If you look at my Stonehenge pictures you will see one of a large stone that stands on its own. This is the ‘Heel Stone’ and on the morning of the Summer Solstice the sun rises above this stone and is then visible between the ‘Trilathon’ arch of three stones directly in line with it in the main circle.
So after this short deviation we set off for our cottage, the sun was shining and our expectations were high. I keyed in our destination and ‘Fiona’ (my sat-nav) began giving me orders in her wonderful dulcet tones, “at the next roundabout take the third exist” “ keep left” “ drive 6.8 miles then enter roundabout”. Her voice is so reassuring and other than her insistence on sending me on side roads suitable for tractors only or just wide enough for a wheelbarrow, she does quite a good job.
Eventually she turned me off the main road and onto an unpaved but quite useable lane which went on for about a quarter of a mile. There were a few tracks leading off on the right hand side to a couple of other properties and woods and the rising heath-land of a nature reserve on the left, on both sides of the lane were wild flowers in profusion, Honeysuckle, St Johns Wort, Raged Robin, Buttercups, Dog Roses and Flag Irises, this place looked lovely.
“Arriving at destination on right” she intoned in her precise English voice, we turned down the single track with two tram lines of yellow Chipping’s that led us to our holiday cottage, would we be delighted or disappointed?
After the track it opened up into a gravelled parking area with a paddock on the right and there in front of us was our cottage and I fell in love with it straight away.
We had arrived early by a couple of hours and although we had a code to a key box to allow us in, I decided not to rush things in case it was not ready for us, so we decided to go back up the lane and continue along it to see how far it was to the local pub which I knew from ‘Google’ was further along the lane. The pub turned out to be a short drive or walk away and it became our local for the duration, a nice beer garden and a friendly bar that welcomed dogs and served great pub meals. We sat in the sunshine and had a drink, made the usual family calls to say we had arrived OK, my friends father was in hospital and it had been touch and go as to whether she could still accompany us or not, but her mother persuaded her to come along and not miss her holiday.
We arrived back at the cottage and parked up, Annie was at home right away and set off after an unsuspecting rabbit, I called her back and for once she did as she was told, although she would be quite safe off the lead here.
Opening the little gate we entered the private garden to the cottage, it was an absolute delight. If there is one thing that I like it is a cottage garden and this had an excellent one, I was over the moon with it, lovely yellow Chipping’s with flat stepping stones interspersed amongst them, these became a favourite sitting place for Annie as I think that the Chipping’s hurt her bum if she sat on them.
I was amazed at how far advanced the flowers were compared to where I live further North, the Foxgloves were out in full bloom whereas mine were still growing foliage. The Russell Lupine’s (probably my most favourite flower) were also at their best, tall and spiky between the other flowers, multi coloured variations of Mimulus in pots and baskets adorned the walls and grew within the stones, while Poppies and Mesembryanthemum peeked from within the crowded borders, Wow! I could just see me sunning myself here clutching a cold beer, a glass of Shiraz or a G & T.
We opened the key box and let ourselves in, the small porch is deceptive and has a stable door that opens half and half, ideal for warm weather. Obviously it was an addition and made a handy place to keep shoes and coats and a cupboard to store garden furniture padded covers and an ironing board. The next door was the original entrance and it was really low, maybe about five foot or so, a sign said “Mind your head” and I was reminded of this on a couple of occasions, Ouch!
Inside it was more spacious than I had imagined, a quarry tiled floor with a nice carpet square, a large comfy sofa, a double foot stool, a small table and two chairs and a nice little alcove with armchair. The whole room was well fitted out with LCD television, Coal Effect fire, DVD player, music centre, lots of nick knacks around the room and a well stocked shelves of books, DVD’s and games, it also had free Wi-Fi available with an access code provided. We took a couple of large throws with us to cover the sofa and to put on the bed as Annie will jump up on just about anything she considers to be comfortable.
At one end of the open plan room was a small but very well equipped kitchen area with cooker, fridge/freezer, micro wave oven, kettle, sink and all the kitchen utensils you could ever require, there was also a generous amount of cleaning and bathroom consumables. A very nice touch was a vase full of beautiful flowers and a bottle of wine and some really expensive biscuits left as a welcome gift, there were also tea bags and coffee on the worktop and milk in the fridge.
The kitchenette
The Shower room
An open staircase led upstairs, something Annie mastered right away although getting herself down again was another matter.
The bedroom was well equipped with a spacious cupboard with plenty of hanging space and chests of drawers, so plenty of storage space.
A nice digital radio to listen to in the morning and a spectacular view out over the cottage garden through a small window looking beneath the thatched roof overhang and watching the rabbits whilst eating your croissants and drinking your coffee, an experience that is hard to describe or to equal.
:Phew: Wow, putting that lot together was hard work
;);) Love the menagerie in the last photo too! Almost a veritable HERD of rabbits, ducklings and birds! 
My friend is always comming up with images that she sees on tree trunks, rocks or just about anything she looks at.
Tell Angie that blackened meat is very dangerous, and is a known cause of cancer of the gullet. A friend of mine who ate a lot of barbecue died of this - 