A Winter Christmas

Christmas 2008 was spent in the beautiful countryside of England. Having two daughters who had been away from home for nearly 6 months as they travelled to America and then the UK, was certainly the catalyst to my wanting to head off too. I had definite pictures in my mind of what I would find in England. I wanted to see winding cobbled lanes, thatched roofed cottages, frozen lakes, naked trees and hopefully snow. We hired a car, took along our GPS navigator, absolutely the best decision we ever made and headed off to see what we could find. One of our trips took us to the lovely city of Bath and the River Avon winding its way through the town. Strange really the word Avon means river so literally the River River....

We ate at a restaurant called Garfunkels, and I can still smell and taste the grilled burger meat I had, delicious. We drove ourselves to the Cottswolds, which means sheep pens and here we saw the lanes and cottages we hoped for. Literally the narrowest lanes winding their way through the most beautiful winter country side. The air was icy and the trees bare of all their leaves. The dirt was frozen and as we traipsed over the fields you could hear it crunch under your feet. That is of course when you could feel your feet. It was icy!!!! In a little village, and there were many of them we found a sweet shop with its beautifully coloured sweets, looking for all they were worth like blown glass droplets. The flavours unlimited and mouth watering. Of course it was Boxing Day so the store was closed, probably lucky for our waistlines. And who hasn't seen the wonderful red telephone boxes that litter the streets of England? Well they are everywhere and it was our mission to have a picture taken in every one that we came across. I have dozens of red phone box pictures...I love them so corny..... so us!!!! The one here was taken by Adrian and I love it. It is ghostlike. Who is in the picture? Where are these people, everytime I look at it I feel like I am seeing a family locked in time in maybe the Tardis...and I am not a Dr. Who fan. But I adore this picture.