Day 63: Clarkson’s Cotswolds controversy

26/09/2021

We all had another good sleep last night which was a surprise, seeing as one of us slept on the floor. Good to see she is taking great care of “baby”. If you had not realised yet, having two under two makes sleep a precious commodity. As precious as fuel in the UK at the moment.

The first stop of the day was a short trip around the corner to pick up another Aussie. Friend of the blog Caroline went through Engineering School with Sophie before moving to the UK for work around seven years ago. We had not seen her since and had so much to catch up on. Caroline has definitely developed a bit of a British accent, there is still hope for Lachlan and Eloise. Caroline had kindly offered to show us around the Cotswolds today. Although it was more like Eloise showing Caroline around.

Since moving to the UK and jumping onto the Amazon Prime bandwagon we started watching (and quickly finished) Clarkson’s Farm, definitely worth a watch. This morning we were on our way to visit Diddly Squat. It was a beautiful drive through the Cotswolds. We loved the stone walls which were everywhere and the Ash trees.

We arrived fifteen minutes early and there was already a short queue at the controversial farm shop. Eloise was cleaning the pram wheels after each rotation. A bit of a neat freak, definitely a city chic.

You could tell a lot of love had gone into this place, it felt no larger than it looked on the series. Sadly, no Jeremy or Kaleb were present, they must have been repairing the dam. The shop had all the quirky items on the series. Eloise picked up a milkshake and Liam got another bucket hat to add to his Nick Potezny inspired bucket hat collection, currently sitting at three.

Darryl was eager to get up in the sky to check out the crop tramlines, sadly it was the wrong season. We sat in the shed which had been converted into a cafe while Lachlan fed. Meanwhile, the line was getting longer and longer.

We then drove to a lovely little town called Bourton-on-the-water which claimed to be the “Venice of the Cotswolds“, again lined with beautiful stone buildings, stone walls and Ash trees.

Designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1966, the Cotswolds covers 787 square miles (2,040 km2) and, after the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks, is the third largest protected landscape in England and the largest AONB. Its boundaries are roughly 25 miles (40 km) across and 90 miles (140 km) long, stretching southwest from just south of Stratford-upon-Avon to just south of Bath near Radstock. It lies across the boundaries of several English counties; mainly Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire. The highest point of the region is Cleeve Hill at 1,083 ft (330 m), just east of Cheltenham.

We visited the Cotswold Motoring Museum & Toy Collection. It was an impressive collection. Liam was getting ideas for his new shed. It was also home to the legendary BRUM! It just so happened to be his 30th birthday TODAY! We will have to show Eloise some episodes, much better than Bing. Eloise made us promise we would make her a small car for her and “baby”, not quite sure how we are going to deal with that.

We were getting peckish so went to The Chip Shed for lunch. Like always the servings were bigger than we needed.

It was such a beautiful sunny day, lucky Dadda had a hot new bucket hat, it was time for a nap. This lasted the best part of ten seconds before a cheeky Eloise body slam. She then dragged Dadda into the canal to get closer to the ducks. The water was freezing cold though and we were out as quickly as we got in.

One last walk around the town before dropping Caroline at home.

Caroline had gone over the top and completely spoiled Eloise and Lachlan with a “Welcome to the UK” pack which included a tub of Vegemite.

There were still many empty petrol stations on the way home. We are keeping an eye on the situation, we do not think there will be an issue. Otherwise, Oxford will be our new home.

Eloise never seems to run out of energy, so a quick run about Ducklington Lake and Country Park before dinner at Oxford Witney Hotel.