Cotswolds Walking Tour - Day 5

This is the fifth of seven posts on our walking tour through the English countryside of the Cotswolds. We took a self-guided tour arranged by English Lakeland Ramblers which meant they provided the B & B accommodations, the transport of our luggage and detailed instructions and maps. It went amazingly smoothly.

Day 5: Winchcombe to Broadway. 10.5 miles
Walk Description: "Follow the pilgrims' route to Hailes Abbey, then over the hills to Jacobean Stanway House with its magnificent gatehouse and medieval tithe barn and on to idyllic Stanton.  Stay in the coaching village of Broadway where an array of fine houses and inns flank the 'broad way'."

The route was well traveled this morning only because it had been used for centuries by pilgrims making their way to the Abbey.  Maybe their one and only trip from their village in their lifetimes.

Hailes Abbey was destroyed by Henry VIII when he dissolved the wealthy monasteries and established the Church of England.

The gatehouse at Stanway House.

The parish church at Stanway.

We saw the first thatched roof on this pavilion supposedly given by J.M. Barrie for the cricket pitch there.

See the bull?

More thatched roofs in the restored village of Stanton.

Broadway in sight.

See that tower on the top of that hill?  It's Broadway Tower - we will walk up to there and then on to Chipping Campden tomorrow.

We took the shorter route and chopped 2 miles off this day. Well worth it, too.

The Vegetable Garden and the Latest Harvest

I'm dealing with lots of weeds.  You go away for two weeks and the weeds (and deer) take over.

I tackled the vegetable garden first, took photos and then forgot to post them because I was absorbed with the photos from our trip to England.

A week later plants have grown even more but I didn't take many more photos in there.

So here's the garden as of July 5, relatively weed free.

The butternut squash is to grow out of the bed into a relative open area.  As of today it's grown even more than shown here.

These are Jimmy Nardello peppers that I got from Susan at Squash Blossom Farm in MN for supporting her Kickstarter campaign.

The beans there in that bed with the squash and peppers were supposed to be bush beans but they are climbing.

These tomatoes may be the first to ripen.  They were bigger even today.

Here is the harvest.

1 Jimmy Nardello pepper.

3 Cubanelle

4 hot peppers

Reading up on Jimmy Nardello peppers I see I should have let it go red before picking.  I didn't know if it was a hot or sweet pepper, but it's the latter.  I'll use it tonight in a chickpea, feta cheese salad along with the Cubanelle.

I pulled my two beds of garlic.  The first bed is drying out on top of the compost bin.

The second bed of garlic is drying on top of the first bed.

They are a nice size this year.  These are German Extra Hardy from Fedco.

Here's a view of the garden from the garage,

Other harvesters over at Daphne's on Monday.

Cotswolds Walking Tour - Day 4

This is the fourth of seven posts on our walking tour through the English countryside of the Cotswolds. We took a self-guided tour arranged by English Lakeland Ramblers which meant they provided the B & B accommodations, the transport of our luggage and detailed instructions and maps. It went amazingly smoothly.

Day 4: Guiting Power to Winchcombe. 6 miles
Walk Description: "Walk through woods and fields before the dramatic descent to the ancient Saxon capital of Winchcombe, close to Sudeley Castle, last resting place of Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife."

We start the day walking with the sheep.

Another beautiful day.  We never experienced a drop of rain until we got to London later in our trip.

The trail took us up the driveway of this house and then veered off into a field.

Gypsy caravan?

Into the woods.

We came out of the woods high on the hilltop.

Winchcombe seen with zoom lens.

We had a ways to go yet.

Stopping for elevenses: water and biscuits aka cookies.

Ancient trees.

My one spill was walking across this bridge.

On the castle grounds.

[More photos of the castle and other architectural features we saw on our walk will be the subject of another post.  You can see some of the gardens here.]