Ah, England…

…what a lovely place! After that bad, jet-lagged night I described yesterday, I did well last night: bed at ten and up at six with just a few moments of wakefulness around 2PM. No repeat, thank goodness, of the previous night’s insomnia.

Once Ellie rejoined me in the land of the living—she slept late, lucky she—we made an excellent bowl of fruit and cereal and headed out to the town alone, leaving Flora to some much-needed catch-up time with her email. The fruit and vegetable market in Cirencester’s main street proved a less that inspiring affair, so we moved on to the Antiques Fair...



...in the neighboring Corn Hall—a building clearly renovated with an arcade of upscale shops, a hairdresser, and a fine restaurant.

Antiques Fair…? Not memorable, to our eyes, but fun to walk through. Here’s an amazing story, though: at the very last stall, as we were about to leave, Ellie pointed to a bracelet and exclaimed, That’s exactly like mine! Checking her wrist to prove her point, she found that hers was missing. She was sure she had put it on. Then it dawned on her: it actually WAS hers. Reluctant to appear to be stealing an object from the stall, we approached the owner with the bracelet to ask if it was a part of her merchandise. Well, no. It wasn’t. So it must have simply fallen off Ellie’s wrist when she reached out to examine something, and stayed there, looking for all the world as though it belonged amongst the antiques on display. A lucky thing that no one else had bought it! A lucky thing, too, that we had stopped back at the same stall on the way out. Curious, no?

For lunch, we returned to the Brewery Arts Center...



... where Flora had taken us the day before, and shared an excellent, fresh vegetable salad and a ham quiche. Then a stroll through town to the Earl of Bathurst’s park, where we followed the “River Walk”...



under beautifully blossoming trees...





... and alongside a mossy wall that Ellie particularly loved...





for a half mile before heading out into the open country for what must have been at least another mile. At the “Ewe Pens” farm and the good Earl’s Polo Grounds, we doubled back, this time through the woods filled with delightfully budding trees, to the top of the long, straight, formal parade...



... that leads beck into town. I’ll let the pictures tell the story better than I could.







Back home at Flora’s (this is her street...)



... Ellie wisely took an hour with her book whilst I had a long, welcome family chat with my sister. Then a delicious light dinner, the recorded BBC News, and an early night.