Chedworth Roman Villa

  We drove down narrow country roads with views of typical rolling hills and idyllic cotswolds countryside but an unexpected sight, Chedworth roman villa. Apparently the cotswolds was a common area for roman villas (villa means rural building in latin) and many are likely to be in and around the area near Chedworth but this is the first one we had ever seen.

Some parts of this amazing site have been dated back as early as the 2nd century and they believe that it was over time added to and updated right up until its peak in the 4th century. It at that time was a place of luxury and wealth it even had underfloor heating. Wishing we had this at home right now, Uk spring, so its freezing.

Channels and pipes still remain showing how the underfloor heating would of been used 

Don't think I would of volunteered to go into the cold immersion bath but for the romans bathing wasn't just about getting clean it was very much about being social and they would often talk and get together in these huge baths. 

Throughout this ruin you can see remnants of mosaic floors and vast bath houses i can only imagine how amazing it would of looked in its day and with the cold that day wished it still had that underfloor heating. It was brilliant to walk in the footsteps of the romans and imagine what it might of been like and they had very impressive bating rituals as you can see in the picture below

This was an imagine the national trust provided to explain the way in which this area would of looked.

This is an amazing and very interesting place to visit i learnt so much and was alot of fun for me and the bear to explore, what it would of been like to bath here or to see the mosaic floors freshly laid. 

Our Allotment

 When we are not adventuring and exploring the wilds of England we like to escape to our allotments,  the dream would be to live off the land using our rich soil and changing seasons to grow our own source of food. We took on an old allotment tucked away in the corner, it needed a lot of love and care to bring it back to life. Over the last few months we have been clearing it ready for this years crops. 

This is our plot we have split it into two halfs one side is for our 8 chickens and the other is for growing.

The chicken coop 

The plot had been left for a number of years and needed work to clear however we did a little walk around in late autumn and managed to tidy a few bushes and trim some back for this spring already. 

We have a beautiful old wall at the end and are surrounded by forest. We have seen an abundance of wildlife from woodpeckers to deer, we hope to clear this and make it into a lovely wildlife section including a little frog pond and insect hotel.

Going to take some clearing Adam is going to need to build those muscles

We have a couple of fruit bushes that have already made a home for themselves including a blackcurrant, gooseberry and thornless blackberry. 

We have 8 chickens that live on our allotment each one has there own personality and are obsessed with worms, lucky for them when we are digging up plenty for them, however they often getting under our feet, even sitting on the shovel to get the first chance at them. 

Fresh eggs are a perfect to keep us going on our adventures, we average 7 eggs a day

We make sure our chickens have a good life giving them lots of space to explore and obstacles to play on 

With spring approaching we have decided to start digging out plots so we can start planting later in the season 

Bear gets to work digging our first plot (its never as easy as it looks even after many times) 

Sarah braking up the mud to make our patch soft and ready to plant our first crop of Garlic 

We have our first ever crop to plant this year we decided to plant garlic as we use it often in our recipes and it helps keep other pests away. 

After a long day of clearing and digging we sat down for a cup of tea and some dinner we have big plans for our little slice of the countryside and over the year we will be posting our progress and transforming our plot into our place to escape the modern world, feel free to comment and offer advice or even ask us questions we would love to here from you.