Oxford

This coming weekend we're off to Oxford to meet my lovely brother and his fiancee for lunch.  This made me think back to another day spent in Oxford this year, so here we are doing a bit of time travelling again and leaping back to April when we spent a day there with James' parents.

Even though it's only a short hop away I've not spent more than a handful of hours in Oxford before but what a beautiful city.

It's dominated by all of the university buildings, even in the middle of the city centre.

And my what a splendid sight they are.

But make your way off the crowded main streets and there are wide open spaces and greenery to be enjoyed.

And maybe a little punting down the river.  It was a pretty cold day so I think these folks were brave to be on the river!

There are plenty of little side streets to explore.

But you always end up back at some magnificent and imposing college building.

Thought it would be funny to pose outside this doorway considering I can be pretty irrational most of the time!!

And here we are outside the famous Radcliffe Camera, you can read all about it here if you like

After all the mornings walking and exploring we had to finish our time in Oxford with a bit of a sweet treat to restore the energy levels .... mine came in the form of a banana split ....... I might have to try and search one of these out again on Saturday ;)

Avebury

This is another one of those posts where I'm going to invite you to travel back in time with me.  We're going back to April again if you don't mind for another catch up post from the time we spend with James' parent when they came to visit.

On the Sunday they were here we decided to take a nice drive out for a lovely Sunday roast lunch.  I forgot to take a picture of the yummy food we ate but here is the pretty pub that we went to in the village of Avebury.

Avebury I've posted about many times before.  As you know I'm sure it's famous for its ancient stone circle.  So after we'd eaten we went for a stroll ...... the stones are very impressive so of course the cameras came out straight away.

It was pretty chilly the day we went so there weren't the usual crowds of people that you often find which was nice for us.

We were able to stroll among the stones in relative peace.

One of the many things I love about Avebury compared to Stonehenge is how close you can get to the stones themselves.

It's such a large site too, with many different angles and positions to view the landscape from.

We also had a quick visit to nearby Silbury Hill.

There are so many interesting ancient monuments to explore in Wiltshire, it's a lovely place to live.  I would have liked us to have been able to visit the West Kennet Long Barrow too, but James' Mum had a fall last year and managed to break her hip still in recovery when they visited wasn't able to walk too far.  Still that leaves us something to look forward to for next time :)

Wells

This is the first of what will be many 'catch up on this years happenings' posts. I haven't had much blogging time so I'm way behind posting about all of the adventures we've been having this year.

So first off we're travelling back in time to April.  James' parents came and stayed with us for a few days and we did lots of sight seeing all around the local area.  Our first day out was to the beautiful town of Wells in Somerset.

What a beautiful day we had.

Tea and cake

Family portrait with the magnificent cathedral as backdrop (check out the blue sky, great weather for the time of year)

Exploring the beautiful architecture inside the cathedral

James' and I at the entrance to our home (we wish)

View from beside the Bishop's Palace

Finishing off a fabulous day with some refreshing fruit tea

(I think I'm really going to enjoy these catch up posts, remembering wonderful happy moments while looking through the photos again)

My week in snapshots

 Blue skies and sunshine

Beautiful sunset as seen from my living room window

 Tasty lunches made from a few simple ingredients

 Starting a new crochet project

 A perfect afternoon in the park

 Quiet moments spent reading in bed at the end of long days at work.

This week has pretty well flown by. 

I'm feeling content.

Happy Days

I'm back, did you miss me?  What a wonderful week I've had in the company of family and friends.  Just what I needed after a tough few weeks at work ...... I'm feeling relaxed and renewed again.

I'm sure I'll be adding more posts about our wonderful week at some point but for now here is a little snap shot.

We spent a fabulous spring day in the Cathedral town of Wells, check out the beautiful blue skies.

I dusted off my Wii and we had some great competitive fun, so so many laughs.  I'd forgotten how much fun a bit of Wii bowling could be!

We spent an amazing day wandering round Oxford seeing the sights, so many beautiful buildings.  I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

We took a trip to Avebury for a wander round the stones and had a fabulous Sunday lunch in the pub there too.

 

Speaking of food .... well we ate far too much of the good stuff over the last week, good job I joined the gym again recently I think :)

And on the evening before James' parents left my Dad also came for a visit and we all spent a wonderful evening at the most fabulous local eaterie ....... a wonderful way to end a perfect few days.

After all that excitement I think a nice quiet weekend in is order.  I'm looking forward to dinner and the movies this evening with my wonderful man but apart from that plenty of rest and relaxation.

Whatever you're up too, hope you have a wonderful weekend.

'Cor blimey it's cold in the Cotswolds

The week before last James and I had the chance to spend a lovely day out in the Cotswolds. We're very lucky to live on the edge of such a beautiful part of the country.

First stop Bourton-on-the-water.  Such a pretty little village with river running through.

I can tell you it was freezing cold out so after a good wander round the village looking at all of the lovely buildings it was time to warm up with a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I so need to get myself a teapot and some sugar lumps so I can recreate this yummy senario in my home every day :)

Refuelled on cake we decided to go to one of the visitor attractions in the village, Birdland  We had such a fabulous time trying to speak to the birds, oh my we laughed until frozen tears rolled down our faces.

These Kookaburras were just amazing. 

There was a little sign on their enclosure, suggesting that if you whistle they might just start calling to you.  So a whistling James went ....

And oh boy was a racket these guys made, it was the strangest sound, just as though they were laughing with (or most likely at) us!

We decided to try and pose with the penguins ..... well we managed to get us but the penguins are just little blobs in the background which wasn't quite the plan!  I love this shot of us together though cold but happy.

Of course there were many more gorgeous feathered friends to enjoy...

Snowy Owl

Flamingos ....

They were all necks, beaks and legs :)

A golden phesant, giving me the evil eye for pointing the lens in his direction!

The Pelicans had different techniques for trying to combat the cold..... a bit of hiding

or the puff the feathers out technique :)

More lovely owls

And we couldn't resist going back to the penguins

After all the wandering in the cold we decided to go along to another village Moreton-In-Marsh in search of some warmth.  My darling man treated me to a fabulous lunch in front of the fire ..... the perfect way to end our adventure before heading home.