Today Ed and Nikki drove us to the Cotswolds which took about 90 minutes, but longer on the way back due to the heavy traffic returning to London on a Sunday. First we walked in the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace near Woodstock, the imposing ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough and Winston Churchill, as well as the Spencer family of Diana Princess of Wales.
We stopped at several picturesque little villages, all with houses made of local limestone, often sited close to a bubbling stream, with quaint names like Stowe on Wold, Broughton, Upper and Lower Slaughter. We had an excellent pub lunch at the Tudor Hotel, followed later by a local afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream. But these were not bland white offerings heated in a microwave, all too common in some places, but substantial little numbers the size of my palm, bursting with plump sultanas, fresh from the oven. Mmmm
