Hanwell is a small village of approximately 120 houses. It is situated three miles from the centre of Banbury in Oxfordshire and is linked to the town by the Warwick Road (B4100) and the Southam Road (A423) connecting with the small village road. The majority of the village is contained within a conservation area with two historic listed buildings on its southern boundary: The 12th century St. Peter's Church and Hanwell Castle. There are also medieval fish ponds within the village and many old houses and cottages.
Here's my version of the four seasons.
The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase.
~E.B. White, "Hot Weather," One Man's Meat, 1944
Summer is the time when one sheds one's tensions with one's clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all's right with the world.
~Ada Louise Huxtable
The one red leaf, the last of its clan,
That dances as often as dance it can,
Hanging so light, and hanging so high,
On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge
There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.
~Ruth Stout
There's plenty of opportunity to get out and about and observe the wildlife in the surrounding area.