Westonbirt Arboretum and Broadway

Took advantage of a couple of days of late October sun to view the autumn colours at Forestry Commissions Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury in Wiltshire. It was a late decision to go, so we spent Tuesday night in the Cotswold water park at Cirencester. The remaining short drive next morning was thru some very nice and no doubt very expensive little villages en route to Westonbirt and we then spent most of the day walking in the arboretum. Ideal time and weather to see the brilliant colours of the acers and take lots of photographs of course. Its the national arboretum and as such it covers a big area with a huge variety of trees, but at this time of the year 2 walks are signposted, of about 2 miles each to take in the best of the Autumn foliage, which we did before and after lunch. We were not alone - thousands of other like minded people were doing the same. Click link in the Blogroll for a selection of photos.

Then drove up to Broadway in the late afternoon and arrived at a CL behind a farm shop, Rosemary's favourite kind. There was no reply from phone number but the gate was not locked and it was getting dark, so we let ourselves on to the field anyway. We were on our own, needless to say, with lovely views over the Vale of Evesham. I cooked a full evening meal in the van for the first time (I usually do BBQ's) and in the morning we shopped in the farm shop and later in Broadway itself before heading home. A rather long diversion via Banbury took us to the national herb centre for a lunch break in the car park and a bit more shopping. There were 17 varieties of Rosemary and 16 of Mint to choose from - so we bought Sage and Basil plants instead!

Arrived home early evening with a strong following wind as the rain started - just timed it right for once.