Practice, shopping, lunch,

and “Welcome to Mill Cottage“

The tasks this morning are two-fold… I go with John and Julian to the high school where I’ll be speaking on Monday. Kathy goes with Marianne and Jenny on a Cotswold shopping tour!

The auditorium is nice, and the projector works well with both the DVD player and the laptop computer. We meet with the Headmaster for a few moments to discuss the events for Monday and, satisfied we’re ready, move on to more important things…

LUNCH!!

And what a lunch it is!!! We go to the Dormy House and enter the Barn Owl Restaraunt. It is very near Broadway Tower, so the views of the Cotswolds are absolutely stunning!!! After lunch, we drive into Broadway to give the girls a shot at some more shopping. Kathy scores some sweaters for her family… Christmas shopping in June!

And now… it’s off to Mill Cottage… John and Marianne’s 500-year-old home. The beams used to make this cottage are actually a few hundred years older than that! It is listed in the “Domesday Book”, an ancient reckoning/census done of all structures in England.

This is the first time I’ve seen the Cottage in this light and weather, and the first time ever for Kathy! The “back garden” should be featured in a magazine!!!

There’s so much that can be written about Mill Cottage… suffice it to say — it’s a treasure and we love it!

Across Mill Lane is a large field, site of Sunday’s upcoming barbeque. We have a nice walk-about, as John points out features of the area, including the still-filled mill chase leading to the old mill at the end of the lane. It’s good that we’ll be back a few more times, as we hate to leave!

For dinner, we meet a couple of John’s friends (hello bear!), one a partner with John in the Phoenix Group that bought Rover from BMW. Dinner is yummy and runs well into the night! Another wonderful day in England comes to a close…