After lunch we went for a walk through the woods and Deer park and were treated to the sight of deer walking quite close to us.

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On another day Annie and Gerry travelled to the East Somerset Railway at Cranmore. We had a lovely time looking at the museum, engine sheds and the station before then short ride behind a steam engine. One interesting sight was a “K4″ phone kiosk which incorporated a post box and stamp machines. only 50 were ever manufactured.

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The weather in early September was brilliantly hot and we enjoyed a couple of evenings sitting out on the top patio. It all made up for the generally poor weather in August.

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We visited Kew Gardens on a very hot day having driven up from Fairford. The gardens are clearly very special and we enjoyed walking around the grounds with so many different tree species and some lovely flower beds although probably a bit late in the year to see them in their full splendour. This was certainly the case in the rose gardens which must have been spectacular at their peak. We also visited the plant houses and were impressed by the banana plant and some very large water lilies (Victoria Amazonica) as well as the smallest water lily species in the world.

We have already been able to see our UK based children and families apart from Martin and Louise. For some the weather was kind for others there was a flurry of snow but at least it was predominately dry for our walks together and coffee etc in the garden
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We continued with our daily walking and observed the horse chestnut trees bursting forth. It was quite something to watch the changes over just a few days after the first easing of lockdown.

On 12 April, with the next stage of lockdown easing, we were able to visit ‘non essential’ shops and enjoy food and drink at outdoor venues and the only immediate benefit for us was to be able to go swimming again which we did at 7am.
We actually hesitated about going as we awoke to snow! However, it was not much, and it had melted on contact with the road surface. It was lovely to get back into a (warm) swimming pool. After swimming we went for our daily walk from Eastleach to Southrop and return via Fyfield. Below are some of the scenes we encountered:

The next day was totally different with the sun shining, although not very warm, the same snow covered plants looked so much brighter.

We were able to sit in the garden (in our ‘bus shelter’) during the afternoon and although there is some colour in the garden we look forward to planting the summer plants in the next few weeks. In the evening neighbours joined us for a glass of wine and we only packed up when it got quite cold at about 8pm!

On our walk that day we both learned something that surprised us. We came across a chicken beside the road pecking at a dead mole. We had not realised that such carnivorous behaviour was normal.

Since our last Blog entry, telling of our trip to Looe in October, life has been very quiet and predictable! We have walked every day (mostly in the mornings) at least 3.5 and often nearly 6 miles. Even the snow and some flooding didn’t deter us although we couldn’t always walk where we wished. On the first morning of real snow, it was just wonderful to hear the unfettered laughter of children playing snowballs and making snowmen.


It seemed some of the dads rather than the children were out to build really large snowmen. The sights and sounds as we walked through Fairford that morning really did lift our spirits. The snowman shown here was built by our grandson Archie (and his mum and dad) at their home in Cheshire.

In the afternoons, we have worked our way through many 1000 piece jigsaws. We really enjoyed doing the jigsaws despite having one where two pieces were missing and another with one piece missing and one piece duplicated!

Our evenings have been spent listening to music and reading, doing Sudoku, knitting or crocheting…(guess who does what)

Before Lockdown 2 and then between Lockdowns 2 and 3, we managed to see some of the grandchildren. It was nice to see them even if Covid rules limited what we could do. Amazingly, we were able to spend Christmas Day with James, Hannah, Rosie and Ptolemy – we had a delicious lunch and an enjoyable walk that made the day extra special given that we could not meet up with any other of the family over the Christmas period.

In early February we had the call and attended for our first of two vaccinations against Covid. It was quite an experience and the process a tribute to our NHS and the volunteers running the vaccination centre.

We have tried to make every day special indeed we celebrated Valentine’s Day with a special meal and a bottle of Fizz. We even got dressed up.

Yesterday, as we walked, it was as though Spring was trying to emerge – the snowdrops have now been joined by crocuses and the first daffodils. The birds were singing and starting to make nests and the sun shone (for part of our walk)!

Today was even better. A field we walk by every day had four sheep in it yesterday and today there was also a very small black lamb.

We really are looking forward to Spring, meeting friends and visiting our favourite parts of the UK but most importantly seeing our family again.

As Spring moved into Summer we had some (in fact quite a lot) of much needed rain. Whilst the weather sometimes curtailed our garden activities, we continued to walk every day. Annie had a few days off when her knee started playing up, and, as we write this, Gerry has completed walks on every one of the last 124 days. Some walks were completed in full wet weather gear but most have been in very pleasant conditions. We intend to continue our daily walks as they, and the static bike, have certainly increased our fitness levels. Whenever we have been able, we have walked a circular route on the road from Eastleach to Southrop and returned via Fyfield. There has been so much to see including, roe deer, muntjac deer, herons, egrets, ducklings, stoat, a mole, rabbits, hares, red kites, buzzards, young lambs (not so small now) and regular encounters with some horses. However, most of all, it was the changing vegetation that fascinated us.

We watched farmers preparing fields, then sowing the crops. We then marvelled at the way the brown fields became greener each day until you suddenly realised that the crops were several inches high. One such crop of broad beans is now 24 inches at least. This week we have seen the first combine harvesters at work and the rape fields have long since lost their yellow colour as the seed pods form. One field we saw at the end of May was beautiful, the bright red poppies in the field of Flax.

We have both appreciated the change in seasons and the amazing changes in the hedgerows and roadside flowers. We also realised just how much narrower the roads have become as the road side vegetation has grown!
Below is a series of photographs taken over eight days early in July. Annie and I hope that you find them as beautiful as we do.

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There were many more colourful and not so colourful wayside flowers but one couldn’t fail to marvel at the incredible beauty that surrounds us if only we look.

We also noticed how suddenly acorns, conkers, hips, haws, blackberries and other berries were suddenly filling out.

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There were also many small flying insects, bees and butterflies. Once again you had to look if you were to see. Lockdown has taught us to look so much more carefully at what nature has to offer.

One of the fields we have watched from bare unprepared soil to a what looks to the laymen to be a wonderful crop of broad beans has a beautiful strip of wild flowers along the edge of the field.

During Lockdown Annie and Gerry have kept in touch with family and friends by phone, email, snail-mail, FaceTime, WhatsApp and Zoom. We have missed seeing and meeting people but technology has certainly helped compensate.

Our routine has been a great help and we have never felt bored. In fact, we have enjoyed the peace and solitude particularly when the roads were almost devoid of traffic and the air seemed to smell sweeter! We also enjoyed dressing for several special dinners.

We realise how lucky we have been to live in the country with a spacious house and nice garden. How different it was for those with young families living in high rise blocks of flats in busy towns. We are also thankful that our family in the UK and California have survived without major problems.

As lockdown eases, we do think of those less fortunate than ourselves and especially the friends and relatives of those who have suffered from or died with the virus.

Be Strong and Stay Safe.

New Year’s Eve was spent quietly a deux and it was not until the 8th of January that we enjoyed our special “Christmas Meal” that we had planned to have before Annie’s surgery caused a change in plan!. We started with sparkling wine and then indulged ourselves with a delicious sea food banquet! we both thoroughly enjoyed the evening!

We had a really lovely Christmas seeing all of our UK based family and Annie getting her surgery was a real Christmas present as it means we can now plan trips and holidays for the 2020!

The rain over recent weeks meant the Cascades were really like waterfalls.
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In early December we caught the National Express Coach from Cirencester to London. Our first stop was for lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, Comptoir Libanaise, in Chelsea. Straight after lunch we walked to the Saatchi Gallery to see the Tutankhamen Exhibition. The exhibition contained 150 original artefacts from the tomb of the young pharaoh found in November 1922 by Howard Carter. The exhibition was quite breathtaking especially considering that the items were some 3350 years old. It was certainly worth the visit.
Photos below give an idea of the quality and beauty of the artefacts. Once the exhibition closes in 2020 the artefacts will return to Egypt.

We also decided to go to Montreuil-Sur-Mer for a few days. We visited Jenny, Mark and family for lunch on our way to Dover. Once in France we stayed in our usual hotel, went for the usual walks and enjoyed several meals out. We tried one new restaurant but were not overly impressed. However, L’Esplanade at Berck Plage, L’Auberge du Cronquelet at Saint-Aubin and Le Patio in Montreuil were all superb and matched our expectations based on previous visits. Despite all of the recent rain, we managed all of our walks without having to walk through mud. The photograph below almost captures the crisp, cold autumn morning.
It was Gerry’s birthday the day after we returned from France. We went out for lunch and returned to welcome the first of our weekend visitors. James, Hannah, Rosie, Ptolemy, Lucy, James, and Emma arrived that evening and stayed until Sunday. Jon, Jess, Oscar, Felix, Jenny and Elsie arrived Saturday morning and left after a lovely family day together. Annie had prepared a wonderful lunch that was thoroughly enjoyed.
To cap off the month, we went up to London for the day by coach from Cirencester. We had a lovely lunch in South Kensington at a restaurant called Ceru (providing ‘a taste of the Levant’) before visiting the Natural History and the Victoria and Albert Museums. Note to ourselves – don’t go to the Natural History Museum in School holidays. It was a lovely day out and one to be repeated.

The good weather over Easter
saw us work hard on the garden.  In particular we got the flower beds weeded, grass cut and treated and new plants set in tubs.  The main task, however, was to repair the damage done by the contractors who had been pointing the wall and re roofing the byre at the back of our house.

We were pleased with our efforts and although the guttering needs to be fixed and cables hung permanently, the back of the garden looks great.

We enjoyed a morning visiting Highclere
Castle the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon but better known to most as Downton Abbey.  Although the village associated with the TV series is Bampton in Oxfordshire, the ‘big house’ is in fact located in Berkshire.  It was fun to see the rooms that were shown in the series – they all seemed much smaller than on the TV.  We had got there early and thoroughly enjoyed a quiet walk around the grounds before visiting the house. By the time we left the whole place was packed with visitors!

We had a lovely weekend and look forward to next year’s event which will also be in St David’s Hall.