Elisabeth Pundt Photography: Blog

Friday April 18 Part 2 Harry Potter

Fri, 16 May 2014 20:52:11 GMT

Ok.. so I have read all of the Harry Potter books at least 6 times each.. who am I kidding maybe 20 times each.. I have seen all the movies countless times.. I admit it.. I'm a Harry Potter nerd. Just outside of London are the film studios that they used for the filming of the movies along with countless locations around England.

One of Paul's many nicknames is Harry, cause he kinda looks like Harry potter with his glasses on ;) I think its adorable. Paul started watching the movies after he met me. He had seen some. So he was very excited about the film studio as well. I can't even begin to describe it and how I want to go back. We were there for hours yet I feel I missed so much. Here is the first round of pictures.. We entered and sat down to watch an intro movie from the three actors about how these film studios were where they basically grew up. After the film was done the screen lifted up and there was the door that lead into the great hall. You walk in in awe you are actually walking into the movie. I was SOOO Cool. Enjoy the magic

The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall The Great Hall

We exited the great hall and entered the prop's section of the studio. It was amazing the level of detail that was included in this movie. The detail that went into not only the sets but also the props. It was cool to see interviews with actors and set designers about the little things that made these movies so incredible. In the common room of the student halls there was such detail put into the notes on a bulletin board to make it seem authentic. All of the labels in the potion room were hand drawn. (also from a photographer's point of view everything was so well lit even for all the silly people taking pictures with their Ipads)

After the costumes and props you exit the first studio and head into the larger prop section. There was the magic night bus and the Bridge that Neville Longbottom blows up at the end of the last movie. Privet Drive and the house where He who must not be named almost catches Harry and Hermione. The Chess pieces from the first movie were also all around the grounds as well as the magic car and Hagrid's motorcycle.

We then headed into the second studio that housed all of the art departments. It was so cool to see all the make-up and robotics that went into making this movie. Did you know that Hagrid's head was actually all a robot? The actor had a large robotic head costume that he wore.. So cool. The art department wove through Diagon Alley where some of the Owls from the movie were on display. They were quite noisy.

We continued on to the blue-print and model section. There was also a lot of fan art that lined the walls. It was unbelievable how much work went into these movies.

So at this point we were completely blown away. This was such a cool experiance. We had two rooms left to see. With dramatic music playing in the background you walk around the corner from the cool paper models into a room that housed the scale model of the whole school of Hogwarts. This model they built and used to film many of the arial shots and flying scenes.. Paul's reaction when we walked around the corner was "F*uck" Which he then apologized to the woman standing in front of him. She giggled and said she had the exact same reaction. It was hard to not have that reaction.

Exhausted but still pressing on we headed to our hotel which was where I stayed the last time I was in London. We checked in (same room as I had before creepy) and headed into London to meet up with Fran one of Paul's friends. The trains and timing were against us and it took us 2 hours to get to where we were meeting them. We were starving to death by that point and got a quick bite to eat and headed to a pub for a drink. One quick drink later we had to head back to the Tube to head back out of London to our hotel. A lot of transportaion for a quick visit.. We passed out trying to recover before heading back into the city again tomorrow.

Friday April 18th, Part 1 Hampton Court Palace

Fri, 16 May 2014 20:17:50 GMT

I decided to break up Friday cause it's really two completely different posts Old world an new world.

We said a sad goodbye to Pauls' parents had a minor incident with the car maybe hitting the side of the garage.. and after some bad words were on our way to London. Our first stop was Hampton Court Palace. I am a huge history nerd and Henry the VIII is one of my favorite people in history. Hampton Court Palace was one of his main palaces in London and it was beautiful. This weekend marked the 300 anniversary of the Georgian Rule when parliament voting in and installing a non-British ruler.

Hampton Court was alive with the new King George's arrival. They have actors dressed up and acting throughout the palace which I thought was very cool. We just missed the arrival of the king on his fancy barge a the stupid GPS was driving us in circles trying to find a place to park. We grabbed our map and itinerary for the day and headed into the palace. There was a horse demonstration starting in about 10 minutes so we headed out to the gardens to watch them. Paul had been getting lessons in horse colors for the past week so I was excited that there was a blue roan horse in the mix. My friend Shana's horse Rio is a blue roan which isn't a common color so I was happy to have him see what color Rio turns in the summer. Also this blue roan was BEAUTIFUL. I want a chunky draft mix for my next horse. We watched the horse display and then went in search of something for lunch.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch in the castle kitchens. Queen Elizabeth had these kitchens commissioned far away from her rooms so she wouldn't smell the food cooking. After lunch we toured king Henry VIII's royal apartments and got the run down on his many wives. Some clouds were rolling in so we decided to explore the gardens that were tempting us through the windows.

The gardens were lovely and we strolled through them. It's cool to walk through something that has been there for years and to think about all the history and scandal that has taken place in these gardens.

Time was ticking by and we had to head out to our next adventure.. leaving the history behind and entering a different magical world.

April 17th Stonehenge, Old Sarum, Caen Hill Locks

Fri, 16 May 2014 19:11:48 GMT

Thursday.. This was our last day in the countryside before heading to London for a few days. Connie Pauls mum decided to join us on our adventures today. We headed south today to see some rocks.. that was the theme of today Rocks.. My head and ears were still a bit congested from the plane almost 6 days later and I think i took a wee to much cold medicine which set my stomach off. I'll blame that and not Paul's driving and the British winding roads.

It took a little over an hour to get to Stonehenge. It's a very funny tourist attraction. Its a bunch of rock in a field yet thousands of people flock to it every day. Its one of those things to check off your bucket list. We saw it from the dual carriageway as we headed to the entrance. It is an awe inspiring pile of rocks. We parked our car and hopped on the trolly system that took us the mile out to the circle stones. Ok they are really cool and HUGE. Also the fact that they are still such a mystery is really interesting. Also the fact that the stone came from miles away. How did they move it? Aliens? The mysteries are endless.

We walked around the stones and I took a million pictures. We left just in time cause a herd of teenage tour groups came through. We enjoyed some tea and snacks from the cafe and headed out to our next destination.

Our second stop of the day was Old Sarum. Old Sarum is a ruined fort that was built in the Iron Ages. Set two miles from Salisbury the mighty fortress passed through multiple hands and rulers over it's lifespan. The mighty Iron Age hill fort was where the first cathedral once stood and the Romans, Normans and Saxons have all left their mark. The fort now lies in ruins but it was still quite an impressive sight. It was a bit breezy up atop the high fortress but the landscape surrounding it was beautiful.

We headed out for the Caen Hill Locks and for lunch. We found a pub in the town of Devize (The Black Horse) and sat down to wait for what felt like an eternity for our jacket potatoes for lunch. Eternity was over an hour and I was ready to eat the ketchup that was on the table. Lunch finally came and I don't know if it actually tasted good or we were just that hungry. Lunch complete we headed out to see the locks.

Caen Hill Locks

The 29 locks have a rise of 237 feet in 2 miles (72 m in 3.2 km) or a 1 in 44 gradient. The locks come in three groups. The lower seven locks, Foxhangers Wharf Lock to Foxhangers Bridge Lock, are spread over 1.2 km. The next sixteen locks form a steep flight in a straight line up the hillside. Because of the steepness of the terrain, the pounds between these locks are very short. As a result, 15 locks have unusually large sideways-extended pounds, to store the water needed to operate them. A final six locks take the canal into Devizes. This flight of locks was engineer John Rennie's solution to climbing the very steep hill, and was the last part of the 87 mile route of the canal to be completed. Whilst the locks were under construction a tramroad provided a link between the canal at Foxhangers to Devizes, the remains of which can be seen in the towpath arches in the road bridges over the canal. A brickyard was dug to the south of the workings to manufacture the bricks for the lock chambers and this remained in commercial use until the middle of the 20th century.

Because a large volume of water is needed for the locks to operate, a back pump was installed at Foxhangers in 1996 capable of returning 32 million litres of water per day to the top of the flight, which is equivalent to one lockful every eleven minutes.

In the early 19th century, 1829–43, the flight was lit by gas lights

The locks take 5–6 hours to travel in a boat and lock 41 is the narrowest on the canal.

My first trip to England at the age of 2 we went on a long boat trip through the locks of England. Clare (Paul's sister) and Steve were out for the day as well and met us at the locks. We watched a few boats go through the locks. It's a really cool engineering. It was getting later in the day and we had one more round of rocks to see before heading back to the house. We drove through the town of Avalon that had more standing stones. They were charging an outrageous amount for parking so we just drove by the stones instead. I was still feeling pretty crummy with my head/stomach/to many meds so we headed home so I could take a nap before we headed out to dinner and a rally meeting.

Naps are the best medicine. I felt much better after my nap and we all headed out for dinner. Paul and I treated Connie and Roy to dinner at the Bear. Dinner was delicious. After dinner we headed into a conference room to have a Rally Car meeting. The Rally club is hosting an event the end of May and they were working on some of the final assignments. I tried very hard to pay attention but was dozing off. We headed back home and I passed out quickly. Tomorrow we are heading out to London. I am so sad to be leaving the countryside but looking forward to our London adventures.

April 16, 2014 Gloucester Cathedral

Wed, 30 Apr 2014 22:13:56 GMT

Today was a nice kinda slow day. We had a relaxing lazy morning at the house. Catching up on photos and doing a bit of laundry before heading out. We decided to head to Gloucester Cathedral and Sudley Castle today. Gloucester Cathedral is not only beautiful but nerd points it was used in the filming of Harry Potter. Due to the Easter Holiday there were limited tours on going at the Cathedral today. We were in time for the 2:30 Bell Tower tour that took us to the top of the Cathedral and told us the history of the bells and the building of the Cathedral. We were a bit early so we were able to walk around the inside and outside of the beautiful building.

It was again a beautiful day and we sat outside for a while enjoying the sunshine. Of course we had to have the token silly sunglasses picture.

We walked around inside a bit more enjoying the stained glass work and beautiful features of the grand cathedral before climbing the 265 stairs to the top of the bell tower.

Our tour guide for the tour was awesome. He had retired and then decided to be a guide for the last 17 years. We learned all about the history of the bells and how to ring the bells. It's apparently quite challenging and there is some serious math involved. We learned about how the main bell in the tour was actually cast in the church yard and installed while the tower was being built. I have read Ken Follet's pillars of the earth several times. It's a great book about the building of one of the great Cathedrals. It was very cool to see the inner workings and how they built these massive buildings so long ago. There was one original beam that was holding up part of the bell tower from when it was originally built. The tree to make the beam had to have been at least 250 years old to have been that big. Basically it was a tiny acorn growing in the nearby forest when the cathedral was started to then make its way to be part of the structure and is still there today.

We kept climbing after hearing the big bell chime 3 and had beautiful view from atop the bell tower over Gloucester. It was a bit hazy today but still lovely.

Once we got back down to the bottom of the narrow 265 steps we realized that it was quite late in the day and that Sudley Castle was going to be closed. Paul felt really bad that we didn't get to go so to make it up to me he took me on a scenic ride home and we got to see a field of the cutest baby lambs. They were so many of them and so bouncy.. there is a few videos at the end.. so cute!!!! The mom's all had numbers spray painted on them and the babies matched so they could tell who belonged to who.

We headed back to town to go out for dinner and drinks with some Garret and Kim some of Pauls cricket team.. A relaxing and beautiful day.. Off to Stonehenge tomorrow.

Otters are adorable - April 15, 2014

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:39:01 GMT

I woke up with a killer headache this morning. My ears have gone all wonkey and I didn’t sleep very well. I think the combination made me feel all wobbly. I took some Sudafed and we headed off to Burford to walk around the town and then we were going to have lunch and then go to the Cotswold Wildlife Park to see the animals.

Burford was a beautiful town. We parked in the church parking lot and strolled through the churchyard. It was a beautiful church and had a great door. There was a pair of mallards taking a nap in the churchyards. Our mallard friends are everywhere on this trip.

We wondered through town and quickly realized that this town also had great doorknockers. I even have Paul scouting them out now. After many doorways and knockers later we made our way back to the car and had our lunch overlooking the river in the churchyard.

Of course there were baby ducklings in the river paddling away. There was one very determined and independent one doing laps up and down in front of us. He enjoyed the bits of our bread we shared with him.

After lunch we headed to the Cotswold Wildlife Park to see the animals. It was a beautiful park. All of the animals were out enjoying the sunshine. They have a new baby rhino that Paul had to drag me away from. He was so cute and feisty.

Paul's House lion

The otters were another favorite of mine. They were all out in a gang and making the cutest squeaky noises. I think I watched them for at least 30 minutes. All of the flowers were in bloom in the park too making it even lovelier.

We stopped by Paul’s grandmother’s house on the way home. She had been under the weather so we decided to stop for a visit to cheer her up. She had the sweetest kitty Poppy and so many elephant figurines.. I was bummed there weren’t any elephants at the wildlife park but the baby Rhino made up for it.

I took another serious nap when we got home and my ears felt so much better afterwards. Paul’s mum made a delicious curry for dinner and then we got ready to go meet Paul’s friends Chris and Laura for a drink at the pub. We went to Chris’ house and had to wait a few moments till Laura got home. We sat in the living room and I had a panic attack the whole time because there were cages of snakes in there. Paul and Chris were very nice and turned of the snake lights and I didn’t actually see them but still freaked out none the less.. eww reptiles..

We walked to town and had a lovely night at the pub. Chis and Laura were awesome.

A moonlit walk home and a good night sleep and Im sure I’ll be feeling better in the morning.

Off to Gloucester and Sudley Castle tomorrow.

Illusions - April 14 2014

Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:01:23 GMT

We decided after our busy weekend to have a more relaxed Monday. We headed to Borton on the Water, which is a very popular Cotswold town. The town has a river that runs through it with multiple bridges that cross it for walking and driving across. The river itself is quite shallow when the floods aren’t happening. While we were being buried in snow this winter the Cotswolds had 106 days of rain, which meant some serious flooding of towns and rivers. The picturesque town of Burton was affected and there was construction fencing all around the town. We were blessed with amazing weather again and did some window-shopping before going to the model village.

In the 1930’s the town of Borton did a 1/9-scale replica of the entire town. It was like walking into a doll house and feeling like a giant at the same time. It was a cute village to walk around and take pictures of.

We decided to go to Bird Land in Borton on the water. It was like a bird zoo. Birds kind of freak me out but they are also beautiful at the same time. Bird Land was a bit expensive so we made sure to see every single bird. The Snowy owl, penguins, and Frog owl were my favorites.

At one of the bridge crossings there was a family of mallards. Mallard ducks are my favorite and they are everywhere here. The little baby ducklings were struggling big time with the very strong current. Paul had to drag me away from the bridge after about half an hour. I could have sat all day looking at those little fluffy swimmers. They were going to sleep well after all that paddling with their tiny little legs.

We went to a teahouse for lunch and were able to score a seat outside in the sunshine. We had Jacket-potatoes again. After lunch we walked back across the bridge to get some Winstone’s Ice-cream. It is a local ice-cream shop and man was it amazing. We sat on the bank of the river and enjoyed our ice-cream while watching the ducklings again.

We made our way back to the car and headed to Bibury. It is another tiny Cotswold town that is usually overrun with Japanese tourists with their Ipads taking pictures. We lucked out there was pretty much no one in Bibury.

More fun with the silly glasses

On the way to the town we saw some gypsy ponies and caravans on the side of the road as we drove by the lanes.

We got back to the house and of course I took a nap. I have been having some ear problems making me a bit wobbly and exhausted. I crashed and took a 2-hour nap before we met Clare and Steve for dinner at The Crown at Framptonmansell. It was delicious and we had a lovely time.

The best part of my day was the ducklings and ice cream. Paul’s best favorite part was the lack of Japanese tourist in Bibury so that I could take good pictures.

"I mustache you a question. What was the best part of your day? - April 13, 2014

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:40:26 GMT

I woke up a bit rough from rough from staying up late the night and a few ciders.

We are off to Warwick Castle and to see my friend Beth who I rode with in Wales. The drive to Warwick was a lovely drive through the countryside. There are so many baby lambs in the fields. I squeal a level that apparently only dogs can hear. They are so cute and such a true sign of spring. All of the fields are brilliant yellows and greens and all of the flowers are blooming in the gardens.

We arrived at Warwick Castle around 11. The weather today was absolutely lovely. Sunny sky, nice and warm and a few puffy clouds in the sky. Warwick is beautiful castle and the grounds were beautiful. You enter into the peacock gardens and conservatory before entering the Castle grounds.

We climbed the stairs to the tower and ramparts to walk along the top of the castle wall. It was 520 stairs throughout the walkway. 520 teeny tiny stairs. It was the original stair master. You must have had to been short and skinny back in the days of the middle ages. There wasn’t much room in these towers to maneuver around.

We walked through the inside of the castle and they had all the rooms decorated with statues reenacting the different castle scenes from the original battles. The second half of the house was set up to represent how the house and castle were used during the 1920’s. It was like walking through Downton Abbey (which is near by Pauls’ house but is closed during this week. boo)

We walked around the castle grounds and sat down on the riverbank to watch the ducks swimming around. There are mallard ducks everywhere. They are my favorite duckies.

We finished walking around and headed back to our car to have our picnic lunch before heading to see Beth. While we were waiting for Beth to text us back with directions I had a lot of fun taking pictures in the car. Paul has recently purchased somewhat I use to think were ridiculous sunglasses. After taking some cool photos in the reflection of the lenses I have now realized they are super fun for photography. Also they work well as a mirror if I need to fix my hair or put on lipstick or something like that.

We drove for about 20 minutes until we got to Beth’s barn or yard as they call them here. It was so good to see her again. We fought trying to get the gate lock open for a while. Paul even gave it a go with pliers and a screwdriver to no avail. So we all hopped the fence. We met her pony Remus who was a bit grumpy after having to go on two rides that day. We went on a mission to find his rain sheet he had lost in the paddock the day before. Then we met and EPIC pony with an EPIC mustache. I can’t remember what the pony’s name was but I am going to call Watson in honor or Watson in Sherlock who in the past season had a ridiculous looking mustache. Many draft and cob horses have mustaches this however was like a sea anomie on his face. He was very sensitive and proud of his mustache.

We found Remus’ blanket he had lost. Somehow he had gotten out of it and completely turned it inside out without breaking, ripping or undoing any of the straps. I told Beth she was screwed. She had purchased a Houdini pony.

Beth asked me if I wanted to try her pony and of course I wanted to. We decided to take a walk around the block. Paul stayed behind and took a snooze in the car while we had some girl time. Remus screamed in search of friends the whole ride but was happy to go for a little walk. He was fun to ride and had a stampy pony canter cause he had his wellie boots on to protect his bare feet.

Paul and Humphrey

We got back to the barn and played with the lambs at the barn a bit and then packed up to head to Beth’s house for dinner. Beth’s parents Eileen and Jim had invited us for a curry dinner.

I forgot what a crazy driver Beth is and I felt like we were in a rally race following her along the streets of Birmingham. We made it to the house in one piece and walked into a beautiful home that smelled amazing from the food that was cooking. The back yard opened to extensive garden that was all in bloom. The house reminded me a lot of my dad’s house. Dinner was amazing. It tasted better than it smelled. Beth’s mum was an army brat so she and Paul swapped stories over dinner.

We left early cause both of us were nodding off at the table. Fresh air and sunshine and a late night the previous day will do that.

We are off to explore the towns in the Cotswolds tomorrow.

So the title of today’s post is a tradition that my nephew and my sister’s family do every night. At dinnertime you go around the table you ask everyone what the best part of their day is. I love this idea and Paul and I have adopted it whenever we are together. For today the best part of my day was sitting by the river bank relaxing in the sun watching the ducks. For Paul it was watching me ride off on the pony. He said I looked so happy when I’m riding.

Knock Knock - April 12, 2014

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 08:48:07 GMT

Operation camera battery charger started on Saturday morning with a trip back into Swindon where Paul had picked me up from the train the day before. Paul had to say good-bye to his Ford Escort (they are cool and different and fancy here in England) it was his old racecar that he and his dad had restored. Paul sold the car after breakfast and we headed out. The camera store was very nice I wanted one of everything in it. I had called a head and they have a universal charger for me that worked perfectly. We stopped in the pharmacy to pick up some blister Band-Aids. It felt like dejavu. When in England buy blister Band-Aids and Ibuprofen. We also had to pick up some earplugs cause apparently I have been snoring quite loudly and keeping Paul up at night. Oops.

We stopped by the bank, which turned out to be a very long and challenging operation. The poor woman who worked at the bank was trying to help us and ended up making the whole transaction a mess. It all worked out and we headed back to the house to have lunch with Paul’s sister Clare and her husband Steve and Paul’s Nana. We had a yummy lunch followed by delicious cheese. Paul and his Dad think cheese is the anti-Christ (I know they are British and don’t like cheese. its weird). Paul’s mum loves cheese and was excited that I do as well and got a nice selection for us. Paul’s nana (Roy’s mum) gave me some beautiful pillows for my new house with ponies on them. They will look perfect with my new couches that are arriving next week.

After lunch Paul took me on a walking tour of his hometown of Cirencester. We walked past his old school and first house and into town on the old rail tracks, which have now been converted, to a walking path. We were in search of hares. The town like many towns in the states have made large statues that different clubs decorates for charity. Gloucester Mass had lobsters at one point. Boston has painted cows. My new town of Haverhill had Shoes and my sister’s town has clams (rather inappropriate looking clams.) We headed off in search of the hares but soon got distracted with other beautiful items in the town.

We walked past what was the old abbey and Roman walls. Cirencester when Great Britain was under Roman rule it was the capital city of the southern England. The abbey was burned to the ground when Henry the Eight went on his anti-Catholic raid burned the church down and built the new Cathedral for the Church of England next to the remains of the old abbey.

The walk continued down the old side streets of the city where I was constantly stopping to take pictures of the ironwork and doorknockers. People in the states don’t really have doorknockers anymore and on my last trip I was enthralled with all the intricate knockers.

We continued on through the city until we came to the Cirencester Park. It reminded me of the great lawn at Castle hill in Ipswich. We strolled through the park for a while and then headed back into town to find a pub for a pint of cider.

We ended up choosing the Black Horse pub in honor of my friends black horse back home.

I had a pint of mixed berry cider that tasted like fruit juice. It packed a bit more of a punch than fruit juice and I was quite tipsy. Ok lets be honest I got drunk off a pint of cider. We headed to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for our lunch the next day. Drunk in a grocery store is entertaining. I am a fun and extremely giggly drunk, which is better than being an angry drunk. I made some drunken food choices getting two large jar of Marmite. one was a 10-year-old age reserve jar. I ended up getting both options. We went to Waitrose the fancy grocery store that Paul’s mum works at. I keep calling it Westrose like in Game of thrones. When you pay for your groceries they give you a token that you can put in one of the three charities they are currently supporting. Paul handed me the token and I read the three options. One was for like our equivalent of the Brownies/Girl Scouts, the second was for another charity and the third was what I though cleaning up pollution. I felt eco-friendly and picked the one I thought was for pollution. Paul asked me why I chose that one. “ I picked it cause pollution is bad” “Pollution? Why do you think it’s for pollution? It says Poulton Village Hall”. Apparently I can’t read when I am drunk. This oops on my front ended up setting off a giggling fit between Paul and me as we headed home to the house to get ready to go out that night.

We were going to Beth and Tom’s house tonight for dinner and drinks and to hang out with their family. They have 4 daughters Georgiana (George) Charlotte (Charlie) Olivia (Ollie) and Robyn (Bob). Paul use to work with Tom and they have stayed friends since. Tom and Paul do quiz night at the local pub on Thursday nights together. We walked over to Paul and Beth’s and had a wonderful evening. Charlie was an avid Harry Potter fan and showed me her room that was covered in Harry Potter and Hunger Game posters. We talked books for quite some time (she is an avid reader)

Beth had made yummy snack food for us to munch on and we were playing 90’s dance music and having a bit of a dance party. We hung out in the back yard around the fire pit. We all smelled like a campfire by the end of the night. Beth and Tom were awesome as were all of their kids. The pear cider and snacks also added to an awesome night. We are going to meet up with them on Wednesday night again to take some family portraits.

We walked home around 12:30 and passed out smelling like we had been camping.

Returning to the Cotswolds

Sat, 12 Apr 2014 08:51:11 GMT

England April 11, 2014

Well the beautiful countryside of the Cotswold’s in England couldn’t keep me away for very long. Also the knight in shinny mini-bus that saved me from the rainstorm on my last trip turned out to be quite a catch. We started dating after my trip to England last summer and he has come to visit me twice in the states since. This is my first trip to visit him in England. It’s a meet the friends and family tour as well as me dragging Paul to a bunch of tourist sights around England.

Today was my first day. I left Boston Thursday night and it was a beautiful night and a gorgeous sunset over the city and Tobin Bridge as we took off. I scored an exit row seat and was able to actually to get a little sleep on the plane. A smooth flight got us into Heathrow a little early which was nice.

Getting through boarder control was not as nice. I got grilled by the guy who when you are exhausted from flying is quite intimidating. He was worse than a parent asking where a relationship is going. I had to show return tickets, tell how much money I had, when I was going back to work, how long I worked at my job, in detail what I did (I think I confused the guy at that point). He was a bit on the judgmental side. I apparently passed all of his questions and was allowed into England. Phew.

I took the Heathrow Express train into Paddington Station to connect to Swindon where Paul was going to pick me up. I have to say I love Paddington Station. It’s has beautiful architecture and there is something I love about trains. The train stations in England and Europe have such a romantic feel to them.

Paul picked me up in Swindon and we headed back to Cirencester where Paul lives. I met Paul’s parent’s Connie and Roy and got settled in a bit. We had a cup of tea and then headed out to get lunch, a Jacket-Potato aka baked potato. We went to South Cerney, which is a small town outside of Cirencester. I was convinced the floor was moving in the café where we went. My ears suffered a bit from the plane ride and are a bit dodgy. I’m hoping the decongestants help them. The jacket potato was delicious and we watched some very interesting fishing techniques. The café where we ate was by a lake. The gear and fishing equipment and there was a lot of it was something I have never seen before. I will try and upload a video of it. It was unique.

We decided to walk around one of the lakes in South Cerney. They are used for water skiing and kayaking. We saw a very cute family of baby ducks. There were 10 of the little guys and they were little speed demons in the water. On the far side of the lake there was a bit of a detour on the path and well we ended up on the wrong path/road. We continued on finally realizing that the path didn’t’ reconnect unless we climbed over a barbed wire fence. We did some bushwhacking and managed to get over the barbed wire fence without any injuries to our clothes or us. A win on our adventure.

We headed back to the house where I took a 2-hour nap before we headed out for dinner with the rally car team.

We went to Stroud for dinner with Paul’s rally car team; Rick the driver, Keith and Biff the mechanics, Paul is the navigator for the team and all of the guys wives, Julie, Leanne, and Jane. Dinner was delicious and I learned all about rally car engines and turns and the politics behind rally racing. The team is working with their club to put on a rally in a few weeks. There is a follow up meeting on Thursday with the gang to work out more details. Rick was so happy with the Rainex windshield wiper blade I brought him from the States. Car guys they are all the same. Bring them cool car accessories and they will think you are ace.

A late night out and jet lag I fell asleep before I hit the pillow and apparently snored a lot last night.

Tomorrow’s mission: Find a battery charger for my camera cause I packed the wrong one (no pictures would make for a shit holiday and a boring blog.) some decongestants for my nose and ear plugs for Paul so I don’t get banned to the couch for my snoring.

London August 18th 2013

Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:51:08 GMT

London:

So the biggest mistake I have made on this trip so far is buying the London Pass. The London Pass gets you into all of the tourist attractions around the city without paying each time. You can also skip lines as well. I could see how this pass could have been good if I planned out my weekend differently. Oh well I still have one day on the pass so I guess I’ll have to go back to London and use it within the next year.

So even though I didn’t utilize my London Pass I pretty much saw everything I wanted to see and I am now a pro at the Tube. I had a busy Sunday planned and woke up feeling refreshed and glad I took yesterday afternoon off. I had made plans to meet up with Tony and Vivian who were leading a Rambelers walk through down town London. Paul the mini-bus driver was meeting me at Paddington Station at 5pm for some dinner and sightseeing. It was a Cotswolds reunion. I met up with Tony and Vivian at the Green Park station. Not knowing how long it would take to get into the city from the airport I left myself plenty of time. I arrived about an hour + early so I enjoyed a breakfast across the park and some people watching. Since doing the riding and walking my metablism is super spiked. I am starving all the time to the point of being naueasuated if I don’t eat. Its rather annoying. After a big breakfast I met them in the station with about 5 other Ramblers. Again I was the youngest. Tony and Vivian planned the walk to lead through Green Park, Hyde Park, and Regency Park ending in Camden Market. Tony took us on a tour of some of the war memorials and filled the walk with interesting triva. We walked past Buckingham Palace as well. The parks were beautiful. Think Boston Common and Central park style but with a lot more horses and flowers. The walk lead past the building where Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin and back past Paddington Station. We stopped for a coffee break as a rain cloud was passing overhead. The route then followed the cannals and we got to see all of the canal boats and learn some more trivia. When the electric company was installing their cables throughout England they layed most of them along the cannals which were easy to access and had flat surfaces. We ended our walk in Camden Market. Camden market was a huge horse spot back in the days of using the cannals to import goods from other parts of the country. The horse industry boomed in this time period and Camden Market square was dedicated to them. There were beautiful bronze statues of the horses. I didn’t get pictures cause Camden Market is now currently a huge shopping center jammed packed with people. I didn’t feel safe digging out my camera. We somehow made it through the crowds (I almost stepped on a dead rat) and headed to the busses. I was trying to get to the Tower of London but they were doing repairs on one of the lines and it got very confusing. I needed to take a bus to Kings Cross Station and then catch the circle line to the tower. Tony and Vivian guided me to the bus and I had to say good-bye to them again. I boarded my second double decker Red bus and headed to Kings Cross. I was so determined to get to the Tower of London I didn’t have time to really appreciate Kings Cross. It was a beautiful station. I didn’t get to see Track 9 ¾ but while walking through I swear I saw Ron and Harry Potter. There were these two boys that were standing there that looked identical to the characters. I smiled and continued on.

The walk with the ramblers was longer than I expected and I only had 2 hours to do some sight seeing and minuver the tube to get back to meet Paul at 5 at Paddington. The tower of London was my top priority.

I have to say I was kinda disappointed. I have read so much about it and have this idea in my mind and in real life it was much smaller than I anticipated. It was cool to walk around and soak in the history that I knew happened there. This was difficult while trying to avoid tourists. London along with Bath made me realize how much of a country girl I am. I enjoyed walking around the tower and seeing the armory display. Got some good pics of the Tower Bridge and headed back to the tube. So the Tube is over 100 years old but man they need to update and add air conditioning. Phew it was hot and stinky on there.

Wesminster was on the way to Paddington so I decided to hop off the Tube and take a few pictures. The London eye was across the river so I was able to see and photograph that as well.

I headed back to the Tube and to Paddington station. I arrived in time to change my outfit and met up with Paul. Once we met up and I decided that my feet were killing me and I was starving to death. We headed to Camden Market where I had been earlier in the day to grab a bite to eat outside since the weather was being nice. We took a slight detour through Piccidely Circus aka London’s mini-Times Square and off to Camden Market. We ate dinner in a nice outside restaurant and this side of Camden Market was different from where I was earlier in the day. It was more like Faneule Hall with street performers and artists. Dinner was pizza, which was a bit silly considering I was heading to Italy tomorrow, but it was very tasty. We decided to do a Pub-crawl through London starting with one of Paul’s favorite pubs on the River Thames. Easiest way to impress a girl : take her to a pub on the River Thames over looking the Parliament building and Westminster Cathedral on a beautiful day with an amazing sunset. The drinks were delicious and the views and company made it even better.

After we finished our drink we continued walking down the river towards the Millenimum bridge ( I had just watched Harry Potter the night before and wanted to not only see the sights but also see scenes from the movie). We passed the Eye of London and also MI5 and MI6 buildings (no James Bond though). The sunset was beautiful against Whitehall which my tour guide may have had to google to find out what it was. We made it to the

Millenumum bridge and looked down the river to see London Bridge all lit up for the night. St. Paul’s Cathedral was in front of us and was beautifully lit up. We stopped at another pub before figuring out how to get back to the airport. Paul was nice enough to accompany me back to the airport so that I didn’t’ get lost and also cause it was late and I didn’t feel like riding the Tube by myself that late.

I am so glad Paul agreed to join me in London and show me the sights that I would have otherwise missed not really wanting to explore on my own in the evening/night.

We arrived back at the airport at 1 and I decided it was silly trying to go to sleep when I was going to have to leave for the airport in 2 hours for my flight to Italy. The hotel bar was still open so we spent the rest of the evening sipping Cider and chatting till my bus came to pick me up and throw me into the insanity that is Heathrow Airport.

I bid good-bye to my Mini-bus hero/London tour guide and sadly left England after an amazing three weeks there. I am counting the minutes till I can go back and have another adventure in this beautiful and friendly country. I have met so many lovely people that I will continue to stay in touch with and who really made this trip what it was. Next stop Italy.

I apparently have a fickle heart.. I fell in love with Julius :)

Sat, 17 Aug 2013 19:54:08 GMT

Sorry for the delay in posts. Utter exhaustion has set in. I made it to London this afternoon with all intenions of sight seeing but all I saw was Heathrow airport and my hotel room.. I am having a lazy afternoon and some much needed R&R after 17 days of extreme excersise. I have plans tomorrow morning to meet up with the London crew I was walking with on the Cotswolds and Paul who saved me from the rain in the afternoon.

So here is a recap of the last two days in Wales.

Thursday morning I was awoken at 7am by Maxxi who wasn't feeling well (dizzy and sore muscles) and crying. Me trying to calm her down wasn't working so I had to get Beth for back up. We tucked her back into bed with a hot water bottle and Beth and I decided not to ride in the morning. It was raining and we were just going to do two 1/2 day rides anyway. I spend the morning helping out in the barn. We tacked up the Japaneese riders and sent them out in the rain. We then cleaned the barn and went to spend time with the yearlings that had just returned to the farm. One of the yearlings was the full brother to Eddie's new foal and to Beven aka Chunky Monkey. This yearling's name was Bandit and he has totally made it on my list of ponies I want. I mean look at this face (red bay) so stinking cute :)

Beth Lucie and I went out in the afternoon. Lucie was riding one of the babies Summer that has been ridden for the first time on Tuesday. We decided to take them out for a short hack. I got to ride Julius and Beth rode Ockie again. It was a blonde sandwich with Julius in between.

Due to the rain we decided to just do some lane work with the horses because the ground was slippery. Summer did such a good job and was so brave even with the scary lines on the road. It was on these lanes that I fell in love with Julius. What an amazing trot. He carried himself so gracefully and the extended trot.. to die for. Julius has been on solitary confiment due to his shagging random mares in the field. They aren't sure he was properly gelded. He was my new dream boat thought.

Maxxi was feeling better in the afternoon and joined us for snuggling with ponies and the yearlings. Since I haven't been able to take many pictures from the rides I thought I would include pictures of the ponies and some scenes from the farm.

Charlie trying to be a brown horse :)

The Beast

Ockie (somewhat blonde mostly muddy)

Ruby aka the giraffe

Beven aka Chunky Monkey

Peter who has just rolled in poo

Eddy's family field off in the distance

While dinner was being served Beth informed me that 7 guys had just checked into the self-catering portion of the farm and were going to be at the only pub near by. Obviously this ment we would have to investigate. Beth and I got all dressed up and put on make-up. Lucie being beautifuly French just put on some lipstick and looked georgeous. Damn French :) We went to the pub to investigate did a quick walk by and decided.. NOPE.. we decided to check out some other pubs. The pub we went to was the Three Horseshoes where we had ridden to the previous day. Yeah all the cute farmers that keep passing us while riding were not at this pub. We had our cider and headed back to the farm.

Friday came to quickly. My last day of riding. Time really flies when you are having fun. Since I had fallen head over heals for Julius I decided to ride him again. Maxxi wanted to ride her favorite Annika but she had lost a shoe. She got to ride Charlie instead (see white/dirty pony above). Our group was joined in by a gentleman named James. James had been to the farm a few times and was just here for a day ride. James was told he was to ride with the Japaneese but we convinced him that we would be more fun.

James joined us on Ebony and Beth rode one of my favorites Beven aka Chunky Monkey. We headed to the town of Telgrath where we had eaten lunch before at the Mill Store. We were heading to a different lunch spot that had yummy curly fries. Maxxi's dad was going to meet us on his bike today for lunch as well. We headed up into the brakens and moutains again. It was a bit slippy but not so bad on the grass. We headed off at a canter up the hill. Julius was beautiful.. his gate was amazing and he looked like black beauty racing up the hill. There may have been a few bucks thrown in but mostly he was brillant.

We had some great canters today down the beautiful lanes. Julius doesn't like puddles and liked to jump them. The perfect event pony for me. Georgous in dressage and a serious jump on him. I was smitten. Lunch and the curly fries were yummy. The cafe was in an old book store. It was some were I could have spent all afternoon in. Charlie untied himself from the fence at lunch and was wondering around the parking lot. Good thing there was an apple tree to keep him amused until we caught him again.

We decided to take James to our secret forest we had discovered before for a canter down the lane. The forest proved to be to slippery so we decided on a different adventure. We went down a different lane that hadn't been used for a while but was a beautiful ride. The weather was perfect (and I got a sunburn actually) We saw some parasailers and the gliders were up over the mountains.

After six days of riding I started to know the trails and could tell that we were getting to the end of our ride. A wave of sadness overtook me. This part of my vacation was coming to an end. We did have to rescue one of the McCoy foals that had gotten on the wrong side of the fence.. No ride has lacked excitement.

We strolled into the stable yard and had to hose off and sponge down our muddy muddy ponies and ourselves. We turned out the ponies and opened the gate and let the herd run through the stream and up the hill to the newly opened grass field.

We had a nice pot of tea with James and then it was time for dinner. I actually almost fell asleep during dinner the past two weeks were catching up with me.

I re-packed my backpack and headed to bed. Beth was giving me (and the Italian woman) a ride to the station in the morning. I found an apple that I was going to sneak to my Julius in the morning so I could give him a smooch good-bye.

Saturday was pretty borring. I felt like I was coming down with the lurgey (aka the cold) so I was in a debate with myself about sight seeing once I got to London. I slept really badly last night and a week on a bad bed did a number on my back. I decided it wasn't worth it to try and push it in London today. I wasted a day on my London pass but being super sick not worth it. I made it to my hotel via Heathrow Airport which is like a city all to itself.

My hotel is very nice. It has a great tub which, I thorughugly enjoyed soaking my sore muscles. I got a few emails for tomorrow and I am quite busy. I am meeting the folks who I walked with in the Cotswolds for a 5 mile hike around central London. I am following that up with some sight-seeing and then meeting Paul (my mini-bus hero) also from the Cotswolds for dinner and more sight-seeing. Ok Bed time for me know I have a busy busy last day in England tomorrow.

Eddie. My new love. August 14th 2013

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 07:52:14 GMT

So when you have shown your riding skills mastering riding the beast they pretty much will let you ride anything after that. We were still down to the three of us Beth, Maxxi, and myself. We decided to have a boy’s club day out riding. Beth decided to ride Charlie as punishment for him leading the horses in their escape last night. Maxxi although she wanted to ride Anica since we were bringing a stallion no girls were allowed. She rode Jonah a sweet gelding. Jonah looking sweet

I got to ride Eddie on of the farms two stallions. We rode by Eddie yesterday when he was out in the field with his wife Nicole and new baby. Maxxi and I got the other two horses ready and Beth was driven up the hill to grab Eddie. Eddie's new baby was a little upset that his dad was leaving for work and was running around like a little crazy guy.

Eddie is such a good stallion. It may be cause he is used as a breeding stallion and isn't as high strung as some of the stallions I have dealt with in the past. The last stallion I rode was my friend Mary's stallion Fritz way back in the day when I was a teenager. Fritz was a big guy over 17 hands. Eddie was petite but so very sexy. He has so much mane and forelock that they need to be braided up so that they don't smack you in the face and also so he can see. We made him all fancy brushing out his sexy mane and tail with some skin-so-soft to make it manageable. Once he was all fussed over (he loves being brushed and fussed over.. kind of a pansy in that aspect but still sexy) we tacked up with our long jackets on (it's Wales there is always a threat of rain) and headed out.

We passed Eddie's family and he got all-fancy for them but got over it quickly. He knows when he has a saddle on its work time and not time to shag everything that passes by. His gaits were really comfortable and he is quite narrow which was a nice break for my sore hip. We started out more or less the way we did yesterday but took some new turns and were heading for a cute pub for lunch. Eddie is quite lazy for a stallion. Beth described him perfectly today. "You know when you find a dead sexy bloke but he has some weird gross habit? Yeah that's Eddie" Eddie like many dogs has to mark his territory as we went along the roads and trails. Eddie is a poo sniffer. Anytime we came across a pile of horse poo Eddie had to stop and sniff it. Then he would walk forward and poo on the poo. Then reverse and re-sniff the poo to make sure his smelled worse and then could continue on. Besides this weird habit he was a dream to ride. He was great with the gates, didn't mind the sheep, got along very well with the other horses not trying to be a macho stallion. All in all besides the poo sniffing a perfect horse.

We made it down into the village to have lunch and there was another group of horses already tied up outside of the pub. They had a mare (girl horse) with them. This wouldn't do. We didn't want Eddie to have lunch and a shag with some random mare. He was a married man with a wife and child back in the field. We decided to tie him up across the street to a lamppost. Eddie also like to take his halter off aka get nekid when he is bored so we wanted a little more distance between him and this mare. There was a large stonewall enclosing a playground on the other side of the lamppost. We decided that a wall and some grass would be a better separation from the mare. Eddie was very happy with this situation and we were as well because we were able to keep an eye on him while we ate lunch. My nephew requested that I ride a horse like Bunkin today. Eddie's personality was just as weirdly awesome as our Bunkin back home.

Lunch was good today I had a Brie sandwich and yummy chips (aka fries) we took our time getting ready to leave because the group also tied up at the pub were going in the same direction and we wanted to give some space between the mare and us. Maxxi asked if we were going on another exploration adventure this afternoon and Beth replied that we were just going to the commons a wide-open flat space for a proper gallop. We passed some wild ponies on the way to the common, which luckily their stallion and mares kept their distance from Eddie. Eddie was more focused on the common and where we were going to run than the other horses.

The weather was kind of crappy today with the clouds coming off the mountains and rain and wind. We headed off across the field in a proper gallop. Eddie was a blast. He felt like he was charging into battle all stampy and super strong in his gallop but I felt in complete control. It is a fun feeling. My pony would have been bucking like a crazy thing across that field. As we were going I heard a "hold up" from Beth cause we had lost Maxxi. I thought she had gone off in a different direction but she had parted company from her horse. We caught Jonah and headed back to recover Maxxi. She said she was ok Jonah had given a big twisty buck and unseated her. The ground was nice and squishy there and she seemed all right. Nothing broken and she said ok. We continued on keeping a closer eye on Jonah who was looking very sorry and ashamed that he had bucked his person off. More sheep, more hills and back into the bracken. Again these horses are amazing they never put a foot wrong and canter through insanity. We were cantering along through the bracken and a sheep was running along side us. I was really hoping that it didn't decide to jump in front of us or into us. Apparently Eddie likes to catch sheep with his teeth and carry them around. As funny as that would have been to see I'm glad he left this sheep alone.

The weather was constantly changing as it does in Wales. Hot, cold, wet, sweating we had it all today. We made it back to the farm just as a group of Japanese tourists and one Italian lady were leaving for their afternoon ride. Eddie was put into a stall so as not to cause a commotion as they left and once they were gone we brought him out and got him all sexy to return him to his woman and to take some pictures of him. He was very excited as we rounded the corner to his field and his little baby was calling to him. Considering most stallions need a chain over their noses to control them Eddie just needed a cotton lead over his nose. He was strong but still a good boy. We were expecting a grand reunion. There was some rolling and then he ran over to his mare. She squealed tried to kick him and he wondered off couldn't be bothered. The little baby was super cute and the mare Nicole was as wide as she was long. A proper breeding mare. This foal is full brother to Beven and Bandit both cute chunky things that I want to bring home. Beth had the quad bike a we hopped on and went down to see the other two foals and their other stallion McCoy.

We had fun scratching the babies and mums and seeing the other stallion (who isn't ridden) who looks quite fat and pregnant himself. We hopped back on the bike and went back to the farm. The Japanese had just come back from their ride and I ran to the house to get a hot shower before they all arrived and stole all the hot water.

Paul and Lucie coming back from a ride.

Wednesday night the kitchen is suppose to be closed so the girls invited for me to go with them into town for Chinese food. Hattie who works in the kitchen with Maria (bless that girl cause Maria is kind of scary to stay with let alone work with) had caught Lucie's cold aka the Lurgie and was parked out on Beth's couch. She joined us to go pick up food and we were off. Lucie was caught and forced to help out in the kitchen tonight. We went to town and good some food (thoroughly confused the guy taking our orders) and then headed back to Beth's caravan.

Dinner was pretty good and I was exhausted. I headed back down the hill to bed.

Tomorrow is an easier day if it's it raining we are going to just ride in the afternoon. I basically want to avoid having to ride with the Japanese.

Part Welsh Cob, part Thoroughbred, part Giraffe = Ruby August 13, 2013

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:18:01 GMT

I must appoligize for the lack of pictures. Not knowing how the horse is going ot behaive that I’m riding makes it difficult to judge whether or not to bring my camera. I have posted pictures of the horses included in the rides and I’ll add pictures of the area as I can. I stupidly forgot to pack my small camera for taking pictures while riding. Maybe I’ll bring my Iphone it’s broken anyway. Also the weather changing also makes taking my big camera difficult.

Today was another day for a ride. The sky threatened rain all day but we were blessed with another dry day in Wales well at least the part we were in. Maxxi’s dad is staying on the farm and has been doing an insane amount of mileage road biking everyday upwards of 100-150 miles a day. The route he did today apparently was a heavy downpour. We said good-bye to Carry this moring and it was just Beth, Maxxi and I out riding today. Beth rode Ockie the chunky blonde pony. Maxxi road Anika daughter of Ellie who she rode yesterday and I rode Ruby. Ruby is a throughbred/Welsh cob cross. She was tall 16’3 hands but had big chunky feet. I think there must have been part giraffe in her as well because her neck went on for miles and miles. She was a sweet mare a bit of a nuge on when tacking up but overall a sweetie. I climbed up and we headed out on our ride.

Lucie joined us for the first portion of the trail on a younger horse she was helping to break in. She is feeling a little under the weather and has been sneezing an making strange sexy French noises post sneeze. We have been making fun of her all morning.

We passed some of the farm’s upper trails that had the broodmares and stallions in them. There were 3 babies that looked super cute and I’ll have to go back up for a closer look and pictures tomorrow. Eddie one of their stallions is very handsome and came by to show off and say hello. We did a short loop and then said goodbye to Lucie and headed into the town for lunch. We discussed movies on the ride this morning and all agreed that Chris Hemsworth aka Thor was beautiful as was Chris Pine, Liam Hemsworth, Chris Evans and a boat load of other hotties. Lunch was at the Mill store, which has a working water mill that still grinds the flour for the bread. This bread was so yummy. I wish I had more money on me cause I would have brought a loaf home considering the owner Maria isn’t fond of vegetarians and has slowly been starving me this week except for feeding me boat loads of potatoes.

We ate lunch rather quickly with only three of us and decided to go exploring this afternoon. Beth wanted to explore some woods that she has gone by in the past. Maxxi and I were up for an adventure so we headed off. The woods reminded me of the trails back home and we steadly climbed up big hills. We peared down what looked like a good path downward but it was blocked with a large fallen tree. We eneded up going down a very very steep path and when you are on a very tall horse makes it seem even taller. At the bottom of the steep hill we decided to track to the left hoping that the path would wrap around the hill and put us out back where we started. After a short detour that ended up being a narrow foot path we continued down the wider path that had two fallen trees on it. The trees weren’t so large that we couldn’t step over them. Ockie having shorter stubby legs got slighty stuck in the tree branches but quickly and calmly got himself out. My long legged part giraffe horse stepped over them with no problem. Anika lifted her front feet over and hopped her hind legs over so as not to get caught. The path lead to a gate that was not where we wanted to be and was padlocked shut. Bloody Hell we were going to have to come back the way we came over the fallen trees again. The two mares hopped right over the trees and were quite dainty about it. Smart girls. Ockie came up to the log and stopped dead. Beth was thinking he was just going to jump over it and wasn’t expecting him to stop. Then without warning he popped all four legs up and bunny hopped over the log throwing Beth off balance and causing the best facial expression ever. See the photo below which is the best illustaraion I could attribute this to. The Thelwell ponies are a illustration that sums up chubby naughty ponies perfectly. Ockie channeled his Thelwell pony today hopping over the log.

The path that we were now on (taking a right instead of a left after the steep hill) ended up being a beautiful path. Nice and long and great footing for a nice long canter down the lane. The only problem with this path which we encounterd when we started out is that there isn’t an opening gate at the end. There is a very small opening and we weren’t sure the ponies could fit through. We dismounted and walked the horses through. It was a tight squeeze but everyone made it through. Note. For future rides on this trail only ponies skinnier than Ockie can go.

Our exploration took a bit longer than we hoped and it was getting late as we headed back to the barn. We were out for about 5 ½ hours today. My knees were sore as were my hips from going up and down the steep hills. You have to really lean back and stick your feet forward going down the big hills to help the horse balance. We made it back to the land we came down earlier this morning. We had some awesome canter/gallops and it was breathtakingly beautiful and super fun. We may have chased a few more sheep this afternoon which the horses seem to find fun. Again I am so impressed with the surefootedness of these horses. I was basically just holding on and Ruby was picking the lane and placement of where to put her feet.

We made it back to the barn and as soon as I dismounted I flopped to the ground to help right my sore hips. With a little bit of stretching they are doing better. Still sore but functional. A hot shower also helped and I smell nice now. Dinner was quiche and salad tonight. Maria is struggling with the vegitarian food. There apparently is a vegan, gluten free, no nut person coming next week. I will look like a saint compared to that poor soul. I’m sure they will get an earful from Maria.

We sat around the dead animal room and I showed the girls some videos of our horses back home being silly and then Lucie popped her head in and told us to come help the horses had gotten out.

The horses are kept in 2 very large paddocks but they move the electric fence so that the grass can grow. The horses had plowed through the fence (Charlie was the likely instigator) and were in all the deep grass. Beth, Maxxi and I joined Lucie with our sticks and somehow with out much trouble herded them back into the correct field. They all ran through the river and into the far paddock and all were looking back at us upset that we had ruined their fun and the yummy grass. The fields and horses looked so beautiful with the rising half moon peaking over the mountains.

I am quite sore tonight. My arse is killing me. Losing so much weight in the past year I apparently have lost quite a bit of padding .

I got to Skype with my niece and nephew this evening and got to tell Gavin all about the ponies I have been riding. He told me that I should ride a black one tomorrow like Bunkin (one of my friends horses.. Bunkin is a nickname). Bunkin is one of Gavin’s favorites. He told me to ride a black horse and name him Bunkin #2. I think I am going to ride Julius tomorrow. The naughty one who has been shagging mares in the field even though he has been gelded..

"Move cows, move" August 13 2013

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 08:47:46 GMT

Sorry for the delay in posting I stayed up to late last night chatting with Beth and Lucie.

Yesterday was a much more enjoyable ride. We were down to just the three of us plus Beth. I always thing a smaller group is going to heed in a better ride. Maxxi wasn’t in love with the horse she rode the day before so she was given Ellie who had gone out with us the day before and looked like a sweet mare. Cary although she liked Charlie asked for a different horse. Peter and Linda were the horse options. Miranda who had ridden him on Saturday had given Peter a bad reputation. She said he didn’t like to canter and she didn’t like him. Cary quickly jumped at Linda instead of Peter so I got to ride him instead. Peter is a big sweet slightly stubborn bloke who it took some convincing and snacks that it would be fun to follow me out of the field. The ponies were on the other side of the stream in the morning so the wellies were necessary. Mine had a whole in one of them and I took on some water and needed to change my sock before riding. I left one wet footprint through the stable yard as I went to change them. Since Peter wasn’t a psychopath like Cariad I decided to bring my camera along in a saddlebag. Taking pictures stilled proved to be a bit challenging but I managed to snap a few. It was threatening to rain so we all put on our raincoats. Beth’s fancy new long coat had grown legs and walked off since she last saw it on Thursday. Considering it hadn’t rained all last week this wondering seemed suspicious. It was a new coat and quite posh and expensive so it was completely justified the frustration and anger. Maxxi had a beautiful rain jacket which I want one just like it. I would ride in the rain more often if I had a coat like that. It looked like a fancy medieval princess gown covering the rump of Ellie. If it rained Ellie and Maxxi would stay nice and dry. We headed out for the lake today, which we had seen when we looked down into the valley yesterday.

I had a big stick to help encourage Peter to move on. My pony back home is quite slow and needing encouragement to move forward so I am use to having to ride a horse forward. I was told that Peter’s personality and willingness to go depends on his rider. Miranda was a little timid about cantering and I’m sure Peter picked up on that and didn’t feel it was necessary to work any harder than he needed to if his rider wasn’t willing to do it. Peter is a trotting horse much like a standard bred back home. They can cover vast distances at a long trot and not really need to canter. He did have a nice canter though. At one of the gate stops we spotted a very nice stick on the ground which Beth retrieved and I inherited. I looked a bit silly with 2 sticks but I they came in quite useful later in the ride.

We passed the Alpacs that we had seen the day before and after crossing the road and into the bracken field we spotted a flock of sheep and decided to maybe chase them. Peter jumped into a very nice comfortable canter. Beth was riding Mel a sweet mare and grandmother to Ellie who Maxxi was riding. Mel was 22 and has had 10 foals and looks amazing. The sheep got away from us but it was a great canter. Since we were heading to the lake it meant a lot of downward walking. We crossed into a field with some cows. They were very interested in us and we had to shoo them away so we could enter the second field which contained even more cows. So we had a herd in front of us and one behind and a gate that all four of us had to get through and not let any cows switch fields. The farmer was repairing the fence at this junction as well and found our situation hilarious. The cows were young and very very interested in the horses. The horses were doing fine with the cow situation but really just wanted to pass through the fence. Beth was waving her stick at the cows saying “move cows move” which was doing absolutely nothing. I suggested that maybe the nice farmer would help us. He was to busy pissing himself laughing in our situation as were all three of us riders. We managed to skirt through the fence into the herd of big-eyed cows. Beth remounted and we attempted to continue on. Ellie wasn’t super keen on the cows and had her bum plastered to my horse Peter which resulted on Ellie pooing all over the back of Peter. We started walking down the field with about 50-75 cows loping along behind us. Other youngsters from across the field came galloping over to see what the commotion and excitement was all about. Cows are so cute and dopy looking and they were so excited and interested in these four strangers in their field. I wish I had been able to pull out my camera in all of this. This moment would have made a perfect video and You tube sensation. We came to the bottom of the field and another gate. The gate was tied with string so Beth went to work on untying that as we used our sticks to shoo the cows away. The gate was opened and we again had a narrow escape through the fence and a bunch of sad faces leering through the fence wondering why their new horse friends left them behind.

We continued on through a sweet little town towards the lake. The lake was quite popular for boating and families to visit. We cantered around a bit and took the ponies down to the lake entry. They didn’t really seem to want to go into the water to chilly today. It didn’t rain but the raincoats were very helpful in wind prevention. We parked the ponies under some trees. Peter was very interested in what I was getting out of my saddlebags. I had my camera in a plastic bag and crinkly plastic bag my be internationally known as “potential food receptacle”. I promised to share my apple with Peter and Mel who were both giving me the “I’m so cute an hungry” faces when I left for lunch. We headed to the lunch shop, which was very busy. Apparently most other shops are closed on Monday so all the overflow was going to this shop. I ordered the veggie burger it was interesting. We were all starving after waiting so long for our food and inhaled it which we regretted later. Peter enjoyed his apple core and we mounted up and headed off again. The ponies were feeling good after their rest and Peter the big old guy that he was bounced and did some baby bucks being all excited about life.

We headed back up the hill and chased a few more sheep on our way back home. Peter although he is a seasoned trekker was still convinced everything was going to eat him. Bins, sheep, rocks, shadows he all gave them the hairy eyeball to. He was very brave a few times when it was necessary. All in all he was a blast to ride even though his previous rider who gave him a bad review misunderstood him. I loved him. We were just about back at the farm when we encountered an injured lamb (eyeball issue and we will leave it at that) we found the local farmers and they headed out to look for it.

Back in the yard we met back up with Lucie and Paul who had a busy day breaking new young horses to ride. The horses were cleaned up and fed and turned back out to the field and everyone had a good roll. This seems to be the routine when they are turned back out.. drop and roll. All the other horses were happy their friends were back. Everyone gets turned out together and it’s super cute to see the love triangles that occur in the herd. Cobweb is desperately in love with Dark Lady (he rests his head on her back all the time) however Dark Lady is in love with Peter. They all have their buddies and girlfriend/boyfriends. Its cute.

Tea was served on the tables and Paul was excited to learn about all the American tack shop websites (horse.com dover saddlery, Valley Vet) as they are in search of new saddlebags.

I showed Beth the video of the singer I saw and she agreed very cute and we also scrolled through pictures of my herd of horses back home. The dinner bell rang.. potatoes again. Maxxi had some rice-cake crackers that I grabbed a few that I can put peanut butter on if I am starving later. Beth also said she could run me to the shops so I won’t starve this week eating carrots and potatoes. There was beet soup that was very good.

The evening ended in the room of dead animals aka the lounge chatting with the girls. There is a big debate on who the “Beast” actually is. They don’t think she is actually Cariad but could potentially be Georgia. Although Georgia’s the passport markings don’t really match up. She will now just be known as “Beast”

Cariad means "My Love" or "Darling" in Welsh.. or so they tell me... August 11th 2013

Sun, 11 Aug 2013 20:00:28 GMT

After getting a good night sleep and a full breakfast this morning we were ready to head out for our first ride. There was a total of 8 of us riding today which included Lucy who is here from France and Beth who has been here for four years. Paul who is the one in charge of the horses worked with Beth and Lucy to pick out horses for everyone. The girls who rode yesterday I believe kept the same horses for the most part with only a few changes. We headed down to the barn to go catch our horses from the field. After changing into wellys in case the horses were on the other side of the river (which they ended up not being) armed with our halters we headed off. I was given Caraid a mare who I found lying down taking a nap when we entered the field. Once we had all of our horses we headed back for the yard to tack up and get ready to head out. There were a few changes of horses once we pulled them in from the field. Cobweb a cute little dun pony had a sore back so he was changed out for Charlie. We gathered our tack and Paul came by to inspect the horses while giving a spelling lesson to his son Nye who is 4 1/2 and reminds me of my nephew Gavin. Nye was learning important words. After riding comes chocolate. Good words to live by. We mounted up and headed out on the trails. My mare was a typical mare and would kick so I had to stay at the back with Lucy. Well Cariad might be Welsh for lovely darling but I had other choice words for what it might mean. I renamed her Beast. I would have called her other things but I wanted to be polite. She was a beast though. Rearing up, trying to bolt, being generally stupid. My riding skills were tested on her. I held my own and was showing her who was boss but she was still being a shit. I don't like horses that rear up. Bucking is bad but rearing is just unnecessary especially when the tree branches are quite low. Just when I thought we had come to an understanding she would be a jerk again. My knee although it was in a brace was not appreciating Cariad being stupid. We stopped for lunch not very exciting but it was food. Lucy and I decided to switch horses for the afternoon. She was riding Seren which means Star in welsh. Seren was a younger horse who was well behaved but she would get startled and spook at things. Sounded better than Beast who was trying to kill me on my first day. Seren was good and didn't have to be in the back like Beast so I enjoyed being in the lead. She was a very good girl and decided that she was going to be brave in the afternoon. We headed up into the mountains through the braken which is big ferns. Beth who was recovering from attending a wedding the night before swapped for Beven who is the cutest little chunky pony. They took a detour of into the braken at one point and completely disappeared. Seren did well in front and had a nice gate on her. When we cantered which was more of a gallop/jumping and leaping she was a good girl. The beast was still being awful and Lucy had one hell of a ride home. The landscape was breath taking. I didn't bring my camera and glad I didn't cause Beast would have broken it. I have to figure out something for tomorrow cause it's so lovely. We saw a wild pony and foal today on the mountain. We made it home and said good-bye to three of the girls who were just here for the weekend. After dinner I went to find the ponies but only found a few Ellie came to say hello and the naughty ponies who don't go out with the herd said hello. A few of the horses live in the barn Seren who is hard to catch and some of the younger horses. Julius who is a nice looking horse is in solitary confinement because he got caught trying to shag (have sex with) some of the mares in the field even though he has been gelded. Naughty Julius.

My pillow is calling me. Lets see if I can rig my camera tomorrow and hopefully I'll have pictures of the beautiful countryside to share with you.

Where the Wild Things Are. Bath August 10, 2013

Sun, 11 Aug 2013 18:07:17 GMT

Today was the first day in over a week where I didn't have to rush off and hike some serious miles. I had such a good night sleep in my hotel. The swelling in my knee also went down over night as well. I ate next to a family from Washington DC. They were your typical obnoxious Americans. The dad was looking at a small tub of Marmite and had heard their tour guide about it the day before. I grew up eating it. Marmite is yeast extract basically that is a very very acquired taste. You either love it or hate it. I personally love it. This guy did not like it at all. The look on his face was priceless. The hotel owner was so nice and let me keep my bags at the hotel while I explored Bath. I must have been super tired last night when I was walking through Bath cause I didn't even notice all the people. I was in shock today. Granted it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon but oh my goodness when you spend a week in the country all by yourself that many people is overwhelming. I am a country girl and today drove this feeling home. I was almost in a state of shock and panic. I needed to get away from these people. There were Japanese tourist everywhere they were like droves of cattle or sheep getting off busses. I needed green. I needed trees. I needed space. (London and Italy are going to be a shock as well). I had one mission today and that was Ibuprofen for my knee. I wondered around Bath that is basically just one big shopping mall. I made it to the Royal gardens and botanical garden that were exactly what I needed. I had already bought my ticket to Wales before heading to the gardens and I had about 3 hours to kill in Bath.

This was plenty of time. The best window-shopping I did was at the real estate offices. I picked out some dream farms. Now I just need to win the lottery. It's always the way. In front of one of the shops was the cutest little girl with her dad. Little kids with British accents are so cute. This little girl was about five and she was going on about how this day would have been much better if they had just brought her daddy’s car. The dad couldn’t figure out why the day would have been better. She replied “cause my sunglasses are in your car daddy” but picture this all with a cute squeaky British accent. I found my way to the Royal Crescent, which honestly is much nicer in the movies. I was a bit disappointed. I wondered around the botanical gardens, which is mostly just trees and open grass like Central Park or Boston Common. It was exactly what I needed. Open space. I enjoyed watching the kids run around with their parents and dad’s and sons playing football (soccer). The park also had a huge playground for kids. I didn’t photograph it cause I didn’t want to look like the weirdo photographing a kids park. It was pretty awesome though. I wanted to play on it.

I had seen one pharmacy so I headed back in that direction and was also thinking about getting a bite to eat before I headed to the train station. I picked up my ibuprofen and some more blister Band-Aids and walked back outside.

Bath has many street performers and people playing music. I passed two girls singing this morning that sounded like a pair of cats fighting. They were awful. As I came out of the pharmacy though there was a guy singing on the corner. His band's name was Alfie and the Owl.(https://www.facebook.com/alfieandtheowl/app_190322544333196) I am pretty sure I fell in love with him. He had the most amazing voice and wasn’t too bad on the eyes either. I sat and watched him perform for about an hour. I would have stayed longer if I wasn’t going to be late for my train. He was performing some cover songs but I much preferred his original material. One of the songs that were his original (and unfortunately I can’t find it online) was called “Where the Wild things are.” I loved the song and felt it was appropriate for how I was feeling in this busy city today. I felt like I was a wild thing that had been taken from it natural habitat and thrown into the busy city. Unfortuntaly I had to leave my new love and head back to my hotel to pick up my bags and try to figure out the train system.

I stopped by the Abby again to see if I could find some kind of patch that says “Cotswold Way” for my bag to continue my collection. Everyone I asked looked at me like I had 2 heads. The Cotswold way must not be super popular yet. I’ll look for something online. There was a serious queue for the Royal Baths which I’m glad I skipped. There was also a super scary looking “fairy” in front of the Abby as a street performer. Nightmare worthy.

There were two guys on the back of the Abby that were doing some rock climbing aka window washing the huge windows of the abby and doing maintnence work.

I made it back to my hotel and said goodbye to the very nice people who ran it and headed out. This was the street that I was staying at.

I got some funny looks from people on the street as I was trudgeing through with my two back packs, bag and lunch walking down the streets. One guy joking asked if I could carry his bags too. I have to say I am glad I’m not pulling a suit case behind me though. The cobble stones aren’t very good for wheelie suit cases. I passed the police station on the way to the train station and seeing their outfits I can totally see what the gentleman yesterday was talking about how I looked like the police in all my hiking gear. I totally fit in with the police.

I made it through the train gates with no problem and ate my lunch while I waited for my train. The train arrived on time and I only needed to make one transfer. I may have almost taken out a few people with my bag because the train was so packed. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I got on the train and the swaying almost put me to sleep. I got off the train and was picked up by a nice cab driver who took me to Trans Wales Trails farm. The Welsh accent is very difficult to understand but still sounds quite nice. I arrived at the farm house and it was a bit chaotic. There were a bunch of girls who were having tea and they pointed me to my room and then I joined them for teatime. The owner Paul (a popular name this week) had just come back from a horse show with his 4 ½ year old son who was proudly displaying his ribbons on his shirt. The girls who I was having tea with were only here for the weekend so I’ll ride with them tomorrow. There is a 15-year-old girl Maxxi who is from Germany and will be here the whole week. Her dad is with her but is staying in the town. There is another woman who will be here till Tuesday as well. And some Japaneese women are coming for the end of the week. Maria who is the owners mother is our house mom. A German woman, whom is determined to make me fat this week with her cooking. She is very German and slightly blunt with what she says. Oh well she is a good cook. We all had a nice dinner and then retired to the freezing cold lounge. There is a horse hide complete with tail mane and ears of their beloved horse. It freaks me out. I love my pony but I could never do that or have that in my house. There is also a stuffed badger and who knows what other hides around. We were all tired so its bedtime. The bed in room 6 where I am staying is quite good a little on the bouncy side but it will do. The breakfast bell rings at 9 tomorrow and we go from there. I have to access the camera/travel bag situation tomorrow so I may not have pictures from day one but there are many more days to come.

“What you're missing is that the path itself changes you.” August 9th 2013

Sat, 10 Aug 2013 07:55:59 GMT

Where to begin.. how about at the end. Today I completed the 104 mile Cotswold Way from Chipping Campden to the city of Bath. I don't think it has sunk in yet what I just accomplished. Most everyone I encountered on the way who realized I was walking this solo told me how brave I was to take something like this on all by myself. When I hiked the West Highland Way in 2005 we saw so many people on the trails I was expecting this to be the same. I was mistaken. I told my family not to worry I would see loads of people mostly to calm their nerves about me going alone. I guess I was wrong. The peace and solidarity was actually nice. I talked to the animals along the way and listened to some great music. I will remember moments of my walk when I hear those songs again. All in all the entire walk was amazing. The times I got lost were for the most part my mistake. The people I met will forever be a part of this experience for me. So lets start back at the beginning of today so you can walk the final steps along with me.

I had a delicious breakfast while looking into a beautiful garden. I consulted my map in regards to the alternative route that the bartender at the pub told me about. That section that he told me about on his map was absent on my map and I decided not to take any chances on my last day. I seemed to take a long time packing up my bag this morning. You would think that after a week I would be a pro at it. My bag currently looks like it has exploded all over my hotel room. Tomorrow packing is going to me more challenging because I have to lug both bags onto the train to head for Wales. Once I packed up and said good-bye to Jane (we also discussed the snake decorations after I gave her my blog address and she said that the plate was inherited and bits and pieces had broken off over the years) I headed off into town to mail my postcards and start along my way. I have found on the walk that once I am in the woods I do fine but getting out of the towns I get all turned around.

A few pictures from Tomorton

Where I had my yummy dinner last night.

As I was walking I asked a gentleman if I was going in the right direction. He pointed me the right way and told me he thought I was the police coming down the street. I guess wearing all black with a black hat and sunglasses and a camera strapped to my chest I looked like a police officer.

The start of my walk was through fields but along the motorway. This didn't bother me too much because I had my earbuds in and was rockingout to a brilliant British jazz musician Jamie Cullum (check him out he's awesome). I was cruising along this morning. I really think the signs that note the mileage really helped me along.

I passed Dryham house, which I wish I had checked out, further but I was on a mission today. I wanted to get as far as I could incase my knee was acting up and I couldn't finish the walk.

The two girls from the pub last night (the one with the dog that bit my finger) caught up to me around lunch time today. I walked with them for a little bit but they surpassed me. They did the entire walk in 5 days averaging about 20 miles a day. This I feel is a little too ambitious. Seven days was I think the perfect timing. The mileage seemed to work out everyday just right. Slower in the beginning and ramping up at the end when your body is more use to the hills and distance.

The girls I found out were sisters and did this type of walk often. I said good-bye as they sped of but I was sure we would meet up again along the way. I was starving now at this point of the day. The weather was perfect for walking today. It was sunny but overcast with a few dark clouds here and there. There was also a lovely breeze today as well. It helped to regulate the temperature and allowed me to walk in just a tee shirt and no need for the long sleeve shirt.

The path lead me down a very very very steep driveway that had a beautiful farm as well as a Special Plant shop. I wonder what kind of special plants they sell there. Perhaps ones that make the yard ornaments do this.

The map book indicated that there was a seat with an excellent view not to far ahead and I decided it was my lunch destination point. Of course it was at the top of a very large hill, which would coincide with the whole view thing. I trudged up the hill and found the seat with the view occupied by the two sisters and puppy. They moved over and I joined them for lunch. I even shared some cheese that had gone a little off with the mean puppy (I guess she had a troubled path and she was tired and grumpy last night but still). Lunch was perfect the seat over looked a beautiful farm and rolling fields.

I think I passed my favorite thing on the trail today and I wish there were more spots like this along the way. It was a message box. In most of the B&B's I have stayed in they have you sign a guest book. This was a guest book for the trail. It was in a wooden box and had all sorts of great entries in it. There was one entry that was a survey on which kind of nut is the best. I voted for pistachios. There were two girls who had drawn a horse vs cow situation that they had gotten themselves involved in. I liked this one the best.

I was coming up to the point in the walk today were I could take one of two paths. The first one was the long route into Bath the actual Cotswold Way. The second was a shorter more direct route into Bath. I was struggling with which path to take. It reminded me of the Robert Frost poem the Road Not Taken.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

I decided to take the Cotswold Way trail even though my knee was very sore at this point. I went back and forth but I didn't want to cheat myself out of the final leg of this journey. Yes I have cut out a few miles on this trip and didn't get washed away in the rain because of it. Today was beautiful and I felt I needed to push myself. I continued on through the racetrack and over the bluffs looking down on the city of Bristol and eventually on the city of Bath. I reunited with the sisters and one of their husbands and senior citizen dog for the final journey down into Bath.

Once we entered the city we must have looked like three lost souls in a crazy metropolitan city. The girls were catching a train and her husband knew where he was going. He started leading us through the city, which the bits and pieces I saw were beautiful and I can't wait to try and explore a bit more tomorrow. We got a bit lost and eventually found the Bath Abby, which is the ending point. We walked around the Abby for a while looking for a sign or something to communicate the "END". After looking around for a sign of some point I looked down and realized we were standing on it. It was a plaque in the ground with a golden acorn (the symbol I have been following for the last 104 miles.) It listed all of the towns along the walk as well. I said good-bye to the sisters as they dashed off to get their train. There were street performers throughout the town and as much as I would have loved to stop and listen I was a hot tired mess at this point.

I found my hotel which is in a beautiful line of Georgian houses (pictures tomorrow) I'm pretty sure I am in the servant’s quarters or what would have been the kitchen back in the olden days. I was very happy that my bags had been dropped off in my room. The man who showed me to my room was very nice (the son of the owner of the hotel) and he asked if I had been touring Bath. Considering I was a mess, covered in sweat, smelled like sheep shit, and looked like I had been hit by a bus it was nice of him to over look that. I showered and realized my knee was extremely swollen. I relaxed and elevated my knee and took some more drugs. I eventually got up and walked down the street to the Indian food restaurant. It was down three flights of stairs. The Indian food is much better back home or maybe I am just use to the place I typically go. I haven't had a good batch since I have been here. It still worked for dinner in my hotel room. I am looking forward to not having to rush off in the morning and then in the afternoon I head out for my next adventure. I plan on continuing my blog throughout the rest of the month as I travel to Wales and also to Italy. I also plan on writing more about "what I learned on my hike" but I am too tired tonight to be deep in thought.

Nothing was going to rain on my day today.. even the scary black clouds. August 8, 2013

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 21:53:48 GMT

Today was much better than yesterday. I had a lovely breakfast in the manor house with a couple that was walking and another couple that were staying at the B&B while the wife was attending a painting class. Breakfast was pretty good. I need to specify that I want my eggs well done this morning was a bit runny. I had a good night sleep. The stars outside my window were amazing. View from my front window into the court-yard.

I did however have 2 mosquitoes buzzing around my room. I killed one and the other elidued me. I eventually hid my head under the covers and forced myself to go to sleep. Today was pretty uneventful. I think I had my fill yesterday.

I was dropped of in Wotton-Under-Edge where I could have ended last night 4 miles from my B&B but with the crisis yesterday I just wanted to get to the B&B. The town had some shops including a pharmacy where I desperately needed to go to stock up on blister Band-Aids (I have been getting quite creative with what I have in my first aide kit but it wasn't cutting it. I needed a restock. I also needed a new pair of sunglasses and some more elastics for my hair whereas mine are getting a bit stretched out. I also stocked up on some more cheese, bread and tomatoes for lunch for today and tomorrow. I headed off. The walk started off through a church where I proceeded to strip off some layers of clothes (hey now !!) into a tank top and put on loads of sunscreen.. It was hot today. The trail wondered through some back lanes and a lovely little stream.

Apparently it was morning naptime. I passed some sleeping ponies and sheep on the way.

Guess what the beginning of the walk was after the town? UP UP UP.. I climbed upwards and passed a lady walking a horse and puppy. She said that today was a lovely hike and pretty easy walking. She was right. At the top of the hill I wondered through some fields and into the woods. The views over the town again were beautiful. I went through so many little lanes that were tunnels of trees.

I really appreciate the Cotswold’s signs that have mileages on them. It gives you a better gage than the map on how far in miles you have to go instead of a section of your finger on the map.

As I was entering Wortley.. Can you imaging living in a town with that name? The cutest puppy greeted me. Most of the dogs I have met so far are very friendly (minus the one who bit me at the pub tonight). I was expecting this little pup's human to come around the corner but no one came. He must have been a town local out for a stroll. He looked at me very suspiciously wondering where I came from and what I was up to. I made some kissy noises at him and he came bounding down the lane all wiggly at me. I gave him a pat and he decided I could pass and started following me. He was very camera shy and got all upset as I snapped the picture.. I was quickly forgiven when I put the camera away.

Through the town (you know 5 houses) of Wortly and past a beautiful manor house I ended back up in the fields with some cute cows that I horribly insulted by calling them ladies.. This was a bachelor pad. All steers but still just as cute. More sleeping sheep were in the adjacent field trying to stay cool under the trees. Except for one poor shunned sheep sleeping all by herself.

Through more tree tunnels these ones were full of young pheasants running around in the underbrush.

At the end of the lane were some polo ponies trying to escape the flies. I thought I had made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Scotland cause there were some Scottish Highlanders (cows that is) in the neighboring field also trying to escape the flies.

I strolled down the lane through a "hovel" I was told. Not a town but a few houses and one B&B. The owner of the B&B was walking down the street and chatted with me for a few minutes. His wife was also from Boston, First Boston aka in England not Second Boston in the States.

It was getting to be around lunchtime so I was on the hunt for a good spot. I came across a nice field. Nothing to special but it would do the trick. I wanted to find a nice cool spot in the shade. It was also time to change my socks and apply my new blister Band-Aids. This brand was recommended by my London walking buddies and they looked similar to the brand I had brought with me. After lunch of yummy bread with pumpkin seeds, cheese, and tomatoes I applied the blister Band-Aids and headed off.

The walk was easier today not to many hills to kill my knees and long flat roads, which helped me, walk faster. I came across a few cool buildings and houses today. The roads I was walking on had a lot of broken bits of rocks that had some fossils in them.

I came across this one garden today with the oddest garden statues. There were gnomes everywhere and other weird assortments of characters. The house down the street from them had a cute pig statue and some fake geese as well. This town must not be in the flower basket completions. Their gardens were slightly lacking.

There was a very dark black cloud that was following me all day. I had my jacket wrapped around my camera in case this black cloud decided to do something. I passed a gentleman who said that it was forecasted to shower later on today. After saying good-bye to the gentleman I climbed over the fence into the next field. Well I ruined some poor lamb's day. I scared it as I came over the fence and it got tangled in some fencing. It got free but was convinced it was my entire fault. This was a sassy bunch of sheep in this field. Mostly when I pass through a flock they kinda move along and don't really notice me. These sheep were pissed I was disrupting their afternoon of grazing. They were shooting me dirty looks. Stamping their hooves at me. I thought they were going to charge me. Sassy ladies and babies.

The little guy I scared.

The next field had sassy cows.. It must have been something in the water in these two fields. I had one cow following me and others that shot me dirty looks and made me take the long way around the field.

I passed some beautiful churches today and this one town had really nice kissing gates (the typical gates I have been passing through). You basically push the gate open sneak in the little alcove and then swing the gate back to the original starting point. If there were someone in front of you I guess you would give them a kiss as you passed the gate? I think that's where the name comes from.

One of the last fields I crossed today had horses and cows turned out together in it. I immediately started laughing cause it reminded me of my friend Betty's horse back home. She owns a quarter horse like mine. Cowboys as cow horses usually use quarter horses. Mine use to be a cutting horse back in his early days before I got him. He loves cows whereas my friend Betty's horse sees cows and puts it in the fastest reverse I have ever seen on a horse. I took photo documentation for him to let him know that horses and cows can live together and get along.

I was almost to my destination. A few more fields and I should be there. This black cloud was still chasing me. The edge of this storm made for some beautiful fluffy clouds though.

As I exited my second to last field this beauty greeted me. Its owner was polishing up a second beautiful car in his driveway. We chatted a bit and he informed me that the last field I was crossing was a property that the owner of Dyson vacuum cleaners owned. I guess the Dyson guy was dumping millions and millions into restoring the entire property. His tree budget alone was 20 million pounds!!!

The property was nice and I could see the work being done to it. More sheep not sassy ones this time but skittish ones. I found out if you make kissy noises to horses they would come and say hello (I knew this already). If you do it to sheep it freaks them out and they run away.

I had to cross the motorway (scary) and into the town of Tormorton. I found my B&B and had a lovely shower. My knee was bothering me today and is quite swollen. I took some Ibuprofen at lunch and again tonight. I am hoping it will be fine in the AM. I walked into town to the only pub in this town (the town has like 15 houses and a pub). I was famished and was really really hoping they had something good for me to eat. They had quite the menu and I ordered the veggie fajitas. Who knows what I was going to get. It was AMAZING!!! The best food I have had in a while (State side included). I chatted with the very nice bartender who showed me an alternative route for tomorrow which goes by a yummy bakery. Sold. Not having to walk near the motorway and a bakery works for me. There was a couple in the pub that was reliving their first date they had in this pub several years ago.. The guy was really hot.. Why wasn't it me there a few years ago??

Two ladies and their dog came in as well who were doing the walk as well. Their dog bit my finger (no blood) as I was leaving. Bad puppy.

Back at my B&B I’m elevating my knee and trying to avoid looking at the wall where there is some sort of 3D ceramic bowl thing of a snake eating a frog.. What would ever possess someone to buy that for a decoration and hang it up in a bedroom? Horrible.. Fingers crossed for my knee being better tomorrow.

The Travel Gods were shining on me today. August 7th 2013

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 20:55:12 GMT

Remember when I said yesterday that today was going to be an easy day. Yeah I shouldn't have said that.

I enjoyed a beautiful home cooked breakfast at Orchardere House. Homemade toast, local eggs, honey from the hive in the backyard. After breakfast I was handed a pile of clean laundry. Ahh to not me the stinky kid for at least the morning. It was delightful. I struggled getting my bags ready this morning. I thought that I had that down to a science now. I knew it was only an 11-mile day so I wasn't to worried. I stopped in town for some water and more crisps to finish off my lunch. At the corner of the "town square" and the food store was a typical red phone booth. You know the ones everyone takes their picture in. I had forgotten to call the house where I was staying tonight. My notes said to call them to let them know if I was going directly to the house or needed to be picked up in the town. I entered the booth and placed my wallet and I phone down to place a call. I got out some kind of coin only to realize that the phone wasn't operational. As I hung up the phone I knocked my I phone on the ground. I winced as it hit the ground and pile of cobwebs that had inhabited the phone booth. I picked up my phone and was hoping to just brush off the cobwebs that appeared to be on the screen. Nope they weren't just cobwebs the screen had shattered but luckily was still functional.

Annoyed I packed up my things and headed out to find the start of my walk today. Since yet again I came in via the street I wasn’t sure where I was ending up. I looked at my “trusty” guidebook, which I am learning to hate more and more each day to point me in the “right direction”. Alas it did not. I was meant to cross a playing field, which I did only to not find the yellow marker with the acorn (my destined signage). There were a bunch of older ladies playing croquet on the field so I asked them. They weren’t sure the exact location of the trail but pointed me in a direction that “all the hikers head towards and disappear”. I headed in that direction and eventually found the sign. Again the signage was a bit dodgy and I ended up in the wrong end of a cornfield on the road again. It had some pretty stray sunflowers in it though.

Using my map skills I realized that if I just went up the hill I would meet up with the trail after the church, which is what happened. I hiked up what seemed to be a hill that went on forever. I passed through a field with 3 ponies one came over to nudge me and say good morning. Some of the gates I go through have are actual gates. Some are stone stiles and some are wood. I figured out what the handle on the side of the stile like pictured below. It's a dog portal. You lift it up so your dog can go through the fence too. So clever.

I came across a new fence stile today that obviously wasn't for big people. It was a tight squeeze for me an my bag.

Again I came to a junction and the sign pointed me in the wrong direction. Looking again at the map realizing that it indicated I should be going up and I was heading downwards I turned around and 10 feet after the first marker was a second surprisingly going upward even more. On this new path I came across what must have been a recent memorial with candles and flowers. Great that can’t be a good omen.

The weather was being persnickety and I had to take my coat on and off. I felt fidgety like I was completely off my game today. Those days where you just want to scream cause nothing seems to be going right. Those moments you need to sit back and take a deep breath. A lesson I should have told myself. Finally getting situated. I strolled on listening to my music once again in the rolling Robin Hood woods. I passed a few people out walking their dogs today and a few walkers going the opposite direction.

I got a much later start than usual today and I think that caused some of my agitations. Like I said I was off my game. I decided to have a later lunch today so I kept walking having a snack on the way. I came to a beautiful park outcropping. It had a few burns (ancient burial grounds). I would have taken some pictures but some kids were playing on them and ruined my shot. At the edge of the cliff it looked out over the valley and had a map pointing to major land markings and towns. It was cool to be able to look over the valley and see where I was heading. Also a bit daunting seeing how much farther I had to go. I trudged on trying to find a good lunch spot. I was looking forward to my sandwiches and treats for lunch today.

Sign poetry along the way today.

I came out to a road crossing and was excited to see the 3-½ miles to Dursley sign. Sweet that shouldn’t be so bad. Dursley like in Harry Potter. I didn’t realize I was going to see the Dursleys on Privet Drive. I hope Harry is home.

Once I entered the woods I realized that I much prefer climbing the hills instead of descending them. I would rather have the glut workout than kill my knees.

What goes up.......

Must come down....

I came to a nice clearing overlooking the valley (after I climbed yet another hill) and it would have been a nice place for lunch except they were doing road construction and the workers had stolen my spot. Again back down a hill and up yet another one. The trail leads to a big open field with some horses and cows.

I have been wearing my hat every day (should have put that through the wash last night.) I reached for my sunglasses only to not find them. Bloody hell I must have dropped them along the trail. This day is getting worse. There was a big black cloud that was following me all day and as hungry as I was I didn’t want to be caught in the open if it started to rain. My goal was to find a tree and enjoy my lunch.

I looked in my book and on the map to see what direction I was headed. There was a large open field that led very steeply up to a small forest at the top. But of course the trail headed up this giant hill. Hauling butt up the hill to avoid the clouds coming in I made it to the top and started extracting things for my lunch.

As the common theme for this day goes the mustard had opened in the bag and spilled everywhere. Seriously come on. I cleaned up the mess and made my self a yummy cheese mustard and tomato sandwich with some salt and vinegar chips. Yummy.. oh and Cadbury Chocolate with caramel.. yum.

Two girls were hiking up the hill as I was eating lunch. One of them was hiking the whole route and the second girl was just doing the day. The girl hiking through the whole route had a different friend for each day of the trip joining her. I packed up after lunch and kept trudging on, upward of course.

At the top of this hill I looked back to the right and saw across the valley the bluff that I had been standing on earlier in the day. I find this the most satisfying looking back and seeing how far you have come. Also note scary dark cloud that was stalking me all day.

The next bit was rolling hills into the town of Dursley.

The clouds had cleared at this point (except the black one that was stalking me) and I was really hoping I could find another pair of sungasses to buy in Dursley. The two girls were about 200 yards in front of me at this point. Right at that moment I started thinking hmm I don’t recall seeing my white and blue purse (you know the one with my life in it) when I made my lunch.. The bile started to rise in my mouth.. the bad words started spewing. The entire backpack got dumped out in someone’s driveway.. SHIT! BLOODY HELL and many other words.. When I went to make the call this morning and dropped my Iphone I must have forgotten to pick up my purse.. Tears flowing I repacked everything in my bag and tried to catch up with the girls hoping they would have a phone I could use. They did. I called ahead to where I was going to be staying the night cause of course on my shattered Iphone I only had the email address of the place I stayed last night. I called to my B&B tonight and they got me the number for where I stayed last night. I got a hold of them just as they were heading out and asked if they could check the phone booth where I was sure I forgot it. She said that they would look. I thanked the girls who lent me their phone I realized at this point I had left my walking stick wrapped with my bandana where I had dumped out my bag. Oh well this really isn’t my day. Hopefully someone finds it (it was just a stick I had picked up in the woods) and can use it.

I trudged through Dursley honestly I didn’t even look at the town. My goal was to get to the place where I was staying and hopefully hear the best news ever that my purse had been found. The house I am staying at is on a golf course and the directions said to turn right at the golf club. Where perhaps was this course located? Oh yes on top of the world/mountain. Seriously???? At this point I was freaking out.. What if the wallet wasn’t there…what was I going to do. I tried to calm myself down no point of really panicking unless it couldn’t be found. Plus hysterically crying while trying to climb a very very steep hill is difficult. Bad signage again put me in a downward direction so I turned around and retraced my steps back up more of the hill until I came to the golf club. A nice lady walking her puppy Winnie took pity on me (I must have looked absolutely defeated at this point) and pointed me in the right direction “follow the road through the golf course watch out for flying golf balls and you will find the house. It’s the only one”

Somehow I didn’t get hit with any golf balls after today I was almost expecting to get hit with one. I came into the courtyard of a beautiful manor house. There were two ponies as greeters and I patted their noses, which helped me, calm down. There was a big old chocolate lab passed out in the driveway. As I walked in I expected it to jump up and say hello.. Nope just flat out in the sun. I checked for breathing.. yep alive just not interested in playing guard dog. I pulled the bell since the one you push was apparently broken.

Janet the hostess greeted me with the best news in the world. My purse had been found and her husband would drive me to get it later this evening.. Apparently the phone boxes aren’t in service and never get used except for me I guess. Janet showed me to my beautiful room and bath and I decided to shower before a pot of tea.. Well of course the hot water didn’t work. Their Jack Russell Gizzy entertained me while Graham the husband took apart the shower and got the hot water working. How could this face not cheer me up?

The hot water not working was not my fault. Success. I plugged up the sink to wash my bra and underwear for today.. Luckily I didn’t take a long shower because apparently the water in the sink wasn’t turned off all the way and I caused it to overflow.. Panic again and tears. I was able to mop up the sink over flow and wash their floors at the same time. The sink was to full to pull the stopper without causing more overflow so I started bailing it out with a teacup. When dumping the water in the shower was causing it to splash out on the floor.. Can this day get any worse? I also managed to lean over the sink to look in the mirror and dunked my towel I was wearing into the full sink and almost broke the teacup. I can’t get the stopper to release and at that point I just walked away from the whole situation.

I went down to the lovely back yard for tea and a piece of cake which surprisingly I didn’t spill either of these. WIN!!! Gizzy joined me for tea and a game of fetch. I chatted with the other couple that is staying here who walked in 20 miles today.. Ouch. Graham was ready to drive me back to Kings Stanley to pick up my purse. The drive was intense cause I’m not use to the winded roads and the wrong side of the car it made me a tad bit carsick. I arrived back where I started and was handed my purse and everything was in it down to the last pence. Thank the travel gods on that one. Back to the house I decided not to chance fate and go to town for dinner instead make a sandwich and retire early. I’m sitting in a very different garden tonight but still just as lovely. I’m getting chilly so I’m going to head up to my room with a view and crawl into bed physically and mentally exhausted.

p.s The couple who I ran into yesterday that I couldn't understand are staying at the same place as me tonight. Janet who runs the house couldn't undersand them either. We both agreed that their accent wasn't an "attractive British accent"

Lessons of the day:

1. CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR PURSE AT ALL TIMES!!!

2. 3 miles up and down and up and down hills isn’t the same as 3 straight miles

3. Again anyone can be someone’s hero.

4. Step back take a breath when having an off moment

5. Be grateful that quite towns have unused phone booths.

More than 1/2 way there August 6th 2013

Wed, 07 Aug 2013 06:45:45 GMT

I am sitting in the garden of my end destination tonight in Kings Standley. There is a hive of bees buzzing to my left and two kitties carefully watching me to the right. The occational thud of an apple falling off the tree I'm sitting on makes for a natural symphony. The clip clop of horse hooves on the pavement on the street up above and the cooing of the doves (honestly though the dove situation is kinda getting old they are noisy).

I ended my day kind of in a zombie state but lets start at the beginning.

So whatever I ate last night at the pub didn't agree with my stomach. I stayed at the pub till around 10 chatting with my hero who saved me from the rain. I had an amazing bed and blankets at the hotel I was staying at but my stomach being upset made for a bad night sleep. I managed to have some yogurt and granola and a bit of egg and toast this morning. I knew I had a long day but I couldn't really stomach food. I figured I would start out and see where the day got me. When in doubt I could always catch a bus. Since I didn't come in on the trails last night I wasn't exactly sure where I was starting out today. I had to traverse down the main road which was a bit dodgy (the Brits have the best words) I made it to the entrance and realized just how much Paul who drove the mini-van basically saved my life by giving me a lift. The hill that I was suppose to have come down last night was all washed out from the rain as were many of the trails I was hiking on. A true knight in shinny mini-bus. Water Erosion below

My walk today started out in a logging forest which quickly changed to another Robin Hood type of forest. There were wonderful views peaking through the trees and I was being followed most of the day by ruined stone walls with beautiful moss on them.

I strolled through more nature preserves and some scary hill where they have a cheese rolling contested every year. I guess they roll wheels of cheese down this frighteningly steep hill and you have to catch it. I guess it has been ended due to injuries but brought in some good tourist money in the past. I walked passed a couple today who were from Derry near the lake district.. bloody hell I couldn't understand a word they were saying. It's amazing the range of accents.. for the record that county's accent isn't sexy at all.. it sounds like they are coughing up a lung or something.

The weather was beautiful today nice and hot and sunny. I stopped for lunch today on another insane golf course. I was eating under a tree as some guys were teeing off. A few balls whizzed a little to close for comfort. I continued on after a brief lunch trying to get optimal time. The first leg of my trip was 6 3/4 miles. Yesterday with the London gang we did 8 miles in 6.5 hours so I was nervous on how I was going to get 17 miles done and I didn't start any earlier than yesterday.

The end of the first leg of my journey was in the town of Painswick. It was nice to see the quintensental Cotswold town again with some beautiful houses on the outskirts of town.

I was even more excited to finally find a pharmacy where I could get some deoderant and more blister bandaids. My excitment was short lived when I realized they closed from 1-2 and it was 1:40 at that time. I didn't want to wait so I continued on briefly stopping at the church which had amazing Yew trees throught the grave yard. At this point I was feeling better starving a bit but deturmined to finish the day. It was only another 8 1/2 miles to the next town so figured I'd give it a go.

I went through a few farms on the way out of town. Some very large ladies were guarding one field. They looked liked they had just been crossing a muddy river.

I passed through a very posh newly done farm with a beautiful stable. I was a little jealous. The next farm I passed through was Jenkins Farm. At this point I was a little upset that my brother in law (last name Jenkins) has been holding out on me. I am his favorite sister in law and he never told me about the family farm in England and how beautiful it is (just kidding) but it was the Jenkins Farm. The most exciting part of Jenkin's Farm was that I officially reached the half way mark of the trail. The half way marked 55 miles to Bath the end destination. It also marked almost the 1/2 way mark of my walk for the day.

As I continued to climb upwards (my ass is going to look fantastic with all this hill work) I stopped for another rest and snack overlooking the church and town I had just passed through. The stomach issue was over and now even after lunch I was starving. I guess I need those full breakfasts to keep me going. I was dragging at this point and feeling a little defeated.

I forgot that I had packed my headphones and plugged in my Ipod an had myself a little dance party. Since I wasn't seeing anyone on the trails I could sing along.. the sheep and cows protested. The music helped and my pace quickened again.

I passed only a few ponies today 2 greeted me this morning when I started off and one later in the day. He was looking kinda silly in his fly mask that ears were to big and floppy. One of our horses back home can relate to this same ear fly mask problem.

At the end of the woods that I was walking/dancing down I came to a fork in the road. The map told me to take this long loop around with "Amazing views" I noticed that if I popped up over the hill on the road it would cut out some time and i'm sure I would still see some views.. I was wicked smart and it worked out (I only got turned around once today)

After my once again beautiful views.. they really get you with the nice views.. you huff and puff up these huge hills and then you get to the top and you're like.. Ok.. this is amazing it was totally worth the work. I digress.

I walked through some beautiful wooded areas again heading down towards my destination or so people kept telling me. I was fading again. I wanted a snack.. there was a damn Tessco noted on the map (convience store) I had run out of chocolate bisicuts and I was really craving a chocolate bar.

There was two ways into Kings Standley where I was staying the long senic route and the short route.. I was aiming for the short route. When I came out of the woods there was a marker but with no direct arrows. There was a gentleman sitting in his truck with his dog that I asked for directions. Never ask an Englishman for directions.. they will be all confusing. Then his wife and her friend came over.. 10 minutes of them debating where I should turn and where I should go we came to the consensice that I was suppose to go straight. Look for the Pigs they told me.. I thanked them and continued on. I came across the pigs. (so happy to see piggies) they were really cute big and muddy.. i have a soft spot for pigs.. and not cause they taste good to all you bacon lovers out there cause they are so cute. I continued on down the hill being pointed in the correct direction by other nice people. That is the one thing that has taken me by suprise. How nice everyone is. The media and movies has painted the British as cold and only showing emotion to horses and dogs. Everyone is so friendly.. well maybe not the couple that I couldn't understand this morning..they were a bit gruff.

I made it down the hill into the town of Stonehouse that was my almost destination. Now I just needed to take the short cut if I could find it. Well the hiking Gods were shinning down on me. Somehow I ened up by accident taking the short route. 3/4 of a mile to Kings Standley.. I have never been so excited to see a sign.

The town is beautiful and I'll take some pictures tomorrow.. I was on a mission and the mission was food. I was at the point of tummy growling starvation. That level where you really shouldn't go into any kind of food store. There was conviently a grocery store in this tiny town I was staying in. I went in and filled my basket with dark chocolate digestive bisicuts and hobnob cookies with cream and Cadbury chocolate with caramel. Then I made another round and picked up some stuff for sandwiches and fruit. I followed my directions to my B&B and almost flopped at their door.

The couple that own this B&B Orchardene are so sweet and welcomed me into their home. The best part they did a load of laundry for me. As you have seen in previous posts I lost my deoderant. Not like that helps on hot days like today. But damn I stunk today. I went to put on my rain coat this morning and the stink almost knocked me over. Carrying a pack all day and sweating whether its raining or sunny makes for some stinky clothes. In my defense I passed some guy today who did not look sweaty but man did he stink and I was 15 feet away from him. I am at least showering every day.

The shower pressure is amazing at this house.. no need to exfoliate. Hot shower clean clothes and dinner and I was a new person. I made myself a sandwich and some crisps (chips) and some fruit for dinner and parked myself out in the garden to start my entry for today. They have 2 kitties that supervised. A hive of bees was buzzing and cows mooing in the distance works for me. Best dinner I have had so far on this trip.

One of my assistants

Tomorrow is a shorter day because I am staying 4 miles out side of the town I am going to. So that makes for only a 11 mile day tomorrow.. Piece of cake.. right??

Lessons of the day:

1. Don't sniff your clothes in the morning when hiking they are going to smell bad just go with it.. they aren't going to smell any better by the end of the day

2. There are many different kinds of mud. Sticky mud, gooie mud, stinky mud, slippery mud. I experianced all of these today

3. A good tune can liven your step

4. Sometimes missing a turn actually works in your favor

5. Dark chocolate digestive bisicuts are worth the 17 mile wait.

A smile can get you far in life and anyone can be someone's hero. August 5, 2013

Tue, 06 Aug 2013 06:56:33 GMT

I enjoyed an amazing night sleep and a yummy breakfast at my hotel. Dinner last night was good too. I set out around 9:15 to meet up with my friends again for a day of walking. The weather forecasted heavy rain all day and honestly I wasn't looking forward to walking. My feet were holding up after a lengthy foot massage and my calves were doing ok as well. Once I got going from a sitting position they didn't feel so bad. Two of the ladies from the walk yesterday took the day off and we were joined by Tony's wife Vivian today. The walk started across the golf course and through some wooded area. The rain was holding off at this point but the wind was quite fierce. The views were beautiful over Cheltenham and the race course. We stopped for a photo-op on the top of the hill to prove we had been there (and look I'm actually in the photo. a rare thing on this vacation.)

There were many ups and down's today and I was feeling it on my knees. We passed some cute ponies and horses in the fields today.

They were well blanketed in bug protection. They keep complaining about bugs here. I have seen 1 mosquito (which I killed) and three other bugs. I kept telling my new English friends.. you don't know bugs till you come to the states. I told them the best time to visit is in the fall when the leaves are beautiful and the bugs are dead.

We had a long descent from being up so high before another uphill climb. We decided to stop for lunch at the bottom of the hill to rest up before an uphill climb. Conveniently at the bottom of the hill was a sign for tea coffee and chocolates in the garden. All you had to do was ring the bell. We rung the bell and were greeted by a cute black dog. The sign told us to enter just watch out for the free range chickens. A nice gentleman greeted us and put together enough seats and chairs. This "garden tea spot" was literately this guys back yard. He took our orders and graciously allowed us to eat our sandwiches in the yard as well as long as we didn't feed any scraps to Jingles the dog. Our host called out to his wife to join us once they found out that Tony and Vivian had stayed at their house 20 years prior when it has been a B&B owned by the same people. Lunch was beautiful and the chickens came out for a visit. They had a nice bathroom for us to use before we headed up the hill on our way. Tony wasn't joking when he told us that after lunch was going to be a climb.

The sun was out and it was hot and humid (or close as the Brit's apparently say) The group was stopping at the Hungry Horse where their mini-bus was going to pick them up. I was heading on to Birdlip another 9 miles.

It was already 3PM when we got to the Hungry Horse and the black clouds of doom were appearing ahead. At this point I had decided to take the bus the last leg of the trip to Birdlip. We decided to ask the bus driver if he was heading back to Birdlip (where the mini-bus originated from) if not I was going to catch the main bus. I asked Paul the bus driver if he could give me a lift back to Birdlip after dropping off the gang in Cheltenham (their base point). Apparently I flashed a 1000 Watt smile and he said "With a smile like that how could anyone say no."

I boarded the mini-bus with the gang and we headed off. Cheltenham was quite beautiful and I sadly said good-bye to my new friends. Anyone else I meet on the trails has a high bar to live up to. Paul drove me back and today he is my hero. The sky's opened and the rain poured down on our journey to the Royal George Hotel where I am staying tonight. I have never been so grateful in my life. I offered to buy him a pint when he was done with his shift and he said he might come back after he gets out of work to join me. Paul ended up joining me and we had a wonderful time at the pub. We had many laughs and my meet up later this week to celebrate his birthday. Whatever I ate for dinner made me very sick to my stomach. Tomorrow is going to be a fun walk.

The Royal George Hotel is beautiful.. well it has a super comfortable king size bed a really hot shower.. and the pub looks nice. That's all I really care about on this trip. I am struggling with my band-aids and blister covers. I am down to 1 and I have to make them work. Hopefully the next town has a pharmacy that I can pick up some more and some deodorant. I can't believe how tan I am getting in England.. it's weird. Well let me correct that I am getting a nice farmers tan. I'll have to even that out when I get to Italy.

Lessons for today:

1. A smile can get you far in life :)

2. Anyone can be someone's hero whether it's providing someone a bandaid, serving delecious tea in your garden, or in my case a bus driver who rescued me from the rain

3. If you think you have underpacked blister bandaids you are wrong.. always pack extra

4. Just cause you order the same meal two nights in a row doesn't mean that they are going to be the same.

5. Stella Cider is delicious

Age is just a number. Sunday August 4th Stanton to Cleeve Hill

Mon, 05 Aug 2013 21:24:20 GMT

So tonight I don’t have the Internet so this post is going to come to you a day late.

These are a few pictures from the sleepy town of Stanton.

The lady who runs the B&B also has a horse farm so ponies are constantly going up and down the street.

The only pub/restaurant in the town is atop the hill I descended earlier today. With my blisters patched up and different shoes I journeyed up the hill. It was a very popular place for dinner and I ended up eating outside overlooking the town and a beautiful sunset over the hills of Broadway. The cricket match was finally over just as I was heading up to dinner. On my way home I spotted another orange kitty that was leering on someone’s fence trying to get in his or her window. He was quite handsome and there seems to be a lot of orange kitties in this town. Turns out his name was Flash and apparently he gets around the town as seen by the cutest baby kitty that was my entertainment during breakfast this morning.

I ate breakfast with a family from Texas who were spoiling their daughter with a horse tour of the UK. The dad didn’t have any interest in horses and the mom seemed to be suffering from PTSD from her hack the day before. The daughter Kelsey had 5 quarter horses back home that she did equitation and halter classes with and was by no means a trail rider. She was quite taken aback by the trails and how they ride around here but was excited to go for her hack today and her jumping lesson tomorrow. The yummy breakfast made up for the horrible night sleep on the awful beds they made for some very very strange dreams. I packed up my bag and headed out for the trails.

The sky looked a bit grey and to protect my camera as well as myself I decided to pop on my rain pants and poncho. The poncho I brought was purchased when my mom and I hiked through Scotland. It is a dark green color and we would say “Turtle up” whenever we put them on. With it covering our backpacks and the green color we looked like turtles meandering along. I started out on the walk and was joined for the first leg by a local girl who was about 19 out walking her dog Basil. Apparently he had a reputation for chasing sheep so was kept on a tight leash. We chatted about our ponies (she was dressed for riding) and travel she had just spent 6 months in New Zealand. After about a mile she turned back and I continued on.

I passed the cute town of Stanway, which had a beautiful house. There had been a wedding the night before and the signs and drunken beers were remnance of a good night.

At this point I was getting chilled and decided to take refuge under a tree and add a layer. In a last minute packing decision I decided to pack a first layer shirt. I remembered it had treated me well not only skiing but also on my trip to Scotland. Best clothing decision so far. A pack of walkers passed me as I was layering up and I asked if I might join them for a while. There were 9 of them 7 women and 2 men. They were part of a walking club based in London. The leader of the pack Tony was head of their chapter of The Ramblers a popular group in the UK. Tony is 84 years old. I chatted with him and the other gentleman and his wife John and Julia. The are a sweet couple and we chatted about their upcoming trip to the states, London, and their walking club. Everyone minus one had to be in his or her late 60’s. Damn I hope I’m still doing this at their age. Also it was good motivation. If they could do it I better damn well be able to do it. The rainy walk continued up large hills and through some more wheat and bean fields. We passed a ruined Abby and stopped for a spot of tea at the local fruit farm.

Lunch took place under some shelter and a well-needed sock change for me was also in need. So the yummy cheese that the cute guy sold me was delicious. For those who have never had Stilton cheese it STINKS. But it’s so yummy. When left in your backpack also makes everything smell like cheese. I have run out of biscuits, which makes me very sad, and in search of them tomorrow. We continued on and all made an executive decision to make a short cut for the day cutting out 1.2 miles, which doesn’t seem to be too much but it was worth it. A updated side note. Apparently we made a wrong turn on our short cut and only ended up cutting out about 1/4th of a mile.. oh well we tried. We past Sudley Castle that I wanted to stop at but I decided to stick with my new friends instead. I didn’t want to get lost again and it was really raining at that point which would have made for a soggy tour of the gardens.

After our lunch and a little ways further we had to pass through the most beautiful horse farm. It had a beautiful dressage ring, a cricket field of course and these long rolling hills we had to walk through. There was a small herd of horses turned out in it that had no fear of us and also no qualms about cutting us off while walking up the hill. Right in the middle of the path they decided to cut a few of us off while we were hiking and just stop directly in our way to graze. I guess it technically is their field but not very proper of them.

Our maps (we have 4 different maps) were a bit confusing but we managed to find where we were going. We hiked though some beautiful woods and I kept waiting for Robin Hood to pop out or some talking creatures from Narnia.

I did see two beautifully blue slugs and we found some wild raspberries on the way as well. The last long up hill leg of our trip skirted us around a beautiful manor house and some baby cows. There were there misshaps on the walk today. My poncho decided that it had outlived it’s life expectancy and ripped. Christina one of the walkers tripped over a shoe lace but was fine. And Tony our leader stopped because something was bothering him in his shoe. It turned out he forgot to take out his shoe horn and it had broken into pieces. He couldn’t figure out why it didn’t bother him all day.

After leaving the woods we came upon a beautiful farm and manor house. They had some cute baby cows and of course sheep. We walked along the walled garden and through the stables to bring us to our final leg of the journey a golf course.

I am use to the flat courses back home and kept looking for something similar. I would love to see Tiger woods attempt this one. Our courses back home are so flat compared to this mountain. I left my new friends with plans to meet up tomorrow.

I staggered soaking wet into my hotel which they had luckily put my bag in my room but it was on the third floor. I had the most amazing hot hot shower and washed my clothes in the sink and they are spread around my room drying now. I switched shoes and made sure all my Band-Aids were in place and headed back down the street to the Rising Sun restaurant. The pub was packed with of course more dogs. I enjoyed a yummy salad with more Stilton cheese and some nachos with veggie chili, which I didn’t have high hopes for but turned out to be amazing.

There is a vintage car rally going on in the Cotswolds while I am here and the most beautiful cars are everywhere. A few were parked in the hotel where I ate dinner.

I pre-packed my bags tonight so it’s a bit easier in the morning. I am meeting my new friends in the morning at half past nine to continue our journey.

Lessons of the day.

1. Deodorant is pretty much pointless when you are sweating as much as you do on these hikes. Plus it wasn’t just misplaced. I believe I left it behind (on my shopping to do list)

2. Being a massage therapist has its perks. I was able to work my own feet and calves which are VERY sore tonight

3. Age truly is just a number

4. I learned what a pill box is today (a stone structure that was used in WWII for the automatic guns)

5. A good bed is amazing. Tonight’s may not be as good as the first night but anything is better than last night’s bed

Always trust your gut and wear proper fitting socks August 3 2103 First day of Hiking

Sat, 03 Aug 2013 20:38:26 GMT

I recently posted a picture on my facebook page of the famous quote "all those who wonder aren't necessarily lost" well.. maybe sometimes they are lost....

I had the most amazing night sleep last night. Cool breeze blowing through the window giant comfortable bed and a lack of sleep the night before made the perfect trifecta for perfect sleep. There was a loud rain storm that woke me up once and I was more concerned for my garlic Naan bread I had leftover that was perched on the window sill to avoid getting the room all stinky. It was safe and dry and tasted delicious for lunch today.

My first breakfast of what will be my staple for the up coming week scramble egg, tomato and mushrooms with toast was served in a cute breakfast nook in the Old Bake House. There was a nice couple from Sweden who were also staying there. The best guest at breakfast was Tigger Two the house kitty who was a bitty calico kitty with the loudest purr I have ever heard. Apparently they have to kick her out of the room when they watch the telly because she is so loud. After breakfast and packing my bag I headed to Hoo Lane to begin my walk.

Hoo Lane and Hoo Cottage were adorable and a brilliant start to the walk..

they were quickly followed by a horrid climb up a unattractive hill that had some kind of weird odor to it. I couldn't get my camel pack to produce water and was really wondering what the hell I was thinking. I decided to fight with the camel pack at the top of the hill and there was conveniently a bench.. and well this view..

Ok not to shabby worth the stinky hill. With my water situated and a clever holder for my guide book/map and a carefully rigged camera holder (didn't take a pic of this but I will in the morning) I continued hiking through fields and sheep paddocks.

I continued along through the most amazing wheat fields. It was interesting to see the different kinds of wheat and their growing patterns. There were too different field types the soft looking ones where you just wanted to run your hand through it and the others where they looked prickly and rough. Both so beautiful in their own ways

Past the wheat fields and the what I realized later were Broad Bean fields I came to a cute little park and the most beautiful long rolling path. It was the perfect long flat path for a nice gallop on horseback. I met a very cute puppy (one of many so far) that was out walking with this adorable older gentleman. The puppy came running up to me all happy to see me. His owner thought that I must look like a friend of his cause he said his puppy was quite shy usually. This path was dotted with giant hay balls which made for some lovely scenery. The path tuned from these rolling hills of wheat and beans to a small bit in the woods and a steady climb to Broadway Tower. It must have been the day to mark or vaccinate the sheep in this particular field. The vet reminded me of my vet back home.. or an episode of James Harriott.

The ever watchful sheep dog making sure the sheep are doing exactly what they should be.

As I emerged from the woods and climbed the hill some more I thought that I had left England and arrived at Winterfell in the north. alas no Rob Stark or Jon Snow were there to greet me. The view was beautiful and it was approaching lunch time. The Broadway Tower seems to be a popular weekend hike and I passed many people coming up and down the hill. People had their pups out for walks and kids were trucking up the hill binoculars in tow.

I made it into the town of Broadway. I passed through here yesterday on the bus when I was heading to Chipping Campden. Like all of these tiny towns in the Cotswolds the small main street is lined with beautiful yellow buildings and tiny shops. I popped into a few shops to try and find a treasure for my niece and nephew and picked up a few postcards. I knew the town I was staying in didn't have any shops so I wanted to make sure I had enough goodies to last me another day. I found a cute shoppe that sold a bit of everything including local cheeses. The guy working at the store recommended some local cheddar and a yummy Stilton. He was absolutely adorable and so nice.

The Town of Broadway

Horses Going for a hack through the center of town

I headed up the hill out of beautiful Broadway towards Stanton my final destination.. or so I thought... I came to this beautiful field with 4 horses in it. The field was so big I couldn't fit it in one photograph. I wanted to pack up all the ponies and bring them over here.. I would never be able to catch my horse in a field like this.. I strolled along this field thinking how beautiful it was.. I would change my tune about this field in about an hour.

I was following my guide book map which depicted the field that I had just fallen in love with. The book noted that I would go by some cow sheds and continue on by some beech trees and come to a well kept farm path

Well I came to the next sign post and should have trusted my gut. The path was anything but "well maintained farmers path" it was full of nettles and thistles which by the way hurt even through long pants. I came to some trees which I knew didn't look like beach trees but maybe they look differnet in England who knows. I kept following the path that was marked with yellow signs. I kept going well more like bush whacking down the hill. A giant phesant came bounding out of the brush at me and I damn near had a heart attack. I made it to the bottom of the hill and realized that ouchy spot on my foot was a bister forming. I stopped and put on a Plastic (British for bandaid) and continued on. I kept looking for a "cow grate" which was my next landmark. Well I couldn't find one and quickly realized I had taken a wrong turn. A nice British couple were walking ahead of me and were nice enough to point me in the right direction.. which included trecking back up the hill and back to my "Dream field"

Note when the path looks like this... look around for another sign.. I continued on swearing as I passed the correct marker sign 100 feet further than when I turned incorrectly and then passed the beech trees. I came to another intersection which I took an incorrect turn yet again. Pissed that I hadn't passed this phantom cow grate I turned back to go back to the intersection. I came across another couple that were around my age who when consulting maps decided that I was on a short cut to Stanton my ending destination. I chatted with them James and Laura. They were on a camping weekend from Birmingham. Strangley enough we started talking about what we did for work and they were both in bio-tech and worked for an antibody company.. Seriously I'm in the middle of no where and I run into people who do the same thing as me???

We headed down the hill and into the prestene town of Stanton (so glad I took the shortcut whereas my feet were killing me) I had to hunt down my B&B in a town with so few houses you would think it wouldn't be so hard. I was. Some people out on a pony ride directed me to the right house. The owner was out but left me a note for the right room. I couldn't get the shower to work and James and Laura had invited me for a pint at the cricket club around the corner. I changed into some clothes that didn't stink and headed over there. It was quite breezy but we enjoyed out pint (I got some yummy hard cider) and I was taught the basics of Cricket. Apparently it goes on for hours and hours.. They started playing before noon and didn't end till around 7pm.

I hiked back up the hill to the only place to eat in town and got some lemonade, olives and mushroom stroganoff with rice that was very good. There are some very cute orange kitties in the neighborhood that were happy to let me take their pictures. They are still in the process of uploading so I will post them in the morning. Although the jet lag seems to be gone the exhaustion has set in. Luckly there are two beds in the room i'm staying in. The one I'm currently sitting on is quite painful.

Lessons for the day :

1. Make sure your socks fit properly and bring a pair to change into 1/2 way through the day.. blisters suck (i'm afraid for tomorrow)

2. Trust your gut.. when you think the trail is a bad thing.. it probally is

3. If you buy Stilton Cheese your entire backpack will smell like it. (it was sooo tasty though)

4. Re-Apply sunscreen something I would never think to have to do in England

5. Deoderant. I may ok I did forget it this morning.. yup I was the stinky kid.. in my defence I am pretty sure I would have been stinky even if I did have it.

Pictures of Stanton and orange kitties to come in the morning.. it's way past my bedtime

Jet lag.. feeling hungover and drunk and no party to show for it Day 1 part 2 8/2/2013

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 19:31:46 GMT

Well after a nap and waking up completely confused I got ready and went out to see the town before dinner. Chipping Campden is such a sweet sleepy little town. It has a beautiful church at one end and Sheep Street at the other end. I walked around the town snapping pictures of the cool buildings and hidden finds. I found the cheese shop and popped in to pick up some snacks for my lunch tomorrow. I wanted to try one of everything (all local cheeses) and finally decided on a yummy local cheddar. Dinner doesn't start till 6pm apparently in England so I stopped back at my B&B and organized for the start of my hike tomorrow before dinner. I attempted to eat at the Red Lion Inn across the street but after waiting 30 minutes and then being told that it was a 40 min wait for food I decided to try elsewhere. Zoey who owns the B&B recommended the Indian food place down the street. It was good very different from what I am use to but in my jetlag/feeling hungover from lack of sleep anything would have tasted good. There was a lively pub in front and if I wasn't feeling so bleck I would have stopped in for a pint. Everyone brings their dogs to the pup apparently here. I was tripping over very cute puppies in both pubs.. I have to make sure to take a photo in the morning of the amazing flower baskets hanging outside my B&B.. They are amazing the best in town. I'm excited and nervous to start the walk tomorrow. I am looking forward to soaking in the beautiful countryside.

So far the major blonde moment I have had and I totally blame the lack of sleep.. apparently I managed to leave my full itinerary on the plane (thank goodness I had a copy on my computer and the brand new plug converters.. oh well I have the important things and I have my guide books.

Enjoy the pictures I'm heading to bed :)

)

Planes Trains and Automobiles Day 1 August 1 & 2nd

Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:59:23 GMT

Well I finally made it to my first destination. Chipping Campden in the beautiful Cotswolds of England. I left yesterday evening on my month long solo adventure throughout the UK and Italy. I have been planning this trip for almost a year now (the Italy portion was a add-on a few months ago). Driving to the airport yesterday I was hit with an overwhelming surge of emotion. What was I thinking jetting off to Europe for a month by myself?? Hiking 100 miles through the beautiful English country side followed by a week of riding and then more hiking. Most people like to go on vacation to relax I enjoy not only the planning but also the fast paced adventure that follows it.

So that brings us back to my first day in the UK. I arrived in Hethrow Airport (which should really be it’s own country due to it’s size) and took the express train to Paddington Station. It was such a beautiful building with beautiful architecture. I thoroughly enjoyed a egg and cheese bagel which I shared with a very sad looking pigeon. He had one bum club foot and the other leg was just a stump.. he was still looking good despite his impairments. I hopped aboard my train after fighting with the entry gates and headed off to Morton in Marsh where I would catch a bus to my starting point Chipping Campdon. Since I got barely any sleep on the plane the lull of the train knocked me out cold. I fell asleep in dirty industrial looking London and woke up in lush green and yellow fields of the Cotswolds. A hop skip and some cookies later I finally made it to my B&B The Old Bake House where the B&B owner Zoey

greated me. I have a beautiful room with a very low door frame (hoping I don’t bang my head on it to often) the best part is the King size bed which is much more accommodating than the cramped plane. The jet lag is kicking my butt so I’m off for a snooze before I head out and explore the town and grab a bite to eat.