June 18, Middleyard to Painswick

Got up at 4:15 to be ready for a 5:30 taxi.  When leaving an Air B&B it is a good idea to allow extra time to tidy up the place.  Ready on time, I waited for the taxi outside, bag and all. 5:30 no taxi, 5:35 no taxi, and not at 5:40.  Phoned, several times, texted, no response.  Finally at almost 5:50 one of the two brothers who own this taxi concern answered but had no idea what I was talking about when I asked, "Uhh, where is the taxi?" (I had only confirmed twice.) Meantime, as I was having an absurd conversation with this brother, a lady taxi driver drove by, and noting, perhaps, my look of expectation,  stopped, listened to my dilemma, said she had a short job and would be back in ten minutes.  And she was.  Off we went 45 minutes after the appointed hour.  I was irritated for two reasons: why get up at 4:15 if you don't have to and thunder storms were expected, so I wanted to beat the rain.  It never rained.

Granted, the high humidity difficult-ized the walk, but the route was not particularly arduous.  In fact, it was quite pleasant. Lots of woods and lots of open areas with lovely views:

Two horses, one dressed, one undressed:

A stone with writing that looked just like cuneiform, only it wasn't:

A style design common along this stretch:

Coming into Painswick:

Cemetery with topiary:

I had planned to walk to the Rococo Gardens, about 1/2 hour from town, and indeed started out, but half way into the excursion was a sign: NO ENTRANCE TO PAINSWICK HOUSE AND ROCOCO GARDENS. DOGS ON THE LOSE.  I really did not feel like going back and starting over on the other route, uphill on main roads, so I had a tasty panini at a coffee shop and checked into the hotel.  This is the first splurge of the trip and am I ever enjoying it! The room is not large, but every comfort has been taken into consideration.   For example, and for those of you who care about such things, there was an outlet just aboveI the nightstand so that you could charge your devices without having to turn a wastepaper basket upside down on which to place your phone, e.g., so that the cord would reach the plug.  The fabrics, including the linens, were luxurious and the bed was DIVINE! 

Also, I had a nice chit-chat with an Indian family (are we allowed to say where someone is from these days?  Well, actually they were from Bristol) who were celebrating Father's Day not with their son who was in Greece, but with their daughter-in-law.  The very beautiful daughter-in-law was complaining about her son who was rude to her.  After she went on for a while about how much this hurt her, I asked, "How old is he?"  I thought she was going to say, 8.  But, no, he was 35! 

I hated to leave Painswick the next day.