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For those who didn’t see this elsewhere:

Our weekends are frequently put under strain by S’s work schedule but this week We took a rare weekend off and “did what normal people do”. Well, maybe not everyone. We went to the Ragged Cot, a recently renovated pub/restaurant/inn in the small Cotswold town of Minchinhampton – I can highly recommend it. One of those places where you just know the experience is going to be great – chic, modern rooms, very clean, nice smell (important), little details, friendly staff.
On the Saturday morning we got up at 5.30am (again, maybe not particularly normal) and headed off for a hot air balloon ride across the Cotswold villages. We were incredibly lucky, ours was the only flight in seven days (due to inclement weather) and there were people with us who’d been waiting more than 12 months to actually fly and had nearly concluded that the company was just an elaborate scam to hold their money.
The weather was beautiful though and the flight – especially the inflation and the landing, was a great experience. Few nice photos below.




































































We followed the experience (after a nap) with a trip to Woodchester Mansion – the most incredible building I think I’ve ever seen… built (or rather not quite finished) in the mid 1800s by one William Leigh, it was designed to be a family home (on a grand scale) mixed with a Catholic commune. It is elaborately gothic (see the pictures below), still a building site and quite eerily spooky. The fact that the builders departed swiftly (when William ran out of cash) means that unlike most gothic buildings, you can see how they built it – with the most incredible stone engineering and what the Victoria/Georgian’s thought was most important in such a building – “clean air” was a priority, for example. But there was a shower room with overhead gargoyle spout as well as a deep bath, carved out of limestone (and intended to be lined with lead) with gargoyle taps.
The place is really a very elaborate folly – it is estimated it will cost £6-7million just to “restore to it’s original condition” the chapel (just one part of the building). And donations and grants are relied upon just to keep the water out. It will never be finished and thus is destined to be an expensive and eccentric oddity as long as it still stands.
It was a wonderful diversion for an afternoon though and if I had the money, I’d want to buy it and turn it into the most fantastic (if crazy) house.
Few photos: