Cotswolds


Covid-19 Guided Walk for One. Number 10: Abinger – the Secret Snowdrop Walk.

Number 10 : Abinger – the Secret Snowdrop Walk This walk was sent to us by Bernard and Aldith. Past guest contributors. The snowdrop photographs by Bernard. The route by Aldith. We walked the route last Tuesday and it is a lovely walk of considerable variation and interest. Originally just intended to see the snowdrops,…


Ashes to Ashes

It was the 15 February 1999. The light was starting to fade across the Severn Estuary. A middle aged couple were sitting alone in a bird hide at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire. Watching the scene developing in front of them as wild Ducks, Geese and Swans descended upon the lake…


Enjoying a Cotswolds Daydream

Cotswolds Daydream Last year the sun shone and we “reveried” in it. This year the sun went as soon as it came. The black clouds gathered. And the weather forecast got more and more alarming. We had left the Surrey Hills slightly battered by Storm Ciara. Only to find that a much bigger Storm was…


Swift’s Hill. A Nostalgic Return.

Swift’s Hill Each year, in February, we make a nostalgic return to the Cotswolds around Stroud. The Friends of the Islands of Skomer and Skokholm always have their reunion at Bishops Cleeve, near Cheltenham, in Mid February. This year’s was on 16 February. We come to re-enact our commitment to Diddley’s ashes on 15 February,…


The Church, Miserden, Gloucestershire

The Church, Miserden Many books have been written about the poet and author Laurie Lee. Back in the 1990s, a television programme was produced based on interviews with him as he talked about his life. The transcripts of those interviews have come to life and been turned into a book.


Diddley’s Story.

Diddley’s Story. This week we have a very special contributor. Diddley herself. In researching the forthcoming Cotswold stories, we found some papers that she had kept and, most importantly, a story she had written. It may be a rough draft? Who knows, but it’s worthy of sharing with you. I am sure she wouldn’t mind….


Belonging: 150 Stories from Mindfully Bertie.

150 stories from Mindfully Bertie! Yes dear, loyal friends, this is our 150th story. (Bobby prefers “story” to “blog”). Who could have thought that when we wrote the first one that we called a “preview”, we would still be going strong at 150? I should read that preview now… and see if we have kept…


Cotswold Reverie.

Cotswold Reverie. As we headed west towards the Cotswolds, the radio was on and we were cruising. No rush. The “scenic route” is shorter in miles, but much longer in time. Bobby had forsaken the boring motorway route to drive over the Berkshire downs near Wantage and into Gloucestershire. The County sign announcing Cotswold Country….


Cotswolds Compendium.

Cotswolds Compendium. Bobby and I have two homes now. One, of course, is Laurel Cottage in the glorious Surrey Hills. Reading this again this morning, I am reminded ‘Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, so live for today’. That glorious clematis, Armandii, had its best flowering season ever as pictured on this blog. And then…