A lovely little village whose name is. . . shh, it's a secret

When we were in England last Fall, we took two wonderful day-trips with The English Bus. One tour took us to Oxford, Stratford and the Cotswolds, the other to Bath, Stonehenge and a Secret Place.

I have written and shared photos of all our stops on the day trips (except for Stonehenge, for some reason) and if you missed them, just click on my highlighted links and have a look. Lovely photos, I promise.

When we set out on the Bath/Stonehenge trip, our guide told us we'd be going to "A Secret Place." He asked us all — there were 16 of us in the small bus — if we would keep his secret and we all agreed that we would.

So I'm not going to tell you the name of this secret place but I'm going to show you a few photos.

I will tell you that this place is mostly owned by The National Trust. You can come here to live (if you can afford a house) but you must agree to be an active part of a living community. This is not a medieval theme park. Young families are particularly welcomed — the school has around 75 students.

The latest structure that was built here was built around 1499.

The secret place has often made an appearance on television and in movies. It's so very picturesque, isn't it? You may recognize one of the old houses from the Harry Potter films.

Without further ado then (and don't forget to click on the photos):

(That's William. I'd know the back of his head anywhere.)

(William again, walking toward the Harry Potter house.)

(I wouldn't mind living in one of these little houses.)

This was certainly a highlight of our trip although I've said that a few times now. Maybe I'll reach the point of saying this was a "highlight of highlights."

Bless me Father for I have . . . murdered someone

I had watched five seasons of The Good Wife – American lawyers – and three seasons of Silk – English barristers – and I thought I needed a little break from the law.

I have begun to watch Father Brown, a series about G.K. Chesterson’s affable murder-solving priest. I remember Father Brown well from my earlier reading of the short stories. In the murder-solving genre, he’s a bit like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple – an unlikely detective.

It’s just what I was looking for. The stories and the characters are gentle; there are murders but they’re genteel and the murderers are usually not evil and they often come to an accidental end before the Inspector can get his hands on them.

That’s a relief because the stories this time around are set in the early 1950s – in the aftermath of the war – and the death penalty was still in effect in Great Britain. Much better for our murderer to stumble on to the track in front of a moving train than sent off to be hanged.

Part of my enjoyment of the series is the beauty of the village and surrounding countryside where Father Brown tends his flock. At one point, I said to myself, I think I’ve been there!

I looked it up and sure enough, the series is filmed in different villages in the Cotswolds. Some of those villages were on one of the tours we took with The English Bus. As always with the tour, our guide – Colin, in this case – had much information and many stories about these beautiful villages and as we had in other places, we parked the bus and he led a walking tour to make sure we got the maximum enjoyment.

Here are some photos of our stop – two different stops, in fact. As always, remember to click on the photos to enlarge them.

William and I agreed that we could live in one of these houses (below) – if they had good Internet. (A standard requirement.)