While North Wales is *the* most beautiful place in the world, The Cotswolds has to be a close second. We began our day at our Jasmine Cottage on Mousetrap Lane in Bourton-on-the-Water. Mrs. Koog was up early and walked to our local market to grab some eggs, bread and rashers for breakfast. I, of course, put my blackout mask on when the sun rose at 4:45 am and slept until she woke me up around 8:30. While I do love using the blackout mask, it is a danger to anyone that attempts to rouse me because I assume they are a killer and I take wild swings before taking the mask off. This morning was no different but since the Mrs. has long arms and 21 years of experience with me, she’s figured out a way to gently tap and swerve like a boxer to avoid blunt force trauma. God, I love that woman and her cat-like reflexes!
Once I removed the blackout mask, apologized for the right hook and kissed her good morning; I headed downstairs and promptly got horizontal on the sofa and fell back asleep (without the mask) while my lovely wife cooked breakfast. Delicious eggs that did not look like cysts, rashers that were a normal color and toast were on the menu with a lovely cuppa. Yes, I was bummed that we had no glazed organ meat but you can’t get that type of delicacy everyday.
Breakfast was wonderful and I took my second cup of PG Tipps to the coffee table and promptly laid back down and fell asleep. Again. I slept through the cooking of breakfast for the boys and the doing of the dishes. I actually thought I was getting the cold that plagued the family right before we left Maryland, but alas, I felt better after one last cuppa and an Allegra.
With our stomachs fat and happy, we headed out on the trail for Lower Slaughter. I was skeptical of this route (since I had slept through all the pre and post breakfast work) and assumed the Mrs. was trying to recreate a murder in a quaint British village. We do watch an inordinate amount of murder shows from the UK and she’s well versed in how to off a spouse. Today, I lucked out because death was not on her mind only hiking to a place called Lower Slaughter.
Before hitting the path to Slaughter, we decided to head into Bourton-on-the-Water to take a look around and grab a coffee. Since B-Koog was with us, he obviously needed second breakfast so we stopped at a place called “Bakery on the Water.” It was in fact a bakery and it was on the water. We enjoyed iced coffees while B ate his toasted ham and cheddar croissant. I took some photos of the gentle falls as well as some strangely dressed tourists before we hit the trail toward Lower Slaughter.
Once on the trail, we were enveloped by the the smell of honeysuckle. The smell was intoxicating. Mrs. Koog and I could not get enough. B-koog, being a 15 year old boy, said it smelled like “weeds.” We ignored him and kept enjoying the scent while trying to also ignore the angry song of a mourning dove. I thought it was an agitated owl but it was just the ugly cry of an average bird.
The path took us across a very busy street with trucks, busses and speeding cars. Never knowing which way to look to see when a car would hit us, we decided to pay close attention to crosswalks and only crossed with the green-means-go-man illuminated. We still almost died a few times, though.
We passed Hawkstone brewery, where Jeremy Clarkson’s beer and cider are brewed. Yes, I am a big fan of Mr. Clarkson, all the way back to his *Top Gear* days. The path was green and winding through horse fields that included the biggest piles of horse crap I have ever seen in my long life. They looked like giant poo-pumpkins on the side of the path but strangely didn’t smell. We said a small prayer of thanks for the lack of scent.
As we came off of the path, it opened up to the most beautiful oasis of water, flowers and stone cottages I’ve ever witnessed. The name Lower Slaughter had me skeptical of its beauty, but how wrong I was! It was exactly what I envisioned when I thought of The Cotswolds. The honey colored stone cottages with gorgeous flowers, a shallow brook moving through the houses and a waterwheel reflecting in the brook against a royal blue sky. I took some photos of the place but I am sure no matter how good they may be, they won’t be able to portray the actual beauty of this place.
Just as I was getting more and more engrossed in the beauty and photographic potential of this place, Mrs. Koog needed to retire to a washroom. While she searched for that, B and I wandered around the art show that was at their village hall. I love his interest in art and his ability to accurately explain an artists technique. He’s such a smart guy! Quirky but super smart and (sometimes) funny.
Mrs. Koog rejoined us and guess what, B-koog had to find the washroom now except he wanted an escort. We both explained that we would not be doing this so he decided he’d ignore Mother Nature and wait until we got back to our little Jasmine Cottage. We were 2 miles away and we were walking. I cannot help his bad decisions…
I did what landscape photographers do, I wandered around looking for the perfect composition and completely disregarded time and space anyone’s urges to relieve themselves. Rushing is never part of my workflow no matter who needs to use the facilities. After taking at least 300 photos, I was finally done and we commenced our walk back to Jasmine Cottage. B has the ability to use the “he-wee” and go almost anywhere but, nope, he was waiting until we got back to our place. Gotta love a young man with resolve and a strong bladder!
Following the path back to the cottage, we entered the trail with the gorgeous honeysuckle scent and the whaling of the mourning doves. This time, B-Koog could smell the sweetness of the scent and said it didn’t smell like weeds anymore. I was wondering if the full bladder made his other senses more aware? Not sure but at least he was able to enjoy the beautiful wafting scents with me and the wife.
As we were nearing the end of the path and approaching our cottage, we saw a baby mouse! While I am no lover of rodents, this thing was undeniably adorable. Fuzzy and tiny and just super cute, a nice man picked it up out of the sun and the middle of the path and put the baby in the shady grass. It was adorable and if it wouldn’t turn into a filthy rodent, I would have wanted to keep it was a pet.
We passed the gorgeous church near our cottage that was apparently running the world’s longest funeral. This farewell service was going when we first left the house 2.5 hours before and it appeared to still be going strong. Must have been quite a mensch!
Anyway, with B in a full sprint to the facilities at the cottage we arrived back to find E-Koog awake and coincidentally, we also found the entire loaf of sourdough bread gone while the bag lay empty on the counter. Obviously, since E had “no idea” how the empty bag was on the counter, we assumed someone had come into the cottage, walked past the $15K worth of camera equipment and went right for the bread and left the bag. Dude, clean up after yourself!
It had been at least an hour since E had eaten and B needed “downtime,” so the 3 of us headed across the street to “The Mousetrap Inn” for lunch. Steak pies for me and E and a fish finger sandwich for Mrs. Koog along with 2 1/2 pints of Cider and a Coke were quickly delivered to our table by a nice gentleman that we assume was the owner. E and I quickly dug into the best steak pie ever made. I assume, due to the close proximity to the church, God herself laid hands on these pies! As we were enjoying these heaven sent entrees, B texted his order of, wait for it, steak pie. We brought it back and he agreed these were made by the hands of the Goddess.
Not allowed to rest, Mrs. Koog rallied us to walk another mile to the Miniature Village. It is as it sounds, a miniature version of Bourton-on-the-Water, complete with a miniature version of the Miniature Village. So very literal and so very British. It was very cool and it was one of the sites I really wanted to see before we left this area. They also had a cool exhibit of other diorama type miniatures inside a museum type thing. There was one with a scantily clad woman on a bed, bottle of wine in hand; a half naked man hiding under the bed and an old man in a full suit complete with an ascot leaning back into a chair in shock to see what we assume is his wife in a compromising position. E said, “that’s you!” I had to ask which one he was talking about and immediately regretted it. “The naked one under the bed!” He said this with the seriousness of a heart attack. I stared in disbelief. I asked him which one was his mother and he said “the one on the bed with the bottle of wine and the lace night gown.” Again, said with no humor or irony at all. I promise anyone that was within earshot of this discussion, this scene has never been played out in our home.
After that exchange, I needed a drink but instead we stopped for iced coffee and gelato. I had the Cotswold cream and cherries. It was amazing. While the Mrs., E and B discussed the interpretation of the adulterous diorama, I escaped to buy eggs, rashers and crumpets for breakfast. The boys carried the groceries back while me and my lady slowly strolled back to Jasmine Cottage never to mention the boys diorama interpretation again.
Upper Slaughter was on the agenda for sunset. It was not the best of the Slaughters so we quickly abandon that idea and went back to Lower Slaughter. We arrived just before the start of the perfect light on the cottages, flowers and water. I haven’t downloaded the images yet but from what I could see in my monitor, they looked spectacular (but still not as beautiful as the real thing I fear). Right before we left home, I bought a set of stupid expensive NiSi JetMag Landscape Photography ND filters with a circular polarizer. After my first composition tonight, I moved my camera, set up my tripod and immediately dropped my polarizer into the stream! Before I could unfold from the position I was in *under* my tripod, the Mrs. popped off her shoes and slid into the freezing ankle-deep water and grabbed my filter. I’m starting to think she really does love me!
With my polarizer wet but unharmed, I continued my compositions for another 35 minutes all along the shallow creek following the beautiful setting sunlight. The reflections were sublime and the honey-colored cottages glowed in the setting sun of golden hour. How lucky we were to witness that level of beauty not once but twice in one day.
I captured all the compositions I could make and we headed back to the car. The ride home offered a few more stops with different vantage points of the countryside, sheep, fields and trees that I jumped out of the car to capture. Again, I am confident that no image regardless of the quality of the composition could capture the beauty we witnessed.
Jasmine Cottage was dark when we got back. Yes, our children were sitting *in the dark* playing on their phones. When asked why they didn’t turn on the lights E replied “didn’t notice it was dark, brah.” Mrs. Koog and I just looked at each other through the dark and shook our heads.
We logged 8 miles of walking today. It was a really great day! (even if our children believe their mother is some type of adulteress and I am some nude dude hiding under the bed…)
Tomorrow is our last day here before we head out to some other place I don’t remember the name of and stay at a sketch hotel that cost *more* for 2 nights than the entirety of our 4 nights in London so E and I can be close to Silverstone for the F1 British Grand Prix on Sunday. Yup, we are certifiable.
Until tomorrow…
Once I removed the blackout mask, apologized for the right hook and kissed her good morning; I headed downstairs and promptly got horizontal on the sofa and fell back asleep (without the mask) while my lovely wife cooked breakfast. Delicious eggs that did not look like cysts, rashers that were a normal color and toast were on the menu with a lovely cuppa. Yes, I was bummed that we had no glazed organ meat but you can’t get that type of delicacy everyday.
Breakfast was wonderful and I took my second cup of PG Tipps to the coffee table and promptly laid back down and fell asleep. Again. I slept through the cooking of breakfast for the boys and the doing of the dishes. I actually thought I was getting the cold that plagued the family right before we left Maryland, but alas, I felt better after one last cuppa and an Allegra.
With our stomachs fat and happy, we headed out on the trail for Lower Slaughter. I was skeptical of this route (since I had slept through all the pre and post breakfast work) and assumed the Mrs. was trying to recreate a murder in a quaint British village. We do watch an inordinate amount of murder shows from the UK and she’s well versed in how to off a spouse. Today, I lucked out because death was not on her mind only hiking to a place called Lower Slaughter.
Before hitting the path to Slaughter, we decided to head into Bourton-on-the-Water to take a look around and grab a coffee. Since B-Koog was with us, he obviously needed second breakfast so we stopped at a place called “Bakery on the Water.” It was in fact a bakery and it was on the water. We enjoyed iced coffees while B ate his toasted ham and cheddar croissant. I took some photos of the gentle falls as well as some strangely dressed tourists before we hit the trail toward Lower Slaughter.
Once on the trail, we were enveloped by the the smell of honeysuckle. The smell was intoxicating. Mrs. Koog and I could not get enough. B-koog, being a 15 year old boy, said it smelled like “weeds.” We ignored him and kept enjoying the scent while trying to also ignore the angry song of a mourning dove. I thought it was an agitated owl but it was just the ugly cry of an average bird.
The path took us across a very busy street with trucks, busses and speeding cars. Never knowing which way to look to see when a car would hit us, we decided to pay close attention to crosswalks and only crossed with the green-means-go-man illuminated. We still almost died a few times, though.
We passed Hawkstone brewery, where Jeremy Clarkson’s beer and cider are brewed. Yes, I am a big fan of Mr. Clarkson, all the way back to his *Top Gear* days. The path was green and winding through horse fields that included the biggest piles of horse crap I have ever seen in my long life. They looked like giant poo-pumpkins on the side of the path but strangely didn’t smell. We said a small prayer of thanks for the lack of scent.
As we came off of the path, it opened up to the most beautiful oasis of water, flowers and stone cottages I’ve ever witnessed. The name Lower Slaughter had me skeptical of its beauty, but how wrong I was! It was exactly what I envisioned when I thought of The Cotswolds. The honey colored stone cottages with gorgeous flowers, a shallow brook moving through the houses and a waterwheel reflecting in the brook against a royal blue sky. I took some photos of the place but I am sure no matter how good they may be, they won’t be able to portray the actual beauty of this place.
Just as I was getting more and more engrossed in the beauty and photographic potential of this place, Mrs. Koog needed to retire to a washroom. While she searched for that, B and I wandered around the art show that was at their village hall. I love his interest in art and his ability to accurately explain an artists technique. He’s such a smart guy! Quirky but super smart and (sometimes) funny.
Mrs. Koog rejoined us and guess what, B-koog had to find the washroom now except he wanted an escort. We both explained that we would not be doing this so he decided he’d ignore Mother Nature and wait until we got back to our little Jasmine Cottage. We were 2 miles away and we were walking. I cannot help his bad decisions…
I did what landscape photographers do, I wandered around looking for the perfect composition and completely disregarded time and space anyone’s urges to relieve themselves. Rushing is never part of my workflow no matter who needs to use the facilities. After taking at least 300 photos, I was finally done and we commenced our walk back to Jasmine Cottage. B has the ability to use the “he-wee” and go almost anywhere but, nope, he was waiting until we got back to our place. Gotta love a young man with resolve and a strong bladder!
Following the path back to the cottage, we entered the trail with the gorgeous honeysuckle scent and the whaling of the mourning doves. This time, B-Koog could smell the sweetness of the scent and said it didn’t smell like weeds anymore. I was wondering if the full bladder made his other senses more aware? Not sure but at least he was able to enjoy the beautiful wafting scents with me and the wife.
As we were nearing the end of the path and approaching our cottage, we saw a baby mouse! While I am no lover of rodents, this thing was undeniably adorable. Fuzzy and tiny and just super cute, a nice man picked it up out of the sun and the middle of the path and put the baby in the shady grass. It was adorable and if it wouldn’t turn into a filthy rodent, I would have wanted to keep it was a pet.
We passed the gorgeous church near our cottage that was apparently running the world’s longest funeral. This farewell service was going when we first left the house 2.5 hours before and it appeared to still be going strong. Must have been quite a mensch!
Anyway, with B in a full sprint to the facilities at the cottage we arrived back to find E-Koog awake and coincidentally, we also found the entire loaf of sourdough bread gone while the bag lay empty on the counter. Obviously, since E had “no idea” how the empty bag was on the counter, we assumed someone had come into the cottage, walked past the $15K worth of camera equipment and went right for the bread and left the bag. Dude, clean up after yourself!
It had been at least an hour since E had eaten and B needed “downtime,” so the 3 of us headed across the street to “The Mousetrap Inn” for lunch. Steak pies for me and E and a fish finger sandwich for Mrs. Koog along with 2 1/2 pints of Cider and a Coke were quickly delivered to our table by a nice gentleman that we assume was the owner. E and I quickly dug into the best steak pie ever made. I assume, due to the close proximity to the church, God herself laid hands on these pies! As we were enjoying these heaven sent entrees, B texted his order of, wait for it, steak pie. We brought it back and he agreed these were made by the hands of the Goddess.
Not allowed to rest, Mrs. Koog rallied us to walk another mile to the Miniature Village. It is as it sounds, a miniature version of Bourton-on-the-Water, complete with a miniature version of the Miniature Village. So very literal and so very British. It was very cool and it was one of the sites I really wanted to see before we left this area. They also had a cool exhibit of other diorama type miniatures inside a museum type thing. There was one with a scantily clad woman on a bed, bottle of wine in hand; a half naked man hiding under the bed and an old man in a full suit complete with an ascot leaning back into a chair in shock to see what we assume is his wife in a compromising position. E said, “that’s you!” I had to ask which one he was talking about and immediately regretted it. “The naked one under the bed!” He said this with the seriousness of a heart attack. I stared in disbelief. I asked him which one was his mother and he said “the one on the bed with the bottle of wine and the lace night gown.” Again, said with no humor or irony at all. I promise anyone that was within earshot of this discussion, this scene has never been played out in our home.
After that exchange, I needed a drink but instead we stopped for iced coffee and gelato. I had the Cotswold cream and cherries. It was amazing. While the Mrs., E and B discussed the interpretation of the adulterous diorama, I escaped to buy eggs, rashers and crumpets for breakfast. The boys carried the groceries back while me and my lady slowly strolled back to Jasmine Cottage never to mention the boys diorama interpretation again.
Upper Slaughter was on the agenda for sunset. It was not the best of the Slaughters so we quickly abandon that idea and went back to Lower Slaughter. We arrived just before the start of the perfect light on the cottages, flowers and water. I haven’t downloaded the images yet but from what I could see in my monitor, they looked spectacular (but still not as beautiful as the real thing I fear). Right before we left home, I bought a set of stupid expensive NiSi JetMag Landscape Photography ND filters with a circular polarizer. After my first composition tonight, I moved my camera, set up my tripod and immediately dropped my polarizer into the stream! Before I could unfold from the position I was in *under* my tripod, the Mrs. popped off her shoes and slid into the freezing ankle-deep water and grabbed my filter. I’m starting to think she really does love me!
With my polarizer wet but unharmed, I continued my compositions for another 35 minutes all along the shallow creek following the beautiful setting sunlight. The reflections were sublime and the honey-colored cottages glowed in the setting sun of golden hour. How lucky we were to witness that level of beauty not once but twice in one day.
I captured all the compositions I could make and we headed back to the car. The ride home offered a few more stops with different vantage points of the countryside, sheep, fields and trees that I jumped out of the car to capture. Again, I am confident that no image regardless of the quality of the composition could capture the beauty we witnessed.
Jasmine Cottage was dark when we got back. Yes, our children were sitting *in the dark* playing on their phones. When asked why they didn’t turn on the lights E replied “didn’t notice it was dark, brah.” Mrs. Koog and I just looked at each other through the dark and shook our heads.
We logged 8 miles of walking today. It was a really great day! (even if our children believe their mother is some type of adulteress and I am some nude dude hiding under the bed…)
Tomorrow is our last day here before we head out to some other place I don’t remember the name of and stay at a sketch hotel that cost *more* for 2 nights than the entirety of our 4 nights in London so E and I can be close to Silverstone for the F1 British Grand Prix on Sunday. Yup, we are certifiable.
Until tomorrow…
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