On my way to Bournton-on-the-Water

Once again this is a picture of that wonderful view between houses - I zoomed in on this animal which I think must be a sheep. Hard to tell. 

It was only 5c when I started off my walk today so I dressed in 4 layers: tank, short sleeved top, long sleeved top and zip up sweater. Eventually it warmed up to 20c (about 72F) and I had an ice cream cone later in the day :)

Today I had Tisky on my mind. Kazi texted me that she wasn't doing well at all and she would probably take her to the vet to see about having her put to sleep. I wish I could be there to support Kazi and to say goodbye to Tisky.

 I went by St. Edwards one last time - it looked wonderful in the morning sunlight. I stayed and sketched for about an hour. My walk today is the shortest one so I can take my time. (or so I thought - dum dum dum!)

 I took this exit into the church walk and began walking out of Stow-on-the-Wold.

 Well it was harder getting out of town than I had thought!! I had a heck of a time finding the path. Once I had walked down to another intersection I knew I had missed it so slowly started to backtrack (up a steep hill of course!) One of the problems was that the path was on the other side of the road where there was no sidewalk so I had to try to spot it from across 4 lanes of a busy highway.

Nope, that's not it!

And no, that's just a laneway...

Ahhhhh wait! There's the sign!!

And there's the landmark I'm supposed to look for...

 Here it is from a few feet away - much harder to see the sign isn't it?  Can you find it?

And here it is from the sidewalk I had to walk on - now can you see why I missed it the first time? What with someone's garbage sitting by the side of the road waiting for pickup?

 I was relieved to finally be on my way but had to stop to say "hello" to some chickens! I think I saw the largest variety of animals and birds and poultry today!

 And gorgeous flowers too...

 Remember - always look BACK!

And yes, I'm climbing hills again...

 and now, into the forest I go...

 ...until I come to a field gate with this sign on it!!

 We were warned that there might be a bull out grazing here and there and to just carefully mind our own business, but remember to...

LOOK DOWN!!

This field was a land mine of cow and bull patties!! But I was on top of a hill and the views were amazing! So I carefully put down my pack and my hat and carefully walked around the piles of poop taking a few photos. There were no cows and NO BULL to be seen, thankfully!

 Back to the path...and another gate...

 through a forest...

Until I came to a farm, a very prosperous looking farm...

 ...with lots of horses...

friendly horses...

 ...and a lovely border collie to take care of them...

 The farm had a few cottages attached to it...

 ...barns and stables...

 ...LOTS of horses...

 ...and then...I remembered to...... look BACK!! Oh my, what a house!!

Let's see...walk forward...or LOOK BACK!!??

I definitely needed eyes in the back of my head for this trip!!

 Goodbye beautiful farm!!

 A little further on another beautiful spot...complete with swans...

 You can see why I needed a lot of time to get from one village to the next!! Oh look, there's the cows!!

And a fantastical tree!

This looks like a good spot to take a break.  I sat on the stile and had my Cliff bar, some nuts, an apple and a ginger/carrot fruit leather or two. It's good I stopped for some nutrition as I had a lot of wandering ahead of me as I mixed up my fields!! Uh oh!!