We are well into our Cotswolds house sit and are caring for, and being entertained by, the adorable Pug, Daisy. She loves her walks/runs, her naps on top of, or beside us, and gives us high fives for a treat. She also has an impressive vocal (gruntal?) repertoire. We are charmed.
We have been trying to see a bit of the area as well with hikes to nearby communities, a train trip to Oxford, and a bus ride to Chipping Camden. The countryside is beautiful — rolling hills and valleys, and is currently awash in the beautiful yellow of the mustard plant. The gardens here are beautiful, as they have been everywhere in the UK.
The first hike we did from our current residence was a country hike through fields and pastures, as well as along country roads, to the community of Lower Lemington and then on to Aston Magna before heading back to Moreton-in-Marsh. We got to see a bit of the surroundings, visit an old church, annoy some sheep, and get very, very wet. It was a consistent rain that day and the path was already wet from prior rains, so we were pretty happy to get back to the house.
After a day in, we took a quick, 30 minute train trip to Oxford to check out the university (and be able to say that we have “gone to Oxford”). We did a tour of the university’s Bodlean Library and caught a free exhibition on how death is portrayed in Shakespeare’s writings at the new Weston library. As with the Library of Congress in the US, the Bodlean receives a copy of all published materials every year. The Weston Library building used to house this massive collection, but it has since been moved to a storage facility in Swindon. The former collections building was gutted to create a functioning library for students and researchers along with a cafe and gift shop. The Bodlean library is impressive and dates back to the 1600s when Thomas Bodley provided the funding to create the library from what had been built as a theological school for the university and also served as a “court of appeals” to resolve issues between the town and university.
We took a bus ride to the Cotswold community of Chipping Camden to hike up Dover Hill and have our first English tea at a local tea room. We also had time to peruse the high street area shops before catching the bus back to Moreton-in-Marsh.
We have also hiked to other nearby communities including a lovely walk to Blockely which provided a lovely view walking in as you enter from atop a hill and walk down into the village. On that day, we returned through Bourton-on-the-Hill before coming back into town where we stumbled upon a craft market underway at the hall in the Town Center.
Today we did a quick hike to Longmouth. On the way back we saw a duck less duckery and a large oriental style mansion, called Sezincote, that is open to the public on special occasions.
While it is early in the season, this area seems already to be hopping with tourists.
Peckish Travels 