Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds

My calendar says that its mid-October, but it sure doesn't feel like it. Though we've had a fair share of rain, we've also had plenty of sunny days as well. According to an article in the Guardian this weekend, this summer has been the longest and hottest summer EVER. Apparently, scientists have found that autumn is staying 10 days later than normal, spring appears 10 days earlier, and that the period for both seasons is lengthening all the time. On a whole, Britain is experiencing temperatures that are about 2 degrees (give or take half a degree, depending on where you are) celcius above average. Hello, global warming. A few weeks ago, we watched a very informative movie about global warming called "An Inconvenient Truth". It follows Al Gore across the globe, giving speeches about how effects of global warming have already been recorded, like ice-cap melting, droughts, and rising sea levels. If you have a chance to see the film, do it. If you don't, go to his website: www.climatecrisis.net for more information.

OK, so on to Bourton on the Water. This village is known as one of the prettiest villages in all of England. The houses and cottages are all made from yellow cotswold stone and date back 300-400 years. The River Windrush runs through the town, under arched stone bridges, and eventually joins us with the River Thames in London.

One of the main attractions in the town is a model village, which as you can see from the pictures above, makes Rich and I both look like giants. (If you hadn't noticed, there are two pictures of me on a bridge- the small one is the model of the large one).

By the way, on our little Sunday afternoon drive to the village, we headed west towards Gloucestershire, north of Cirencester. This is another great little joke that Brits like to play on foreigners. Gloucestershire is pronounced 'gloss-ter-sure', while Cirencester is prounounced 'Si-ren-cess-ter'. Does anyone else find this a bit bizarre? To pronounce 'cester' or not, that is the question.