Start:  Painswick

Stop:  Middleyard

Distance:  10 miles

We are seriously settling in now.  We didn’t even leave this morning til 11:00.  Instead of heading out right away we meandered through the quaint little village of Painswick, had a coffee and visited with some folks from northern Florida who had rented a cottage for a week nearby.  Fortunately we were quickly accepted as Americans (being from California), ONLY because I had been raised in North Carolina and soon dropped into the southern drawl each of them had.  The couple were quite taken that we were actually walking through the Cotswolds, as indeed, I am also at times.  Sometimes, I am walking along and I seriously just want to stop and cry I’m so overcome with emotion and gratitude for all that I am experiencing and able to do.  I think I would be very content to get up every day, slip into my boots, grab my stick and head for the nearest path through the woods up into the hills.  I feel incredibly loved and immeasurably blessed to be able to do this walk.  Here are all the reasons why . . .

A day in the life of a grateful Cotswold walker:

Leaving Painswick

 

trees blooming . . . and yes, birds even singing (I was told just the other day, “Even the birds are quite happy, aren’t they (now that spring has finally come)?”

And, yes, they really are!

 

Through pathways leading in between backyards of neighborhoods . . .

 

out to the fields . . .

 

up the hills, past the cows, and through the next stile  . . .

 

through many different woods . . .

 

and types of woods . . .

 

and country lanes  . . .

 

and passing by the ever present rock walls.  and daffodils.

 

Climbing yet one more hill . . .

 

and finding the perfect spot for lunch . . .

 

and every once in awhile, we happen upon a lunch wagon…with oh yeah, a diet coke!

 

passing through woods, woods, and more woods…

 

. . . and hundreds and hundreds of wildflowers . . .

 

. . . and beauty beyond description or words.

 

. . . occasionally a dog to pat or a person to meet . . .

 

And once we really thought we had taken a seriously wrong turn when we saw a river dumping into an ocean!  But nope, it was the Severn River which flows into a channel, then into a sea, and then into the Atlantic Ocean.  You can even see Wales across the river in the far distance.

 

We cross manyl different types of stiles and gates . . . most, of course, honoring all dogs with their own pass through.

 

… and more and more flowers to see . . .

 

and cows to maneuver past . . .

 

and freshly tilled fields to cross . . .

 

an occasional railroad track to cross over . . .

 

dropping us into the next village . . .

 

leading over a river . . .

 

to cross a seldom encountered motorway . . .

 

only to be led once again back up into the hills . . .

 

. . . where there are flowers . . .

 

and more gates to go through and fields to cross . . .

 

… and creatures to encounter . . .

 

to cross one more field, to climb one more hill, to experience one more wood, leading to one more vista . . .

and victories to be won!

The Cotswold Way:  Chipping Camden to Bath 105 miles.  We are well over half way…as of today we have about 50 miles to go!