Warwick Castle, Shakespeare's Birthplace, Oxford, & Cotswolds 2024

On Friday, October 4, we joined a tour led by Pablo on a bus driven by Parth.

First stop was Warwick Castle.

The castle had exhibits showing what life was like in medieval times.

This river flowed by the castle, very convenient to the original inhabitants.

I enjoyed sitting and people watching while Martin climbed to walk on the wall.

Next stop - Stratford on Avon.

I had to visit this shop because my maiden name is Thornton.

The owner has written several children's books.

I bought one to share with the grands.

Statue across the square.

Shakespeare's birthplace was still standing.

The gardens were almost finished blooming.

Exterior of the house.

More blooms.

The kitchen.

We drove through the Cotswold countryside on our way to Oxford.

Beautiful rolling hills.

One of the colleges of Oxford.

Courtyard of the Bodlean Library.

Old tree with parasites growing from cracks in the bark.

Still green leaves in October.

We returned to London and found our way back to our hotel.

 

Twinings London

This is the London Twinings Tea Shop.

It has been in the same location since 1706.

There were pots of tea to sample at this counter.

My bag was filled with Twinings tea and accessories.

There was a cute young clerk who offered to take photos of us.

I saw the door of the shop on our trip to London at Christmas in 2005.

I didn't get a chance to visit at that time.

It was on my list of places to visit on this trip.

Well worth the time it took to walk over from our hotel.

Here are the things that came home with us.

The Rosy Fig flavor White Tea is so delicious.

I was surprised to see that the tea cup was made in the UK.

Had to have a photo of this mosaic at the entrance.

Posting these to save.

 

Visiting the UK - London Arrival

After an uneventful flight we arrived in London and found our way 

on the subway to our hotel at Trafalgar Square.

We deposited our bags at the Thistle Hotel and caught a hop-on/hop-off bus tour.

The two day pass was included with our Tenon Tour.

We rode the whole Red Tour just to get reacquainted with the city.

I have to admit some of the time I dozed off since I hadn't slept on the flight.

One place we had not visited in previous trips was Covent Gardens.

The Transportation Museum was nearby.

We found some great gifts in their gift shop.

I sat on the plaza while Martin searched for the restaurant for our late lunch.

This building was on the way to Covent Gardens.

I thought it was very distinctive.

We gobbled up lunch but remembered to snap a picture of dessert.

I ordered gingerbread with custard.

Martin had the sticky toffee pudding.

He said mine was tastier.

This is the restaurant.

We really liked the selections and enjoyed eating outside.

To order lunch diners choose a protein, type of mashed potato, and type of gravy.

Ginger beer - really ginger ale to us Americans.

The other must see for me was the Twinings Tea Shop.

In business at the same address since 1706.

It is tea-lovers heaven.

I found three tea blends to take home, a mug made in England, a 'tea' spoon, and a spoon rest.

Our bus pass included a trip on the Thames from Big Ben to the Tower of London.

The skyline has really changed since our last visit.

All the glass buildings are new.

We landed at the Tower.

We started across from the London Eye.

Lots of walking the first two days.

Next post I will share days 3 & 4.

 

Yesterday's finish - Posted on the wrong blog -again

Yesterday I finished this lap quilt.

Bonnie Hunter offered the free leader/ender pattern in the summer of 2023.

I dug into my scrap stash especially leftover binding bits.

These blocks were the bigger size offered in the pattern. 

The middle section contains the first blocks I made.

I put the blocks aside to work on other projects.

After a while I started sewing the blocks again and did not re-read the instructions.

The top and bottom sections are the newer blocks.

When I started sewing the blocks together I realized the newer blocks twirled in the opposite direction.

So I named this quilt Oopsie Daisy Whoops.

Some of my favorite fabric bits are in this quilt.

Everything came from my stash including the frankenbatting.

It will be donated to a quilt guild charity.

My paper pieced version of Gotham Quilts' Indiglow pattern is now a top.

The plan is to add some rows to the top and bottom to make it a rectangle.

Then I want to hand quilt it, kind of like sashiko stitching.

I used indigo fabrics I have collected 

plus two fat quarters with traditional Japanese children at play. 

I'm thinking of calling it Playing in Shades of Indigo and Gold.