It could be a straight out of an Agatha, we walk through villages with names like Ampney St Mary, then Ampney Crucis and then Barnsley! Yes this is the lesser known Barnsley, Cotswolds quite different to our home town.
We set off past the famous Arlington Row, a run of C17 weaver’s cottages that National Trust has adopted as the iconic view of the Cotswolds, with good reason.
Although it’s not sunshine, at least the rain came overnight and the air temperature is acceptable, so we’re doing better than originally expected for the day. The walk is mostly cross-country until we hit the first of the Ampneys which turns out to be the most picturesque of the three.
Moving on we’re doing an arc back home taking in idyllic view after view, cute house after cute house.
Reaching Barnsley we’re impressed to find a gorgeous village with a huge hotel and spa - nothing to be envious about as we love our hotel, but wonder why we’ve not found this one before?
In the local church the warden invites us in, but she warns us a wedding will take place in 30 minutes. It’s a charming church however we visit quickly and leave them to continue with preparing, noticing the bells are already set for later.
As we leave church we pass the groom and his dad, who is struggling to fix the grooms handkerchief, and (presumably in desperation) asks us if we know how to do it - Hubby obliges of course! Meanwhile a horse fly does untold damage to my calf.
Further on we hit a track optimistically called Cadmoore Lane, but in fact it’s the most overgrown path we’ve seen in ages. Struggling on for a while where Mother Nature reclaims her right, we realise there’s no going back as we slowly disappear into huge ferns, brambles, wildflowers and the odd nettle. If ever there was a time to be carrying Hubby’s sword this is it, but unsurprisingly we aren’t!! After a mile we emerge without too many cuts or scrapes, and astonishingly later on we also find Hay Lane is just as bad. A day out planned by me can become an adventure quite quickly!!
Happily, it’s only a mile back home and before too long we’re ensconced in our garden with crab on brioche and Chardonnay, phew.
After lunch we remain in the garden and work for a while. Hubby does two hours but I keep at it all afternoon, it’s not so bad working with the babbling river just a few feet away and the wine even nearer. Still not fixed my phone monitoring system though, no idea yet what has gone wrong since Thursday.
Soon it’s time to go in and ready ourselves for dinner.
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