the top of the hill to see the long barrow. While it was reasonably impressive, built around 2500BC, I was more interested in the frost that had formed on all the of the trees and plants. I haven't really seen a frost like it before. Everything was silvery in the light and there were little crystals on all the plants. It was really pretty, and I took lots of photos...
The next day we did less walking and more touring, so I had a chance to see some more of the villages in the area, both the more touristy ones and the less touristy. Burton on the water had a lovely christmas tree in the middle of the river, Lower Slaughter was so small, and still looked really untouched and finally we finshed at Chipping Camden. Many of the villages became rich through wool trading, so there are often very grand churches and town halls in quite small villages, as well as many that have lots of traditional looking pubs and inns. It really was lovely to visit and i am keen to go again in spring or summer when all the flowers are out. I imagine then it would be incredibly beautiful, as long as you can see past the tourists.
So despite the lack of snow in bit of england i was in, i had a lovely time. I'm not sure we would have done as much walking if it had snowed, so perhaps that is just as well. Besides I am off to Sweden in a few days and there should be lots of snow there.
Anyway, I had a lovely christmas break, spent christmas with Richard (cousin) and Hillary and Hillary's family at a little village partway between Loughborough and Nottingham called Costock. Went to midnight service on christmas eve at the local church. It was a lovely little church, with a board listing all the rectors who have served there since 1268, amazing. Christmas day was very relaxed and enjoyable. We had christmas dinner, rather than lunch, but a large hot meal didn't seem so silly when the temperature was below 5. Unfortunately there was no snow on christmas day, so i will have to come back to europe another time to get a white christmas.
Boxing day i joined in the game of football (soccer) played on the school grounds, many people from the village turned up for this, although i was one of only two girls on the field. I showed that i am a much better hockey player than football player, i also was very lazy and hardly ran at all. however it was fun, even if it was cold and wet. The hot mince pies in the hall afterwards made up for it. In the afternoon Richard and I and a few others went to see Nottingham Forest play Doncaster - they showed how it was meant to be played. It was a great match with Nottingham winning 4-0. The evening was taken up with meeting Hillary's relatives then heading to the pub with Hillary's brother and his friends.
Woke up to snow on the 27th! it was great. There wasn't enough for a snowman, but quite enough for a snowball as Hillary's brother showed me. I headed out to the Cotswolds on the evening of the 27th for a few days of walking.
The Cotswolds are a really pretty area of England, with lots of very stereotypical English villages. Apparently the place is covered with tourists during the summer, but just after christmas it was pretty quiet. I stayed with a relative in Blockley, a little village off the main road, and so not very touristy. The village was quite industrial at one time with the stream apparently going through 4 watermills, one of which powered a piano making factory! Now it seems to be lots of weekend and holiday houses, with just enough permanent residents to keep it going. The most amazng thing though was the christmas tree on top of the church tower. Apparently this is a tradition for the village and takes many people and most of a day to get it up. It was quite a big tree and lit up really well, a great beacon almost.
The first day we decided to go for a walk around a tiny village near Winchcombe. The map suggested that there was the remains of a pre roman settlement as well as a couple of roman villa remains in the area. The settlement was little more than a circular mound in a field, but it was interesting to see the size of the circle and how obvious it was still. Just as interesting was seeing some men layering the hedges in the opposite field. It was so neat.
After wandering around the settlement ring for a while we then walked down to the woods where the first of the roman villas was meant to be. The map showed it to be a fairly large villa, and the walking path was meant to go right through the middle of it. Despite that we almost walked right past it. I noticed some raised mounds off to one side of the path and David noticed what looked like a forest store or shelter on the other side. We each went to explore one bit, I wasn't sure that i had found anything interesting as the mound seemed to jujst be the bank of the creek, however David's woodland store was much more exciting. The floor was covered with a tarp and help down by some rocks, when lifted it had a roman mosiac floor under it.
It was quite amazing to find this in the middle of the woods with no signs or explanation. The rest of the walk was through some lovely country, but there were no more exciting finds. At various hilltops I would wonder how lovely the view would be on a clear day, especially as it was quite nice even though the day was misty.
After getting back to the car, we drove a short way towards another walking path that lead to a long barrow (burial mound). David and i walked up to the top of the hill to see the long barrow. While it was reasonably impressive, built around 2500BC, I was more interested in the frost that had formed on all the of the trees and plants. I haven't really seen a frost like it before. Everything was silvery in the light and there were little crystals on all the plants. It was really pretty, and I took lots of photos...
The next day we did less walking and more touring, so I had a chance to see some more of the villages in the area, both the more touristy ones and the less touristy. Burton on the water had a lovely christmas tree in the middle of the river, Lower Slaughter was so small, and still looked really untouched and finally we finshed at Chipping Camden. Many of the villages became rich through wool trading, so there are often very grand churches and town halls in quite small villages, as well as many that have lots of traditional looking pubs and inns. It really was lovely to visit and i am keen to go again in spring or summer when all the flowers are out. I imagine then it would be incredibly beautiful, as long as you can see past the tourists.
So despite the lack of snow in bit of england i was in, i had a lovely time. I'm not sure we would have done as much walking if it had snowed, so perhaps that is just as well. Besides I am off to Sweden in a few days and there should be lots of snow there.
posted by bronwyn | 1:05 AM
1 Comments:
I think we stop in Blockley on our Morris dancing team's Cotswolds tour every year ! (I say "every" year - I've done it twice now...).
The Cotswolds is/am/are an awesome place to visit :)
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