Whilst travelling around the Cotswolds our guests often remark on the beautiful gardens and the pride of residents who upkeep their ‘little slice of heaven’. With roses and honeysuckle climbing up the cottages walls, lavender clinging to the paths and the riot of colour within the cottage gardens. This all adds to the Cotswolds charm, our very own secret garden supports so much wildlife and with each season we enjoy the visitors, from butterflies on

the buddleia, dragon flies with their metallic sounding wings almost like nature’s own helicopter. The ‘lesser spotted’ woodpeckers, tiny jenny wrens nesting in one of our 28 trees! We have great crested newts which are extremely rare and I always love the frog spawn in the spring and the tiny froglets that despite their size make ginormous leaps across the grass. Recently with all the wet weather a bird’s nest slipped further down the branch of our old

meddler tree but the parents continued to feed their chicks at a jaunty angle. As we look towards the hill of Chastleton with its manor house, late in the evenings we often spot deer in the fields, along with foxes hunting the many rabbits through the long grass. I never fail to be amazed by our own small part of Cotswolds paradise and I look forward to sharing the beauty of the Cotswolds with you!