Saturday, September 4, 2010

Almost Time

We'll be heading out on vacation soon, we're going to England.  Our bedroom floor is covered with bags as we decide what to take.  Our weather is still hot with temperatures in the low 90's.  I've been following the weather in Oxford, that's the nearest big town to where we'll be staying, and the weather there is mainly in the 60's which sound heavenly, but I need to dig out Fall clothes.  We live in shorts and swimming suits here all summer, I don't think I've had a long pair of pants on since April.
Two new umbrellas have been purchased, though we hope we don't get too much use out of them.  A couple of years ago we were in England in September and had no rain until the very last day.  Usually we run into some rain, but fingers crossed.
Our dresser is covered with a bunch of small stuff I need to pack.  We've rented a cottage so we'll have a kitchen, hopefully with a French press for coffee, and we're taking our own coffee.  I have a stack of walking books as we hope to take full advantage of the cooler weather and get some good walks in.  There's also our Atlas for Britain, Mac, bless his heart and nerves, doesn't mind (too much) driving on the other side of the road and so we'll have a car.  Our gas has gotten very cheap here  lately ($2.41 a gallon), I'm assuming British petrol is a lot higher, in fact I looked up the average price for gas around Burford (isn't Google amazing) and found that it is 1.17.9 a liter, and using Google again I found out there are 3.78 liters to a gallon, so a gallon will cost around £5.135 and that's about $7.90 OUCH! And that's not counting what our credit card company will charge us for a foreign currency transaction.   It will probably cost more to buy gas than to rent the car, oh well, lots of short trips.
Still, I'm very excited, it's been almost 2 years since we've been to England and we always have such a good time there.  We won't be going into London, we both love London, but it just wears us out, glad we had a number of trips there when we were younger.  Now we stay primarily in the Cotswolds, rent a cottage, do a bit of antique shopping (Shepton Mallet Antique Fair here we come),  lots of drawing and painting, take many walks (have a walk for Flora Thomson's Larkrise to Candleford)  and have as much pub grub as we can hold.  British bacon and ham is so much better than ours, I love Bacon Buttys and Ham Baguettes.  Mac loves homemade meat pies and we both love a good crumble for dessert.  No doubt I'll put on way, way too much weight.
We've been known to stay for a whole month on some of our trips, but this one will be shorter, neither one of us likes leaving our kitty for long, how sad is that.  But when the bags come out she sleeps on them as if to keep us from going.  A friend is coming in to take care of her, so we know she'll be fine, but like 2 silly souls we worry about her.  Wish we could take her with us.  We had a cat who traveled across the States twice with us, flew to Germany and Turkey, as well as car trips to Utah and Florida.  He liked the car, but was less than enthusiastic about flying.
Need to stop Blogging, I have to sort out painting supplies, find our drawing pencils, move from my current purse into a backpack purse, find cds to listen to on the flight, pick out some books to read and fix lunch.

7 comments:

  1. Oh I'm so excited for you. The Cotswolds are lovely - pretty towns and villages and you'll enjoy the countryside. I'd be very surprised if you're cottage didn't have a French press - they are usually standard these days. Yes, petrol is expensive in England. Never mind, there'll be plenty of opportunity to do lots of interesting walks. Enjoy yourselves.

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  2. If you are in Oxfordshire try and visit William Morris's country house Kelmscott Manor. It's not open every day so worth Googling to check on opening times. It's in the back of beyond but a magical place when you eventually get there. When I was looking for it I was convinced that I'd either missed it or taken the wrong road! Have a wonderful time.

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  3. You're spot on with the price of petrol here and also temperatures. May be you could hire one of the hybrid petrol/electric cars? September often has a period of 'Indian Summer' so I hope you're fortunate. I know the area you're going to and wish you a very happy time and look forward to reading about it later. Moreton on Marsh is one of my favourite Cotswald towns.

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  4. "Jumbles" hope you're right about the French press because they're still rather exotic here, we learned about them in England.
    Rowan, we're definitely going to Kelmscott, tried to get in there a couple years ago but it was closed, hoping for better luck this year.
    Lizzie, We love Moreton too, one of my favorite antique shops is there, and I haven't spent any money in months, saving it to spend in England. Our anniversary and my birthday are both in September so I have the perfect excuse.

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  5. Hi there

    The weather is a bit mixed here of late.
    You will need your umbrellas I'm afraid.

    Clare

    ps. I am going to the shepton mallet fair for the first time too!!

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  6. Hi, Thank you for leaving a comment on my blog. I hope you have a lovely time in England. The Cotswolds are gorgeous and Oxford is such a beautiful city. I look forward to hearing about your trip, best wishes Pj x

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  7. Oh, do have a WONDERFUL time! Love Oxford and the Cotswolds are gorgeous too... but yes, oh yes, isn't the price of gas revolting??

    Loved your comment on my blog re that ghastly Eat Pray Love... :)

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