2/6/19 - Thomas's Birthday - Stow on the Wold and Oxford

Today was Thom's bitrthday.
We woke to a rainy Cotswolds day - only a hardy walker was going to be out in that today.

We had a lazy start with breakfast of smoky bacon and eggs (complete with mushrooms, haloumi tomatoes, toast and basil), followed by more laziness.  A very light lunch of cheese on toast followed, before we finally left home heading slowly towards Oxford again via Stow on the Wold.

Stow on the Wold is a lovely Cotswold town with quaint stone buildings, and even in the rain it was crowded.

We started by driving to the old well.  The spring fed well has been in use since ancient times and is now on the outskirts of town.  I would have suggested that we walk to it, but we would have got quite wet getting there, so instead I suggested that we drive up the lane to the well, and hoped that there would be somewhere to turn around.  Sure enough, at the well itself there was a parking area which we could use to turn.

 The well is quite large and is still fed constantly by the spring - giving a lovely clear pool of water to enjoy. 

We parked in the car park at the bottom of the town and walked in past the Lobster cafe (!!) and through the square to St Edwards Church.
Since seeing photos of this lovely church a while ago I have been keen to visit myself.   Sadly it was not a good day for photos and they do not do justice to the beautiful spot.  You enter the church yard and are invited into the church via the porch door, but if you keep walking around the back of the church and to the other side you find what we were looking for - the doorway with the trees.

We made the most of a photo opportunity by grabbing some photos in the doorway. 

Then we headed for the tea shop where we enjoyed Cotswold afternoon tea .  Here is the birthday boy (Can't believe he is 30 today) enjoying his scones loaded with jam and clotted cream.

 Once we were replete with food we headed for Oxford and a birthday party for Thom.
The plans for a picnic in the park were shelved due to the weather, so we headed for Thom and Laura's place and did a quick furniture shift, clean up and shop in preparation for the visitors.  One of Thom's thoughtful  friends even made a lovely cake for us to use as birthday cake.

The Party finished at about 9 and after a quick cleanup we headed for our home in the Cotswolds.As we drove we enjoyed the beautiful pink dusk colours in the sky.  If you could taste sky this one would have tasted like turkish delight