Every Little Helps!

Fridays dawned murky and mysterious.

The exciting task of hoovering the ringing chamber carpet was on the agenda for the evening. The next day we were hosting the local branch of our local bellringing association. We had noted at our previous practice that the carpet was in urgent need of vacuuming. This restricted our adventures, as we needed to be back before 5pm, as we would be fitting in the hoovering before our ringing.

After much deliberation we decided that we would head off to Broadway - a place we rarely visit, as it not big enough to be a town, and so has none of the advantages of one.

The excuse for our visit was that we were looking for a picture to hang in the kitchen.
In reality, if the perfect picture was found in Broadway it would be way too expensive,
as shops in the Cotswolds seem to charge a premium for their wares,
relying on tourists being tempted and willing to pay over the odds.
Still, it was a good excuse to wander around the shops.
I stock up with a good supply of birthday cards that appealed to my sense of humour.
I do hope the recipients share my taste...
I also managed to purchase a birthday present for G1.
Unfortunately, her birthday isn't until July.
Let's hope I can still find it in five months time!

We examined the menu of each and every food establishment we passed.
Finding a place doing light lunches in this honey-stoned hotspot is not easy.
They would rather provide a banquet  - and charge you accordingly!
We just required a simple lunch.
One course.
Nothing too fancy.
Eventually, we found a small cafe that seemed to meet our humble requirements.
A cheese scone was my request.
I asked if it was served warm.
"All our scones are served warm." was the reply.
Yes, it was warm, but warm-from -having-been-cooked-a-while-ago, rather than the heated-up-and-butter-meltingly-warm I was anticipating.
At least it wasn't cold.
Scones serve cold can be rather dry and unforgiving.

In view of the sunshine, we decided to head off to Broadway Tower.
We returned to the car park to discover car chaos.
Vehicles jostled for any available space,
with the ensuing queue stretching on to the access road
and making it difficult for vehicles to leave
to free up spaces for the vehicles who wished to park.
Some lucky person speedily snapped up the space we vacated.

Broadway Tower was overrun.
The car park was full and additional cars parked on the surrounding verges.
We didn't linger,
but decided to bring the KHT back on a quieter day,
when the visibility would be better.
Today a swathe of cloud hung over the Vale of Evesham.
The Malverns were nowhere to be seen, shrouded in mystery.

We drove on until we had to decide between Morton-in-Marsh or Stow on the Wold.
We opted for Stow.
Every space in the square was occupied.
The car park was also full, so was the additional parking.
We ended up at Tesco, where surprisingly their appeared to be no limit on how long we could stay, but we were only planning a short visit.
We toured several shops and I found an excellent birthday card for DH.
We popped into Tesco before we left.
I bought some flowers and the KHT chose some noodles.
The cashier advised us that there was no limit on how long we could park, which was a relief.
No excess parking fine would cause recriminations and regret.
This could become our parking place of choice for Stow!
Handy for popping in for some shopping on our way back.
Every little helps!