Jim's Holidays: A Stylish Place in the Cotswolds

After exchanging anniversary cards Debbie and I pack the car and set off for the Cotswolds just as it starts raining which gets very heavy on the M4. An auspicious start to a few days away. We arrive late afternoon to a warm welcome from our host and take in the lovely view across the Painswick Valley looking west to the ridge that Duncan and I walked across along the Cotswolds Way. It's a very tranquil spot with just a hint of a hum from the A46. We walk up the lane, or Wick Street as it's called, in the evening for a view over Painswick and turn back as the black clouds roll in and we have to shelter under a tree during the downpour. We dine on asparagus and samphire washed down with champagne to celebrate 14 years of wedded bliss. Our home is a wooden sided converted pig sty with ancient wooden beams but cosy enough with the wood burning stove. Thursday morning it's raining but doesn't seem to bother the horses grazing in the field below us. By the time we've breakfasted the rain has stopped and we walk into Painswick to admire the typical Cotswolds buildings and the church with 99 yew trees. We then walk down and up the steep hill to Bulls Cross then back home just in time to miss another torrential downpour which is a good excuse to laze about reading. It's an impressively atmospheric evening with huge black clouds interspersed with the sun lighting up their edges. Friday morning is cloudless and we stride up to Bulls Cross to start the Laurie Lee Wildlife Walk which is a lovely route through woods and down the Slad Valley to Laurie's childhood village. It's breezy with clouds scudding in on the north wind but sunny to keep us warm especially when ascending the sides of the valley. After blackberrying and lunch we have a drink in the Woolpack garden overlooking where we've walked before visiting Lee's gravestone in the churchyard opposite and then the cottage where he grew up. With a pint of local rough(ish) cider inside me we climb back over the ridge to our own valley and sit in the sun looking out westwards. After a while the cold northerly drives us inside to the warmth of the fire and to finish our books. Dinner is rounded off with freshly picked blackberries and apples generously left outside a house for free (a common feature round these here parts). Saturday is another cloudless morning but with a distinct nip in the air and after gazing out one last time to see a deer frolic in our field we drive to my parents who I haven't seen since February. A good chat and hearty meal from the chippy then we drive to Lansdown to put a rose from Matt's rosebush in his field. Back to my parents to pick up my glasses that I forgot then an uneventful drive home by the back rounds due to the M4 being closed nearing London. A lovely few days away.