26 September 2026

 First day in Burford and it felt a rare joy to have all my offspring together in one place, having wandered pyjama-ed, into the kitchen for morning coffee - 

The more energetic set off on a 3 hour country walk to make the most of a sunny day. 

Feeling lazy, I drove to the tiny village of Swinbrook to meet them at a pub for lunch at a half-way point on their walk -

There is good food to be had in the Cotswolds, it turns out -

This is Mitford country. The family home was nearby on the Windrush river, and four of the sisters are buried with their parents in the churchyard in Swinbrook.

The Swan Inn was owned by Deborah, who seems to have been the most conventional of the maverick siblings. 

Family photos fill the walls of the pub - here a line-up of the Mitford sisters behind the wee boy at our lunch table - 

He was entranced by the silky bantams in the large garden behind the pub -

When they got home from the hike later, Woodstock descended the stairs to greet them -

- happy to have his parents back, sitting together in the dog bed - 

and the wee boy enjoyed a ride on the sheep in the hallway, like a rodeo rider in his Pittsburgh Steelers T-shirt -

We lit the fire outside for drinks -

For dinner we cooked chicken piccata and roasted vegetables bought from the good butchery and grocers in the village -

and finished with a birthday cake baked with care by B -