The last month has been particularly busy for me, and October will be equally busy because of work. The upside to busy life, though, means that I have fun, exciting things to share here. Rather than doing individual posts, I thought I’d do a summary. I hope
you will enjoy the (many) pictures, and that maybe this will inspire you to go out & find the fun places/activities around you. (Speaking of photos, I’ve been thinking of changing blog templates as I’m not sure this one really shows pictures to their best advantage. Any thoughts/recommendations for good templates?)
It started at the end of August, when R & I celebrated his birthday by going for fish & chips on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway. The local station is about 15 minutes from our house. Somehow we’d never been on it, though.
We loved the traditional ticket, nearly as much as the scale of enjoyment they gave on their feedback form…disappointing to fabulous. Ha!
And of course we had to stop at a pub for a pint.
We were treated to these beautiful tables on the way back to Cheltenham. It was very steamy!
A week later, it was Heritage Open Days. I didn’t have much time, but I did go along to a fascinating talk about 20th century stained glass in Gloucestershire. Apparently there is an Edward Burne-Jones window in the church where R’s goddaughter was christened, and I had no idea! I was also introduced to the work of Thomas Denny, a leading contemporary stained glass artist who produced many of his early works for a church in Cheltenham. Ever since, I’ve been wanting to go around the local churches and examine the windows. This window isn’t 20th century, but is in St. Mary’s Church where the talk was given.
And of course, there have been many trips to the allotment.
Today, I was treated to a trip out to Snowshill Manor. It’s a quirky house, but today we just visited the gardens. It’s apple season, so all the orchards were heavily laden. They even had apple samples in the tea room.
There is also a 19th century printing press in a secondhand bookshop. Bliss!
So that’s my fall so far! What have you been up to?
Pastry & purls 
That photo of the countryside is gorgeous. A bookshop with an old printing press sounds fascinating. My daughter has been asking to go to the orchard to pick apples. Maybe we will make it there next weekend.
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Thank you! Yes, you should definitely go. Have some apple cider on my behalf; it’s one thing that’s weirdly difficult to find over here as cider’s mostly thought of as an alcoholic drink. It makes me a little sad this time of year.
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Love the plate !! What varieties of apples did they have? I would have loved that tasting:) 🙂
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Yes, you would’ve! There were quite a few varieties, but mostly local. I remember seeing the Beauty of Bath, the Tewkesbury Baron, and Cats Head in particular. I’ll see if I can email you a list. 🙂
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My husband would love to eat fish n chips on a steam train! I’d love to have a go on one of those old printing presses.
It looks like you’ve been having a lovely time. I do enjoy round-up posts.
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There are lots of local stream train lines; I’m sure there’s one somewhere near you. I’ve done a bit of printing in the past, but didn’t get to use this one. I did buy a print of an apple branch for £1, though!
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I’m bookmarking this for future reference – Thomas is a huge train geek so a trip on a steam train would be right up his street as a birthday surprise.
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It was a lot of fun for both of us. I’d definitely recommend it.
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