July 07 Moreton in Marsh to Bledington

Early on I met an equestrian whose horse liked to gallop.  I waned to remember the horse's name so I could introduce you,  but I don't:

 Speaking of horses, this is horse country as in expensive racing or breeding horses. (Maybe they are the same?)  How does one ascertain this?

There are many large paddocks:

Horse topiary at horse estates:

Not a few expensive cars in the parking area:

Horses being led around and others alone in the paddocks.  But maybe not all horses like this style of living and would prefer a different kind of stile:

He could have come with me (he was trying).  

I walked though many kinds of fields today.

Por ejemplo:

But OMG:

I saw a herd of cattle:

Am I supposed to be in this field with all these cows?  

I swallowed hard and paid them no mind.  When I got to the end of the field and saw the electric wire, I realized that, no, I was not supposed to be companioning with the herd, so I turned back, found an exit to an adjacent field and, with some relief, bid adieu to this group of bovines.

Toward the end of the walk, there was some pleasant woodland:

A sign in desperate need of punctuation: 

Bledington boasts some attractive houses.  Here is one with artwork on its thatched roof:

Everyone says that there is nothing in Bledington but that is not entirely accurate!

True, there is no place to pernoctate, so I had to return to Moreton, which I did by walking a mile and a half or so to Kingham, whence I took a seven minute train ride back to Moreton

I had started out at 6:00 a.m., so I was back in town by 1:00.  "I think I will betake myself to the Gardens at Bourton on the Hill some 2+ miles distant." I mused, because Alex and Alex liked it a whole lot while I was not so impressed; maybe I had missed something.  After about fifteen minutes of walking, the usual annoying traffic turned into absolutely awful highway traffic, but I soldiered on, hopping up on the grass at every roar.  After about twenty minutes of this madness, I checked Google Maps because it seemed strange that they would send a pedestrian to her death on a busy, shoulderless highway just to see some flowers.  Indeed, I had missed a turn.  That was the extent of a revisit to the Gardens of  Bourton on the Hill.  I did laundry instead.

The place we stayed in Moreton was advertised as Luxury Cotswold Retreats.  It did have some praiseworthy features such as good lighting, excellent wi-fi, and, as mentioned previously, a great shower, but many features are not up to snuff, such as the outdoor seating area, to name one: