Pink Tea in the Cotswolds

                                                             Hello everyone,
                      When we arrived at our charming little Twine Cottage(a rental) it was a beautiful sunny day so one of the first things I wanted to do was have an afternoon tea.

                      So I got out the tablecloth I had bought and a couple of pretty pillows.

                                    And the pretty teacups I had picked up at a charity shop.

                                        We had such a sweet little secluded garden with an amazing number of birds                                  singing their little hearts out!

Building a nest in the hedge.

                                                   The view from the upstairs window.

                            I didn't do much shopping in England but I did buy this pitcher.

            The magnolias were pretty there as well but when I got home to our own garden I was happy to see ours were blooming as well.

I am joining Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for the big birthday party for Pink Saturday.

I am also joining The Rose Garden in Malevik for show off Saturday.

Thank you for visiting me today and enjoy your weekend!

Carolyn

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

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

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