Friday 3 January 2014

Finally, a day out


 
Well, not quite a day out, but a few hours... And what a delight it was, being outdoors, doing normal things after almost of a month of illness and being stuck inside the house ....
 

 
 

 
We decided to go to Broadway, a sleepy Cotswold village, very pretty and unspoilt, except when the tourists (like ourselves) descend on the village
 
 
 

 
Lots of pretty shops to lure the tourists in, including Snowdrops, a charity shop for a local hospice
 
 
 

 
Lots of hotels, restaurants and tea shops as well
 
 
 

 
The beautiful, honey-coloured Cotswold stone looks stunning when the sun hits it. It's a yellow oolitic Jurassic limestone, quarried in the area, and the stone found in the Northern villages, Broadway being one of them, is darker than that found in the Southern Cotswolds.

 
 
 


Despite the rain clouds that dispersed soon after

 
 

 
everything was very pretty and quintessentially English.
 
 

 

 
The mellow, golden, honey-coloured Cotswold stone giving these buildings their distinctive character.
 
 

 
 


This is as busy as it gets




 
We entered the courtyard of the Lygon Arms Hotel
 

 
 

 
dating from the 16th century
 

 
 

 
as pretty as anything in the village
 
 

 
 

 
old stone, cobbles, narrow passageways 
 
 
 


intending to have lunch




 
we shared a venison burger (this is the Cotswolds after all) and chips, and finished with the most delicious lemon tart
 
 

 
 


looking out

 
 
 
 
We then went into Broadway Modern
 
 

 
 
the modern branch of John Noot Galleries.
 
 


 
Efa, Janice Janes, (Raku fired)
 

 
 


Mera, Janice James, (blue matt finish)




 
looking out into the courtyard featuring some sculptures

 
 

 
Hera, Janice James (raku glaze)
 

 

 
Aya, Janice James (blue satin finish)
 
 
 

 
Large fragile landscape bowl, Hilary Laforce
 

 


more of Hilary Laforce's bowls





White/black halo bowl, Richard Baxter




 
Lime/bronze bowl, Richard Baxter
 

 

 
more of Richard Baxter's bowls
 

 

 
Richard Baxter
 

 


By then I was totally exhausted after all this activity, so we decided to go back home. Broadway looked very pretty: the combination of the artificial lights on the trees and natural sunlight turning the stone into gold, was stunning.


2 comments:

  1. Goodness! That last photograph shows how busy it must get these days. We knew Broadway reasonably well from the days when we lived in Oxford and went through Broadway on our way North to Scotland on holidays - long before the days of the M40 etc.
    I am glad that you are beginning to venture out, and it was good that you had a look at some ceramics too. I hope that you make good progress through January.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Olga.

      I used to love going to the Cotswolds (still do, but not to the same extent) - it was such a dramatic contrast from Greece: a totally different world.

      As for the traffic, it's not that bad usually. That was a bad moment. We were going back to the car, and I was exhausted, felt like crawling to get there, so had no patience to wait for it to clear. The light, both natural and artificial, looked so stunning that I just snapped before moving on.

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