Shorthampton

I drove up the M20 and round the M25 the M40 to Oxford to see my Mum and have a bit of a powwow with my sister and brother. It is a long and uneventful drive and the hanging fog gradually cleared to reveal the Chiltern beech forests and fields of winter barley in their steely colours of late winter.

We then drove out into the rolling hills north and west of Oxford to Charlbury . We got sandwiches from the Co-op and ate them looking at the River Evenlode. We pushed on a bit into the Cotswolds and by the Wychwood before rolling up at the tiny All Saints church at Shorthampton.

It is a beautiful  and simple church made of Cotswold stone and stone slates with the remains of some richly-coloured wall paintings. It is located in a tiny, but tiny, hamlet of the hillside above the Evenlode valley. The sun shone, blackbirds and skylarks sang and it was very peaceful.

Later we half-watched the England-Wales rugby game and talked about the future while Mum slept .

Later after a takeaway I found myself fiddling with the broken dishwasher. In the morning I found the part needed on the internet and it may live again.

The extras are the church interior window and the view from the walled church grounds.