Traffic and tranquility

Then Tanya arrived! We drove 2 hours to collect her from Heathrow. This is Tanya's first overseas trip and we are her tour guides for the next 5 weeks. First stop was Windsor for a walk along the Thames and tea and toast next to the castle.

We got lost again, on the same road as miles of almost stationary expensive cars with expensively dressed people on their way to the Royal Ascot ra66ces. Luckily we were going in the opposite direction, but it still took a long time to find our way through the more populated semi-rural areas west of London and back to the Cotswolds for lunch at Bibury, and then home to the Manor so poor jet-lagged Tanya could get some sleep. I now understand why motorways exist and are sometimes useful even if they are not much fun to drive on. I also now appreciate the value of gps systems in cars, although I don't really like my movements being tracked.

The next day was Sheryl's birthday. Strangely we are very close to where she celebrated her birthday 2 years ago when we walked the Cotswold Way. This year we wandered around the beautiful Miserden Manor garden just a few miles from our manor.

Yes - there was cake!

And then sight seeing in Painswick, a village we only saw in pouring rain on our Cotswold Way walk.

The leaning church spire is only a quirk of my wide angle lens. There are 99 yew trees. They have never been able to get a 100th tree to grow.

And Sheryl found some bargains in a thrift shop so it was a very good birthday.

Day 3 of Tanya's trip was a visit to Wales. Tintern Abbey, painted by artists, written about poets, built in 1131, wrecked by Henry VIII in the 1600s and abandoned until tourism began in Victorian times. 

 Peace that passes all undestanding. It is indeed a place of tranquility.

 Oh look, a tiny Tanya.