When the sun is shining and the sky is blue there is really nothing to beat the English countryside. The picture above is an illustration of this. All we need is a few larks on the sky line and we have a Van Gogh.
Last week I visited Bath with my sister and mother and when we drove back to my sister's house in Quorn, Leicestershire, we travelled through some of the most glorious countryside. We took the Fosse Way, an old Roman route, which wends its way through the Cotswolds and every village we went through looked as if it had walked off a chocolate box lid, they were all picture perfect. Even the new housing estates (and can we ever get away from Barratt Homes I ask myself) had obviously only been allowed if the same Cotswold stone was used to build them and they blended very well. In a few years time when they have weathered they will look even better.
We stopped at Northleach, a village in Gloucestershire, to visit the World of Mechanical Music. According to the leaflet this is "a living museum of the various kinds of self playing musical instruments which were
the pride and joy of our grandparents" and the collection ranged from musical boxes of all shapes and sizes to barrel organs and pianolas with piano rolls.
We listened to old 78 rpm records (Bing Crosby singing Would you like to swing on a star) and heard a demented sounding chorus of Champagne Charlie on an old wax cylinder. It was a totally fascinating place to visit (www.mechanicalmusic.co.uk).
After a obligatory cream tea at a local Tea Shoppe we took to the road again and later on in the evening when we were almost at our destination, we stopped in at a farm shop to buy fruit and veg and found a simply stunning view from the top of the hill where it was located. Of course, we had to sit down and have yet another pot of tea (sans scones this time) and just enjoyed sitting and looking at the cornfields and the surrounding trees and fields.
When I see landscapes like this, I do wish I could paint....
