A Torch and A Trail

The Olympic torch made a stop in our City on Saturday evening.

The weather wasn't kind to us and we all felt pretty damp and soggy as we waited in Mayflower Park,

but we did enjoy the entertainment, watching dancers and listening to Wretch 32.

The torch arrived on the ferry from the Isle of Wight and then did a lap of the City centre

before coming back to the park so the cauldron could be lit.

Today the sun shone and so we packed a picnic and went for a walk on the Cobbett Trail in the nearby village of Botley.

One of the first things to catch my eye was this beautiful honeysuckle growing over the wall of the Old Rectory.

We all liked this little wooden cabinet sat in a hedge as a means for selling eggs from a local farm.

As we came into the village there were lots of really picturesque buildings 

and a penny farthing in what looked like a shop window but it didn't look as though the shop was actually in use.

This bath planted up with lavender was on the corner of a road which led to a bathroom fittings shop!

Just off the main High Street is what I think was called Malthouse Lane which was a previous winner of a prize in Britain in Bloom and it was full of flowers. This little row of cottages were really pretty with the white window boxes and the lamps.

Slightly further along was this white washed cottage with a pretty blue wooden porch

and on the opposite side of the road ran and old brick wall which as well as having this wonderfully weathered door set into it, it had a profusion of cottage garden flowers running along the length of it.

And we weren't the only ones enjoying them.

According to an information board we found the Quay at Botley was once a thriving hub of activity when the waterways were used to transport goods, but now it just provides somewhere to sit and watch the river go by

unless of course you venture down to the water's edge and get stuck in the mud.

 Silly photo of T which just had to be included.

This lovely looking place is Steeple Court Manor where William Cobbett' s sister and brother in law lived. Very nice indeed.

Just as well we were all kitted out in wellies as as well as the mud there were plenty of puddles on the walk and S decided that the best course of action was to hopscotch through this one!

As we neared the end of the walk we wondered if we would get the chance to picnic looking at the clouds above but we needn't have worried as although there were a couple of spots of rain it didn't amount to much.

Just had to take a photo of this crisp G found, he reckons it is shaped just like a Trojan helmet!

Final photo is a bit random but I had to include my new set of polka dot tupperware type boxes and the strawberries I hulled using my new top tip.