Wow, what a lovely week that was! Beautifully warm but with a nice fresh breeze and rather cool nights - I'd call it perfect summer weather, though I allow that others prefer it hotter and a lot less breezy. Each to their own.
I spent the week soaking up summer in Wiltshire, at my parents, though I pitched up en route (see pic above ) in south west Oxfordshire (as it is these days). I'm currently following up on an obsession or three - Wiltshire's chalk landscape and ancient monuments, plus the Ridgeway - and Uffington's white horse and environs seemed a great place to start the week. And it was great - the lanes round there are so empty that you can stop the car, get out and hear nothing but countryside, and beautiful? Oh yes! There were coolly dappled lanes and gently basking lanes and every single one was bordered with a lacy froth of cow parsley, dotted with the richer creaminess of may blossom and set off nicely with the acid green and soft copper of early summer leafy growth. If I could have moved in locally, there and then, I think I would have.
I spent the week soaking up summer in Wiltshire, at my parents, though I pitched up en route (see pic above ) in south west Oxfordshire (as it is these days). I'm currently following up on an obsession or three - Wiltshire's chalk landscape and ancient monuments, plus the Ridgeway - and Uffington's white horse and environs seemed a great place to start the week. And it was great - the lanes round there are so empty that you can stop the car, get out and hear nothing but countryside, and beautiful? Oh yes! There were coolly dappled lanes and gently basking lanes and every single one was bordered with a lacy froth of cow parsley, dotted with the richer creaminess of may blossom and set off nicely with the acid green and soft copper of early summer leafy growth. If I could have moved in locally, there and then, I think I would have.
Wiltshire is my county and has plenty of its own white horses, but I'm sure no one would deny that the Uffington horse knocks them all dead. It's amazing and it has Wayland's Smithy and the Ridgeway thrown into the package too.
The whole week was full of sun-soaked landscapes and ancient stones (I made a trip back to Avebury) and preposterous hillocks (and back to Silbury Hill) and I had an altogether self-indulgent and wonderful time.
The whole week was full of sun-soaked landscapes and ancient stones (I made a trip back to Avebury) and preposterous hillocks (and back to Silbury Hill) and I had an altogether self-indulgent and wonderful time.
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