Cottage in Lower Slaughter, England            Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I just loved this cottage in Lower Slaughter. Wouldn't that make a dandy retirement home!?! Problem is the prices of homes in the Cotswolds are sky high.  Even the cottages.  I'm thinking maybe you get 5 or 6 other couples to all pitch in and buy one of these cottages and then use it as a time share.  Each couple could have one of the good months and one of the not so good months to use the cottage.  Wouldn't that be grand!!  Oops, I forgot about the airfare getting over there twice a year.  Hummmmmm.  What I need is for someone to PAY me to go over there and take pictures.  Yeah, that's the ticket.   All expenses paid.  All I have to do is bring back a ton of pictures.  Does anybody know of such a job?

Church Yard in Chipping Campden, England   Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This is the church yard of the same church as the door picture from the last blog.  All three pictures were taken within 15 minutes of each other.  As you might notice the sun is out in two and not in the one below.  The weather had a way of changing from sunny to rainy and back to sunny again really quickly.  We learned to carry our umbrellas at all times.

Church Yard in Chipping Campden, England   Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Actually, this shot was taken first, right before we got rained on.  I really thought the lighting gave the picture a real eerie feeling, almost like a movie set.  When I was going through my pictures that evening on the tiny viewer on my digital camera I nearly threw this one away because it was so dark.  I'm glad I didn't. 

Church door in Chipping Campden                  Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This was taken on one of the sunny moments we had in England in between showers. I just love the way the shadows play on the arches and columns.  I couldn't NOT take a picture of this, since I love the stone work, I love doors and I love arches.  See how the moss is growing on the steps?

Rat Update:  Alas, we didn't catch another one, so the count is still one down, two to go.  

Providence Cottage located in Burford, England.    Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This cottage was named Providence Cottage. It's on the main drag in Burford, England.  Next time, if there IS a next time, I think we'll rent one of the cottages right in one of the little towns, rather than one out in the country.  Heck, the little towns are just like country only with shopping added. 

A tiny park in Burford, England                       Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This little park is just one block off the main street in Burford and looked so inviting, although we never saw anyone using it the whole days.   

Oh, I thought I'd give y'all another rat update. . . one down, two to go.  YEAH! 

A back street in Burford, England                     Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

This house with gated driveway was not on the main drag in Burford, but we found it on one of several walks we took in Burford.  I think the house looks so stately.  Actually it's probably more than just one home; could be up to five. 

Alice asked for a rat update:  We didn't catch any rats, however, all three traps were sprung when I got home from work Friday.  I have not seen even a glimpse of any of the rats since the first night the traps were put out.  Perhaps they know now that they're not welcome and do not want to take the risk of their young offspring getting caught in one of my traps.  Or perhaps they've moved on because we are no longer putting out bird seed by the breakfast room.  I really don't care, as long as they've moved on.  We HAVE decided that a bird feeder outside the breakfast room window is just not worth it.  We're moving it to the back yard, along with the other ones.  Besides, the breakfast room is so close to the bird feeder outside, that each time we walked into that room all the birds flew away.  They don't fly away from the bird feeders in the back yard unless we actually open the back door to go out on to the patio.

Along the main street in Burford, England                   Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I think it's interesting how many of the houses and shops have vines and even trees growing right up next to the building, like this . . . looks like a magnolia tree.  They must train the little sapling trees to hug the building and then when it's older and larger it can do nothing else BUT hug the building.  Another thing I noticed about the shops and cottages . . . they're almost all two or three story.  Not very wide, but tall.  Taller than they are wide.  At some point I'm sure you must have paid taxes on how many linear feet your property took up on the street, so folks started building UP.  Just a guess on my part, but I bet I'm not far off the mark.  Besides, England is a little bit more limited on ground space than say we are here in Texas. 

I'm sure I've said it before, but it bears repeating.  These enhanced pictures are really better when viewed at their actual size.  To do that you click on the picture, then on the F11 key.

Barnsley House in Barnsley, England                      Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that the Cotswolds area is nothing but quaint little cottages.  Far from it.  There are many very large mansions.  This one was Rosemary Verey's house until her death a couple years ago.  She was a famous garden designer and we visited her gardens back in 1996, and in fact met her and had a nice chat with her, but within the last year her home has been sold to someone who has turned it into a nine room hotel. We stopped by the house on this trip and went in to inquire what the nightly prices were. They don't have the gardens open to the public any more . . . only one week a year.   We thought it might be a hoot to stay at Rosemary Verey's house one night, but it was too rich for our blood.  I guess when you only have nine rooms you have to make the most of every room every night.  The staff was quite snooty too.  They won't be seeing us again, and I think Rosemary would be unhappy to see what's become of her house and her gardens.  

Alas, no rats in the traps.  I looked out the breakfast window this morning and there sat all three traps . . . empty as can be with the peanut butter still in place.   I guess these rodents haven't survived for eons by being stupid.   Maybe they were thinking, "How stupid does she think we are?"  Could be I've insulted them and they'll leave.  That would be good.

Another house with a gate in Lower Slaughter, England      Photo & enhancement by Chris Duffy

Here's an update on the RAT situation.  I read the article about RATS that Alice had mentioned in her comment and decided against poisoning as a way to rid my yard of the rodents.  I SURE wouldn't want one to get sick, crawl into some crevice in my house and DIE there.  Gosh, the stench would be awful and take a long long time to go away.  So I opted for rat traps, and went to ACE hardware and bought three of them.  Three rats, three coffins.  But then when I got home I couldn't get it set without it snapping and I was afraid I'd get a finger mangled by it, so (remember hubby is out of town) I called my next door neighbor and asked him if he could come set them.  He is such a nice neighbor.  He and his son came over and put peanut butter on the traps and set them along the fence in the vacinity of the bird feeder.  He said he'd be surprised if I didn't have at least one of them by morning.  I'm really hoping for all three of them, but that might be a little optimistic.  We'll keep you all posted on the rat saga.

The Old Mill in Lower Slaughter, England               Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

My blog tonight has nothing to do with the picture above . . . well, maybe just a little.  My sis and I grew up in a river town on the mighty Mississippi and spent many a Sunday afternoon after church on the river, so we are always drawn to water.  I love this picture of the Old Mill which I took in Lower Slaughter.  It has a building of Cotswold stone, a stone wall, and water.  There were actually sheep about 30 feet to the left of this frame, but I couldn't coax them to step over into the picture.  Imagine that. 

My sister created a web site for me for my birthday using a lot of my pictures from England.  Here is the URL: http://www.woodrome.com/England/Index.html  Thanks a million, Alice.  

Now here's my real blog for tonight.  We put up a bird feeder in our meditation garden, which is that narrow strip of ground between two houses - ours and our neighbor's house - with the fence running down the middle dividing their property from our property.  Well, I was standing in the breakfast room watching 6 little birds feeding at the feeder, when out of the fence (you have to imagine my lip trembling here) came 3 rats.  A mommy, a daddy and a toddler rat.  As soon as they saw me they retreated back into the fence.  I guess the posts are hollow.  I spent the next hour and a half rapping on the window each time they dared to peak their heads out.  Now I'm afraid to go out into my own garden.  My husband is out of town or I'd send him out with a ball bat or something.  I even called the neighbors who share the fence hoping that I could get HIM to do something about the rats, but they weren't home.   I can't touch a mouse trap, let alone a rat trap, and I'm afraid that I'll kill the birds or squirrels if I put out poison.  What am I to do? I HATE the thought of rats running around in my garden.