Twine Cottage

                                                                       Hello everyone,
                              While we were in Chipping Campden we stayed in what I consider to be a quintessential English cottage ~ Twine Cottage.

                               We had our own little enclosed garden and it was a 3 minute walk to the village.

                                                        The view from our garden.

                                                            So English!

                                      The sitting area was comfortable and cosy!

                               It had a beautiful bath with lots of character.

                      The neighbours had their own enclosed garden as well. Love the cat perched on the garden wall.

                           The cherry tree was so beautiful and it was right outside our door.

                                    I would love one of these cherry trees in our garden.

                            This was the view right across the road from us. I enjoyed hearing the ba's of the little lambs.

              If you are going to the Cotswolds and are looking for a cosy little cottage I highly recommend Twine Cottage in the beautiful village of Chipping Campden with lots of tearooms,pubs,shops etc.. I hope I can go back someday.

Thank you for stopping by ,
Carolyn

Cotswold Life

Hello everyone,

   

We just got home last night from a lovely holiday in England. Five years ago we went to England on a bus tour and enjoyed seeing many of the cities and town around England. We did get to see a lot but I always wanted to go back and spend time in the small quaint villages of the Cotswolds so a couple of weeks ago we packed our bags and off we went. We stayed in a few different places but much of our time was spent touring or hiking through the Cotswolds. We loved all the footpaths that took you through the beautiful countryside through hills and vales,by thatched roof cottages and fields of sheep with baby lambs.

       I love all the beautiful stone churches and miles and miles of stone fences.

       The stone from the Cotswolds has a yellow cast to it as you can see from looking at the cottages,shops and churches.

  Some of the cottages have thatched roofs to add to their charm and  most of them have have a lovely little garden as well.

              This was a little village just outside of Chipping Campdon that we walked to on our last day there.

                    Walking back to our little cottage, we passed by through this field of sheep on the footpath.

      I love this beautiful setting.I shot this through the window of the bus as we were going to Bourton on the water.

       I could really enjoy riding horseback through the countryside.

                                        Another thatched roof cottage.

                    The weather was beautiful for the first several days before a cool front moved in again the last few days we were there. It was a late spring in England compared to last year when everything was about four weeks ahead. There were so many different trees in bloom everywhere we went. I love all the hedgerows around the fields with cows,sheep or horses.

        We went to Hidcote garden one beautiful warm sunny day and this little cottage was on the property. I love the interesting doors in all different colours in England.

         Can you tell I am a country girl?

     Andrew thought I took a picture of every sheep in England!

                            A small garden outside an old church.

                                                          So quaint!

                 Another field of sheep along The England Way footpath.Love those rolling hillsides with fields of sheep.

              Such a beautiful setting for a lovely stone cottage. I love how all the cottages have names.

                                                       Love these doorways!

    I hope you enjoyed walking through the Cotswolds with me-charming don't you agree?

Chipping Campden is a beautiful village that we spent five days in ~ in a little thatched roof cottage called Twine Cottage (more on that later).

  On another note,I want to thank all of you who left such nice comments on my last post and on my book give away post and to all who placed an order as well.I was happy to hear from some of you who already received it -thank you so much for your kind words. Tomorrow evening I will draw 2 names from a hat and announce the lucky winners. If you haven't already entered your name you can still do so until tomorrow evening - just click here.
  I have some more photos of England to share with you before moving on. Our garden has really moved ahead in the last couple of weeks so I will soon be inundating you with new photos of it.

Next week we have our first visitors from Japan for this season so I have lots of things to do before they arrive but I am looking forward to it-spring is such a nice time of the year!

Thank you for visiting me.
Carolyn

Time for Tea

      Hello everyone,

It has been sunny here the past

few days and most of our snow

is gone now so I am happy to

say garden season has arrived

here in our garden.

The last couple of days I have

been pruning our clematis and

some hydrangeas. Also, we are

cleaning up our yard from all the

winter debree 

I have also cleaned up the Boathouse

so it is a cozy escape from all that

is going on.

I find that we really need our tea breaks now

to give our bodies a little rest. It seems the 

days of 8 to 10 hours of garden work in

a day may be passed! 

         My newest teacup

Homemade biscuits  are

a lovely tea time treat.

Easter is rapidly approaching and it will

be very different here this year as we

are all social isolating this year.

Instead of having all our family here

it will be just the two of us.

However, we all understand

the importance of staying safe

at home this year.

         I wanted to end with a pretty spring bouquet

        and this one has special memories for me as

it sits on our little English cottage window in

Chipping Camden  |....Twine Cottage.

that we stayed in on our trip to

England several years ago.

We have some crocus blooming now

in our garden so I know there will

be lots to follow soon.

I am thankful that we can get

out into the garden again and

forget about all that is going

on in the world for awhile.

Take good care,

Carolyn

The Winners and our Spring Garden!

                                                                Hello everyone,
          Well, it is now time to announce the winners of my book "Aiken House & Gardens" as we have drawn 2 names out of the hat as promised! The winners are Julie at Julie's Little House and D.Stewart (no blog) - congratulations! As soon as I get your full mailing addresses I will drop them in the mail for each of you and I hope you will enjoy. Thank you to all of you who left such nice comments, I only wish I could give one to all 204 of you!
   Above is a spring bouquet sitting on the kitchen windowsill at Twine Cottage, our little home away from home in England last week.

                   

             The last two weeks made a big difference in our garden as there are hundreds of daffodils and tulips etc. blooming now. This is our hillside garden bursting with the cheerful colours of spring.

             The island stone steps that my husband built are covered in moss now.I planted the new red tulips last fall but I thought they were much shorter so it isn't the look I had in mind but pretty none the less!

 This afternoon was sunny here so I went out and took a few shots of the garden after supper before going to our granddaughter's dance rehearsal.I am amazed at all that is blooming now -we had a few hot days while we were away and that is all it takes to make the garden pop!

Congratulations once again to Julie and D.Stewart.

Take care,
Carolyn