Bibury, and bye-bye camera - 1 July

Today we ventured into the Cotswolds... I told Jeff that I would move back in a heartbeat if I could live here. It all looks just idyllic.

We went into Bibury, which has a cool little trout farm. We bought buckets of feed and fed the trout... and the ducks, and the swans, and anything else that Nicholas could find to throw food at. He fed the birds more than he fed the trout I think, and he had quite a crowd following him around wanting more!

Feeding the trout was quite fun... you'd throw some food in, wait maybe two seconds, and then watch the maelstrom of activity in the pond. There were fish thrashing about everywhere!

The fish kept us occupied for quite a long time. At some point in the trout farm, I remember telling Nicholas off for knocking the camera. I distinctly remember saying 'Don't touch the lens!' I was taking pictures of beautiful landscape which were not turning out so beautifully, and I checked the lens and found an enormous scratch. I think he must have had a rock in his hand, but who knows what he was doing. My camera suffered though! 

That's not a cloud. That's a scratch!

The culprit, who couldn't give two hoots

The trouble with this was that in Bibury is a little street called Arlington Row, which is allegedly the most photographed row of houses in Britain. And all my shots had a big white blob in them, unless I shot everything on extreme close-up. Nicholas and I were not friends for a while!

At the bottom of the street was a stream, so of course we had to take our socks and shoes off and get in. Except Kate, who went straight in and came out laughing saying 'I forgot to take my shoes off!' Her shoes were soaked and have never fully recovered! They paddled for quite a while... I don't know how. I lasted all of about five seconds. The water was freezing!!

The stream ran all the way through the village, and although I don't have pictures of it, while we were there a swan with cygnets upstream got quite upset with a duck for getting too close. They were about forty yards away, but the swan was not having it. The duck got too close, and the swan charged. It was the full show - hissing, wings up, charging along the water and the poor duck scrambling to get out of the way, for at least thirty feet. I was quite pleased that the kids got to see what a swan can do - I've been telling them everywhere we go to stay away from them and now they understand why! It was an impressive display!

Before it went into action

Another picture of people's backs... I took a lot of these!