Cheers From England ~ #4

On this Monday after our second English Breakfast that we made for ourselves at the cottage we would venture out to two gardens right next to each other. Before I move on to the gardens here’s a collage of our breakfast time with some visitors that came to our door begging when they caught wind of the sausages cooking.

We were warned by the owners of the property that their dogs would try to get us to feed them and they told us not to give in. The dogs looked so hopeful.

The first garden to visited was Hidcote Garden. It is a National Trust Property. We aren’t here in prime garden time having missed the roses being in their glory but we still enjoyed a lot of color at the gardens.

I will need to devote a few posts in the future to these lovely gardens we visited but for now I’ll only leave you with a couple snapshots.

The second Garden we visited was the Kiftsgate Court and Garden which was across the way from Hidcote.

We got a fair amount of walking and climbing up and down trails today.

This evening we have dinner reservations at the Ebrington Arms and while we have been relaxing in the cottage this afternoon a thunderstorm has passed over us with quite a downpour. We are hoping it moves on because we do not relish the idea of driving country lanes in a downpour!

Cheers From England ~ #3

Today is Sunday and we had a late start in our adventures out and about. I stayed up late to watch the Netherlands vs. Costa Rica World Cup Soccer game that went into overtime and a shoot out to determine the winner. Finally laying my head on the pillow at midnight made for a later than usual rising. On this Sunday morning we made ourselves breakfast at the cottage. We had eggs, handmade sausages from the butcher, sauteed mushrooms, fried tomatoes and toast.

Delicious. My toast was spread with a lovely Damson jam. We have been enjoying our French Pressed coffee each morning, too. We are glad we thought to grind some beans and pack them in our suitcase not knowing when we’d be able to make it to a grocery store.

I’m going to have an extensive post about our destination this Sunday and the reason I wanted to visit this town. This is a little clue of the name of the town and the statue I wanted to see. Think…nursery rhyme.

We are huge fans of country roads with a nice white stripe down the middle.

These roads with no white lines and inadequate space for two small cars to pass each other have caused us a bit of stress. My poor Dear is doing a fabulous job of driving but he is being stretched out of his driving comfort zone. I’m trying hard not to make terrified noises in the passenger seat that is really the driver seat and just plain weird to be seated in it without a steering wheel in front of me and to see the hedges up close and hear the branches brush upside my head. The scenery is gorgeous and I wish I was brave enough to drive so Dear could enjoy some of it.

We are so thankful and grateful to God for our time here and for the quiet country cottage where we can relax in the morning and the end of our day of adventures. It is so so quiet here and it gets so dark at night. There are no city lights, street lights, etc. that light up the sky here. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to see an owl while we are here.

Cheers From England ~ #2

We had a much needed good rest on Friday night. We woke up to birds singing and a light drizzle. Our second day in England and the Cotswolds specifically brought us to the town of Chipping Camden. We really enjoyed this town last year with Josh and Laura and it was nice to go back and explore it further. We also had the fun task of buying a few groceries to have at the cottage. We plan to cook an “English Breakfast” at the cottage on Sunday morning. We bought fresh eggs and a variety of sausages at the Butcher. We bought some tomatoes and mushrooms from the grocer. We bought a fresh baked loaf of bread from the Boulangerie. We bought some Damson Preserves and butter from another small shop on High Street. We also bought some local Cotswolds Cheese from the Cheesemonger. After we had all our supplies we enjoyed a great meal at the Eight Bells and had some fun talking World Cup Soccer with the locals. We braved some very narrow lanes to get to Snowshill to see some lavender fields in bloom, too.

Now we are back at the cottage and I hope to catch the Netherlands v. Costa Rica game on the telly soon.

Hope your Saturday is going well.

Cheers From England ~ #1

We arrived safely in Jolly old England on Friday the 4th of July at noon. After going through customs and retrieving our luggage we headed to the car rental agency and took the time we needed to become familiar with the car and set the SAT/NAV (GPS) for our first stop on our trip. It’s not easy navigating roads, especially the narrow lanes with tired eyes and little sleep but Dear managed to get us to our destination just before four in the afternoon safely. This is the wonderful cottage we will be staying in for seven nights. It is (what the U.K. calls) a self-catering cottage which means we pay to stay in a fully equipped space but we do our own pampering. No one cooks us breakfast or makes our bed each night. I will journal our days as much as I can while it’s fresh to me so I can remember our days when we return home.

When we unpacked the car and met the owner of the cottage we set off to get a refreshment at a Pub in a village close by that he highly recommended. Nothing is really that close to our quiet cottage so we will be navigating the narrow lanes of the Cotswolds a lot. After we return home I will post photos of the inside of our hand hewn, oak beamed, open vaulted ceilings and other very cool architectural features of the cottage and the setting it is in.

For today (Saturday) we will regain our balance and do some grocery shopping so we can make our own breakfasts at the cottage.

Hope all is well in your corner of the world.

I is for St. Ives

When we were in England last September we traveled to St. Ives and I’m ignoring the St. and calling this Ives for my ABC Wednesday Post. Thanks to Denise Nesbitt for starting this meme and for friends in keeping it going.

St. Ives is on the West coast of Cornwall, England.

As I was going to Saint Ives,
I crossed the path of seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kittens,
Kittens, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to Saint Ives?

It was a nice train ride in and out of St. Ives. St. Ives draws the crowds and even in September it was wall to wall people in the narrow lanes in town.

Repetition…

For my flashback this week I’m going back to England in 1973/1974. When we travel to England this coming July we hope to duplicate some of our visits from the 70’s.

Chalk Church Gravesend

This might be Canterbury.

Stonehenge

Windsor

Anne Hathaway’s Cottage

Maybe I’ll get tea in bed, too.

If you could travel anywhere for 2 weeks where would you choose to go?

All Booked!

After very little discussion Dear and I decided that the best place to go to celebrate 40 years of marriage would have to be England. The discussion was easy, hitting the purchase button for the flights was a little more difficult but after we did it was full speed ahead to book places to stay. The first spot we chose is a self-catering cottage in a very small village in the Cotswolds. The photo above is the exterior of Fox Cottage. We will spend a leisurely 7 nights here and explore several towns and villages in the area. We’ll venture off as far as Oxford from this spot. “Self-Catering accommodation simply refers to an efficiency in which guests take care of their own meals, laundry and other needs. The accommodation provided has facilities that allows guest to cater for their own day to day needs. Self-Catering accommodation includes a suite with a fully equipped kitchen mainly for guest to prepare their own meals.”

The second spot we are going to stay for 3 nights in in Ross on Wye in Herefordshire. We chose this spot because we really want to visit Hay on Wye which is well known for Used Book Stores. Here’s what wiki says about this town “Hay-on-Wye, is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales, situated on the English border. Often described as “the town of books”, it is the National Book Town of Wales.”

On our way back to a closer proximity to London Heathrow we will re-visit the town of Henley on Thames. Dear and I stayed here in 1973 or 1974 with our Christian Rock Band. We will be staying for one night at the Red Lion that you see here on this old postcard. We hope to visit some of the villages around this area where Midsomer Murders was filmed. We will definitely visit the Argyle in town for a meal.

Our grand finale for two nights will be the Oakley Court in Windsor. Isn’t it grand? We will spend some time in the town of Windsor and if the Queen is not in residence at Windsor Castle we hope to have a tour. From Windsor we’ll make the short drive to London Heathrow and fly home.

Our actual anniversary isn’t until December but we are choosing to celebrate in England in July. The first 2 times Dear and I traveled to England together was in July of 1973 and July 0f 1974. During our trip in 1974 we were already engaged to be married with our wedding planned for December of that year. If anyone has any suggestions for places to visit in the areas of the Cotswolds, Oxford, and Southern Wales please let me know.

Hope you had a nice weekend. I know our Canadian Hockey Fans across the line enjoyed their Sunday. Congrats to Canada on winning the gold.

Downton Abbey

We in the U.S.A. have been waiting for Season 4 of Downton Abbey and finally got to see the first episode on Sunday past…

When we were in England in September we visited Bampton where the village scenes are filmed. I didn’t take enough photos now in hindsight but it was fun to see the new episode and recognize some of the village images.

The opening episode really showed us that there will be so many twists and turns both upstairs and downstairs in this season. For me the most disturbing were the false reports and the slander that is heading Anna’s way. Having that maid return to the house makes me real uncomfortable, too. I see that season 4 will be released for purchase on January 28th. I don’t want to stay up late every Sunday so I’ll probably head to Costco on the 28th and see if they have it in stock. How did you enjoy the first episode?

Last night after this episode I had a pinched nerve (or at least that’s what we are calling it) in my right arm. My arm was in so much pain from my elbow up to my shoulder. Yikes. Nothing really helped and I finally found a position using a firm pillow that I could drape my arm over so I could finally fall asleep. I didn’t think I’d be able to get anything done today but thank the Lord my arm has been fine just a little tender and I was able to do the things that needed to be done.

Katie is having a great time in Southern California. She’s been to Disneyland twice. Disneyland has a good military price for a 3 day pass. Sunday she and her girl cousins went out to dinner and on Tuesday she’ll have dinner with my pop.

Before They’re Lost…

One of my favorite experiences of 2013 was our trip to Jolly Old England. Here are some photos that our son and daughter in law took that I’ve just downloaded. I’m tying up some loose ends before I move full bore ahead into 2014!Setting up the SatNav for our trip to the Manchester United Soccer game in Manchester, England. At the Emma Bridgewater Factory store. Can you see Josh inside? Interesting Road signs. Stratford Upon Avon Small grocers in Chipping Campden. St. James Church in Chipping Campden

Wells Cathedral and reflection at the Bishop’s Palace Grounds

The Bishop’s Close in Wells

The west coast of Cornwall

Josh and Laura managed to get a photo of our great tour guide in London. He really made the tour a highlight of ours with all his knowledge.

I got to write 2014 on a check today. Katie and I had our hair done and her red hair is more vibrant and my grey hairs are covered up. She’s heading to California this weekend to spend some time with her cousins. She’ll get to visit Disneyland before all the Christmas decorations are taken down. She’ll also be able to visit my dear old pop. Dear mentioned that he gets 2 Mondays this week and 2 Fridays. Makes for a bit of disorientation on what day of the week it really is. How are you managing with Christmas and New Year’s landing on Wednesdays?

The Cherry on Top!

We only had a few hours on Monday morning of our last day in London before we would be picked up by our taxi and swooped to Heathrow Airport. We had noticed this restaurant upon exiting the Notting Hill tube station one night and I knew I wouldn’t be happy with myself if I didn’t make it back there when it was open to enjoy a meal.

It was so worth the walk there and back again for our breakfast. Quite a delight. I’ve followed and enjoyed Jamie Oliver from his debut on U.S. food channels. When Dear and I were in London in 2003 we ventured out to Fifteen his restaurant in North/East London that trained young unemployed people to work in the restaurant industry. That restaurant started in 2002.

The hostess sat us at a nice table in the back end of the 2nd floor of Recipease. We ordered off the great breakfast menu and as we waited for our food Josh said “So, do you think Jamie will be here soon?” Just as he said that I looked behind Josh and said “well there he is coming up the stairs right now!!!” We remained cool and collected as he passed our table and sat at a table right behind us for a breakfast meeting.

When the waiter brought us our drinks we asked him if he thought it would be okay for us to ask Jamie to take a photo with us. The waiter assured us that it would be cool. He said to let him get further in to his breakfast meeting and then to ask him.

The food was delicious and the presentation was top notch. I didn’t expect anything less. After we were done with our food, Jamie got up from his meeting and walked past our table. At this point Josh asked if he would be so kind as to take a photo with us. Jamie said of course and one of the waitresses offered to take the shot and Jamie even gave her suggestions as to the best angle to shoot the photo from. I only had my little camera with me.

Our waiter photo bombed the picture! We were cracking up when we saw that. We were wondering why he asked us “so, how did that photo turn out?”

Jamie Oliver is a very genuine person and it was fun to meet him and to talk to him. He stood at our table for a long time asking us questions and answering our questions about his restaurants. On the way back to our flat we kept pinching ourselves amazed at the fun “coincidence” of this meeting.

This little out of the blue experience was a wonderful wonderful ending to our England experience! It was the “Cherry on Top” for me.

Recipease is a food and kitchen shop where you can learn to cook right on the premises. There are take away options as well as a cafe on the upper level.

So farewell London and Piccadilly Circus where all the “humanity” seems to gather. And farewell to beautiful England with all your history and beautiful countryside and hedgerows and churches and graveyards and cobblestones. I could go on and on but until next time...”Parting is such sweet sorrow”.

So I am now officially done with my posts about our trip to England this past September.

This Friday I’m recuperating from a wonderful Christmas party we had here last night with our small group. We had a build your own soft taco/burrito meal with so many wonderful toppings to add to the Carnitas (pulled pork) that I had cooking in the slow cooker all day long. I’ll share the recipe later in December on Mennonite Girls Can Cook. I’m sorry I didn’t take one photo of the toppings all in a row. Oye!

Besides being done with my England posts, I am done done done with my Christmas decorations. Now I’ll just sit back and enjoy the twinkle here and there. I love all the twinkle (to shine with a flickering gleam of light, as a star or distant light) that this time of year brings for us to enjoy. Are you twinkling?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: England