Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday–Day 1

Today we set off for our first holiday in four years. Until now we haven’t been able to get away because of problems dealing with extremely elderly parents, and moving house, but my hubby finally retired last Sunday and today we shed the shackles and took off! My sister came down yesterday and scooped up Mum to stay with her till we get back.

I hate the run-up to a holiday. There is always so much to do, and I get very tired with it all. Add to this two really bad nights on the trot and I felt under pressure and not in a very good humour this morning! However, as we set off up the A38 towards Exeter I felt my spirits lift, and the burdens fall away, and I suddenly felt in holiday mood at last!

It was lunch time by the time we left, because my hubby was worried about the weight we had on board – he could hear the wheels scraping against the mud flaps and knew the friction would cause an unacceptable amount of heat, so he took the mud flaps off. While he was doing this, I offloaded some heavy stuff that I decided I could do without after all, and redistributed the rest, and after a visit to the garage to add a few more psi to the tyres, we were set to go.

We turned off the main road near Haldon, and went into Ashbourne Forest to eat our sandwiches. In my view there is no more beautiful sight than an English beech wood in spring, with the sun filtering through the leaves – except perhaps when the ground is also carpeted with bluebells! Unfortunately the bluebells are now over, but this was the view from the car:

Today was a lovely sunny day, which makes a change, but it was way too hot for me. We made good time to our first destination, a farm bed and breakfast some miles outside Salisbury, near the village of Coombe Bisset.

After unpacking and having a cup of tea, we explored outside. The summer house in the garden is apparently equipped with a microwave so that guests can heat up ready meals if they wish.

Round the back of the house was an enclosure with ducks. These little ducklings were quite nervous of us, and huddled together in the corner of the cage.

One of a series of duck ponds, this one with a mermaid fountain. I love the purposeful duck striding along the edge!

The back of the house from the duck pond.

Beyond the duck enclosure was a large poultry enclosure. Here is one of the peacocks. They were making quite a noise.

Chickens wandering freely among the poultry houses.

I love their fluffy bottoms!

Baby chicks.

Gorgeous fluffy white chickens.

Guinea fowl.

We went back into the village to the local pub for an excellent meal, and then returned to our bed and breakfast and continued unpacking and setting up the computers. The wifi access won’t penetrate the wall into our bedroom so I shall have to take the computer through into the dining room and access the Internet from there – apparently the connection is a bit dodgy, especially in the evenings, but I hope to upload this blog post on the day it was written!

So ends Day 1 of our holiday. Off to a school reunion in Salisbury tomorrow morning! I hope I recognise at least some of them after all this time! On our way to our B&B we drove past the house of one of my best friends from school, and loads of happy memories of staying there with her flooded back.