OVERTON, HAMPSHIRE, UK. Monday, April 23-29, 2018

We arrived in Overton on the most narrow winding road the GPS could find for us...even a bit harrowing at times trying to share the teeny road with another car. Finally arriving late afternoon in Overton, UK. We had three kitties to care for over the next five days.

The house looked like so many other brick homes along our drive but once inside it was quite anther story! Extremely modern renovation nearly at the end, absolutely beautiful and comfortable.\

The lime green kitchen accent was perfect and opened onto a small lounge area with full glass views to the open yard and river behind the house.

 Our cats were delightful; two Birmans, Hudson and Orla, a sweet old Tabby.

The house backed up to the River Test.

 
 Village church on our way into town for groceries.

 Lovely thatched  homes everywhere

TRAVELING TOWARDS CHAWTON 

HOME of JANE AUSTEN

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

 Village thatched homes abound

 Chawton Cottage, the 17th Century home in which novelist Jane Austen lived and wrote and spent the last eight years of her life. It is now a museum, a most wonderful experience to be walking the rooms of her life. She moved here in 1809 with her mother, sister Cassandra and friend, Martha. In May 1817, after a period of ill health, Jane left the village to seek treatment in Winchester and died two months later on July 18, 1817. Jane's mother and sister continued to living in the house for the rest of their lives.

About a block away and an easy walk is Chawton House, which belonged to Jane Austen's brother, Edward.  She would often walk to visit the "Great House".

 It started raining as we walked down and after a tour of the house we had tea in the kitchen.
 But as often happens, the sun popped out on our walk back to the car.

THURSDAY, APRIL 26

Lunch with Diane and Trevor near Worthing, UK.  Friends we'd met on the cruise across in the spring. A pretty two hour drive with sun in and out. Diane made us a wonderful lunch with champagne then took us to the nearby Garden Center to help Paul find a pair of wellies for our rainy day walks ahead.

                                                       

                                                   BASILDON PARK,
                                                     Reading, Berkshire

                                                  FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018
                                                                   
     
Friday morning we drove north to visit the National Trust property of Basildon Park, a 400 acre historic parkland, gardens and amazing 18th-century house. In the 1950s Lord and Lady Iliffe purchased the house when it was de-requisitioned after the Second World War. The Iliffes brought it back to life, acquiring a collection of fine furnishings and Old Masters and returning the enormous estate to its easier beauty.

The spring bluebells were in full bloom and we walked several wooded paths before leaving as the rain began to fall.

                                  THE BOMBAY SAPPHIRE DISTILLERY
                     LAVERSTOKE MILL, WHITCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE

 The afternoon continued to be gray and drizzly, perfect to finish our days here touring the Bombay Sapphire Distillery just down he road in the next village from Overton. Having booked our tickets we spent the afternoon sniffing botanicals in the beautifully repurposed mill buildings. There has been a Mill on site in Laverstoke since at least 903 AD,originally a corn mill, later the mill was converted to paper mill. and now the beautiful distillery.

 After a very interesting tour it was time to choose our own botanicals and have the skilled bar tenders prepare our own creative drink!

We packed a lot of things into those five days and then it was time celebrate my birthday in a village west of Overton.

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2018

HAPPY 71ST BIRTHDAY!!

MOTTISFONT and ALWESTON AIRBNB

 We left Overton by 9 on Saturday and had planned to spend time in Winchester, we got lost so many times we finally left and drove on to Romsey and visited Mottisfont nearby, an 18th-century house with a medieval priory at its heart. We spent an hour seeing the house and gardens and then realized we still had another 1.5 hours of driving to get to our AirBNB, finally arriving at 4:30.

 amazing gardens, hedges, fountains, sculptures and kitchen gardens.

 the lower vaults under the house

We had a darling AIRBnB stay at The Dairy Cottage in Alweston and celebrated my birthday at The Green in the quaint village of Sherborne.

Sunday morning we drove back to Sherborne to tour the cathedral.  Along the drive we stopped to see this amazing sculpture of a 20ft metal WWI soldier created at Dorset Forge.It was created from rusted metal to mark the anniversary of the end of the war. It made from a variety of items including car jacks, brake discs, and horseshoes. It is called The Haunting and was designed to look like a ghost.

 We took the rest of the afternoon to wander through the town before driving on to our next housesitting and dog.