About Us - Pauline Kenny and Steve Cohen
Pauline is the founder of Slow Travel (slowtrav.com) an online travel community (now owned by Internet Brands Inc.). Pauline ran the Slow Travel website and community from 2000 to 2007.
Pauline and Steve live in Santa Fe, NM (300 days of sunshine a year!). They live in a small, historic adobe house (a house made from mud) with their cat Buddy. They are from Canada and moved to the US in 1989, moving to Santa Fe in 1990.
Pauline is originally from Toronto and moved to Vancouver to attend university. Steve was also born in Toronto, but his family moved to Vancouver when he was young. We left Vancouver in 1987 to travel for a few years (a year traveling in the US, a year in Europe). Since then we have lived in Boston, Lenox MA, England, Hawaii, on a sheep farm in north-eastern Pennsylvania, Seattle and Santa Fe.
Pauline and Steve span the Baby Boom generation; Pauline in her mid 50s and Steve in his early 60s. We love to travel and get to Europe at least once a year, usually for a long trip (one or two months). Pauline is a long-time vegetarian, which explains the notes about vegetarian options for the Cotswold pubs and restaurants.
See our Media Mentions from our Slow Travel years and our personal website, CohenKenny.
Cotswolder Photos
Photos on the website are either by Pauline or by Kazz Hollick, a photographer based in Stroud, in the Cotswolds.
Cotswolder Logo
The Cotswolder logo was designed in July 2008 by Ginés Valera (www.mediacomm.es and www.lumina.es (under construction) - email: info@mediacomm.es). Ginés is Lumina on FeaturePics, a great site for buying graphics and photos to use on your websites.
Ginés lives in Spain. The logo for Cotswolder is a spiral of bluebells. My favorite time of year in the Cotswolds is the spring when the woods are filled with bluebells and Ramsons (also called Garlic Flowers). I sent Ginés some of my spring flower photos and this is what he came up with for our logo. I love the spiral and the gentle colors and being reminded of spring in the Cotswolds.
Why We Created "Cotswolder"
There are many good websites about the Cotswolds. Does the web need another one? I think so. Cotswolder does not have the detail of a tourist office website, it does not list every restaurant and every hotel in the Cotswolds, instead it describes the Cotswolds from a personal point of view. It presents traveling in the Cotswolds and in England from a North American perspective.
In 1989 - 1989 Steve and I spent a year traveling in Europe. We spent two months traveling around England, spending a week at a time in different areas - London, Sussex, Devon, Wales, Lake District, Scotland, Yorkshire Dales, Peaks District, Cotswolds. We then spent three months in the countryside east of London and explored London, East Anglia and Kent.
We did not return to England until spring 2000, when we spent a month in the Cotswolds, in a cottage near Painswick. That was when we fell in love with the Cotswolds. Since then we have stayed in other parts of the Cotswolds: one month in Winchcombe, one week in Minchinhampton (near Cirencester), three weeks in Windrush (near Burford), two months in Nailsworth (near Stroud).
Five months in the Cotswolds is not enough to really know the area, but we have seen a lot of it. We will keep the site updated and add new information as we continue to travel to this area.
This website is about the Cotswolds, but that does not mean that this area is better than other areas in England. We enjoy traveling throughout the Southwest, love the Lakes district, would like to return to East Anglia someday soon, but something about the Cotswolds has grabbed us and this is the place we like to return to.
References for Cotswolder
I used the following books, plus my own experiences traveling in the Cotswolds, to create the Towns & Villages pages:
- Buildings of the Cotswolds, Builting Heritage Series, by Denis Moriarty, 2000.
- The Complete Cotswolds, Jarrold, White Horse Guides, by Peter, Helen & David Titchmarsh, 1999.
- Discovering Prehistoric England, Shire Publications, edited by James Dyer, 1993.
- A Guide to Medieval Sites in Britain, Paladin, Nigel and Mary Kerr, 1988.
Slow Europe
Another website that we are working on is Slow Europe, a guide to vacation rentals in Europe. We plan to launch this site in fall 2008. It will be a list of vacation rental resources by country and region - our favorite agencies, tourist office sites and vacation directory sites for booking European vacation rentals. Read Pauline's blog, Views from the Slow Lane, about European travel.
We are Searching for a Cottage - to let or to house trade (swap)
Pauline and Steve are looking for a house to rent/trade in the Cotswolds some time in 2009.
- Dates flexible.
- Must be in quiet location (not on a busy road).
- We have a cat (Buddy).
- Must have broadband or be able to get broadband (internet connection).
- Prefer a furnished house, but will consider unfurnished.
- Preferably in the area near Stroud or Cirencester (Bisley, Nailsworth, Minchinhampton, Avening, etc.), but will consider any Cotswolds location or a location near Bath.
If you would like to trade, we have a 2bed/2bath historic adobe house in eastside Santa Fe, New Mexico: views of mountains, large yard, 30 minute walk to Plaza (city center), 30 minute walk to hiking trails, 300 days of sunshine per year!, skiing nearby in winter.
Contact us: pauline@cotswolder.com
