Country pursuits

The warm weather has graced us at long last! Summer may have actually leap frogged spring and arrived early this year. Not that anyone minds. The whole country seems collectively drunk on sunshine and long languid days outdoors sipping Pimms.

We feel especially lucky to have been gifted a bank holiday weekend filled to the brim with uninterrupted sun and temperatures above 23 degrees C! The English summer is punctuated by showers and wholly unfair temperature dips even at the best of times, so this weather is throughly welcome and embraced (pink nose and shoulders attest to that). 

We've been outside almost non-stop. Tea drinking in the garden, Pimms at the village pub, and post-supper walks in the woodland; which are carpeted in frothy wild garlic flowers and that very particular blue hue that belongs entirely to English bluebells. 

It feels like heaven on Earth.

We attended the last day of Badminton Horse Trials yesterday where I was overcome with a sudden urge to curate the perfect country lady wardrobe consisting of all things tweed, forthwith adorning every outfit with pheasant & mallard feathered brooches. The deeper I get into life in rural England the less ridiculous I feel about owning a felt fedora or a third pair of wellington boots.
I have found my bliss in the English countryside, and now I need the wardrobe to match! Or perhaps it's the sunstroke fuelling a sartorial quarter-life crisis. 

However you're enjoying these long and light filled days on the cusp of true British summertime, have a Pimms for me.

Kate  x

April showers

If April showers do indeed bring May flowers, the west country should resemble a flower farm come next month. So far April has been a soggy wash out, which feels doubly unfair seeing as March was punctuated by unseasonably cold temperatures and multiple snowfalls.

Despite a slow start, my garden is finally blooming with life. The daffodils and narcissus are opening their cheery smiling faces. An overgrown forsythia has burst with bright sunshine yellow blossom. The flowering currant is heavy with flowers as well as raindrops. And my tulips are not far behind.

But the mud!!! The mud is never ending. Oh, what i'd give for a lovely boot room to contain wet coats and muddy wellies in...

Even a porch would suffice. Unfortunately for my floors, we step straight from outdoors into the kitchen in our home. With no where dry or covered to remove shoes and coats other than the kitchen, it has been quite a long winter trying to keep the floors clean. I shouldn't moan. I wouldn't swap countryside living for (almost) anything. I adore being able to pull on wellies and seconds later be stomping through the woodland or splashing up the lane to get eggs at the farm gate. 

Mud is simply a close companion to country life. 

I know this very well. 

Now. 

But the first time after we moved here and my new friend asked if I wanted to go for a walk, I stupidly pulled on my active wear and laced up my trainers. I really did think she would be similarly attired. Moments before she arrived at my front door I came to my senses and changed into jeans & wellies. Context is everything. I wasn't going for walks around the leafy suburban streets of the lower north shore in Sydney anymore. No! The paths I now walked were made entirely of mud. A couple of minutes later she knocked on my front door wearing Le Cheameau's and I knew I'd come very close to looking like a clueless townie playing at country pursuits.

Jeans + wool jumper + wellies. 

That's my uniform now. Such is living in the English countryside.

Kate  x

The North Cotswolds

Although we technically live in the Cotswolds, there is much of the area that is not exactly on our immediate doorstep. We are located in the southern part, in the north-west corner of Wiltshire, relatively close to Bath. The Cotswolds AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) is quite large- taking in parts of Somerset, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. 

This past weekend we did a day trip to the north, stopping by Cotswold Lavender Farm, the nearby village of Snowshill (where some of Bridget Jones was filmed), Broadway, and Bourton-on-the-Water. 

It was warm and sunny, and being school holidays, quite busy in places. Still, it is nice to be able to do a day out to see these tourist hot spots rather than needing to take longer stretches off work and study, book accommodation and sort the logistics that go with all that. England is wonderful in that respect- lots of places aren't too far away. We feel particularly lucky being in the south west.

Cotswold Lavender was planted in 2000-2001, it is spectacular to see such a vast and pretty crop, and one that has been established in a relatively short amount of time. 

The farm is very close to Snowshill- about a mile and a half- which is quite an iconic Cotswold village. Film buffs will recognise it from one of the opening scenes in Bridget Jones when Bridget goes home to her parents for their 'annual turkey curry buffet'. It was covered in snow and transformed into a proper English Christmas backdrop for filming.

It looked very different this past weekend in high summer, buddleia in bloom, and the annual village fete about to begin.

The National Trust property Snowshill Manor is right in the middle of the village and a must visit in my opinion. Once presented to Catherine Parr by Henry VIII after the dissolution of the monasteries (it belonged to Winchcombe Abbey at the time), the house has had a varied history. A beautiful sixteenth century house, it is absolutely crammed with the impressive and eclectic collection of curiosities of its most noteworthy (twentieth century) owner, Charles Wade. The rooms are filled with wonderful and weird things: keys and locks, clocks, costumes, weaponry, bicycles and more, from all over the world and from all eras. Wade himself didn't live in the actual manor house, choosing to renovate and live with his wife in an outbuilding known as the priest house. This simple lodging consists of just two rooms and very basic accommodation. 

The collections inside the house, as fascinating as the 22,000 objects are, were not what I was interested in. I really loved the story of how Snowshill came to be Wade's home. Charles Wade was conscripted in WWI and served in northern France. Charles showed great care and attention decorating his accommodation ( he was an orderly room clerk) to imitate the comforts he was used to at home. The hessian from sandbags lined the walls, he coloured in and displayed tactical maps, his trunk was draped with a hand knitted blanket. He spent spare moments drawing and writing poetry. Whilst he was serving in the war he came across a copy of Country Life magazine which featured an advertisement for the sale of Snowshill Manor. Charles dreamed that one day, if he made it home from war, he would buy the property and transform it into his country home. And he did. 

We also wandered the high streets of nearby Broadway and Bourton-on-the-Water. It is obvious summer is in full swing at the moment. It was impossible to pass through a village over the weekend without seeing a strawberry fayre, a summer fete, or a harvest festival. Broadway and Bourton were no exception. And like most English village traditions, these were quite the sight.

Bourton-on-the-Water was in the middle of a rubber duck race when we strolled along the water. All for a good cause though. The money raised from bets for which duck would win went towards the Royal National Lifeboats Institution, responsible for saving lives at sea through their 24 hour search and rescue service. A worthy institution considering the wild seas that surround this island nation. 

Kate  x

All things summer

Summer is in full swing. Wimbledon is on the telly, the farm shop has a glut of British grown strawberries, and vivid gem-coloured hydrangeas are in bloom everywhere I look.

None quite so vivid as the V&A museum hydrangeas.

A great and vibrant hedge of blooms flanks the central courtyard at the moment. We were there over the weekend, soaking up some sunshine and enjoying the museum collections. It was a warm day, the courtyard water feature was filled with toddlers paddling and splashing about.

I love London. Every time we visit, I get swept up and along with the energy and buzz of the city. I adore the diversity and acceptance. I get such a sense of satisfaction from successfully navigating the tube system, criss crossing the city and popping out into daylight next to iconic and historical landmarks. I appreciate the long history of the city juxtaposed with the modern urban. I love an oversized hotel bed and a late night trip in a black cab. 

But I am always so grateful to get home again, park my car under the towering trees in the village and feel the breeze in my hair. 

Kate  x

Winter Solstice

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.

In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim, worship night and day,

Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,

The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;

But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

It is the Winter Solstice today, and my gosh am I feeling these short dim days. I swear the sun set at 3.30pm today...

Still, it can't last forever. From here the days will get longer, brighter and the spring blossom and bulbs will arrive.

Kate  x