More Beauty

After our lovely day in Bath and our night of indulging in the life of the royals, we headed for Cheddar Gorge. My camera batteries by this point were completely dead so I got no pictures. But these pictures I found online give you a good idea of what we saw. It was unexpected as you drive through beautiful, green, rolling hills and farmland and then all of a sudden coming into these fairly large, rugged, rocky cliffs. In the gorge there are several large caves that can be explored. In one of the caves, there was found Britain's oldest complete human skeleton named Cheddar Man, estimated to be over 9,000 years old, was found in 1903.

We arrived on a rather rainy day, so we didn't get much chance to do a lot of exploring outside. We did have lunch however in one of the lovely little tea rooms devouring hot chocolate, strawberries, scones and clotted cream! It was fun to watch the girls sipping their hot chocolate from dainty little tea cups and saucers piled high with whip cream. They loved it and were on their best behavior! We then spent another couple of hours in the cheese shops. We toured the cheese factory and then tasted every kind of cheese made in Cheddar. Of course, you can't leave cheddar without buying loads of cheese and that is what we did! Some of the cheeses are cured in the caves of the gorge and have a distinct flavor! Nothing like cheddar from Cheddar!

During all this time, we had house guests who we had left a key for and abandoned. I decided to be a better host and take them to see some local sites. The first stop was the Hatfield House. I have wanted to see it since we moved in last summer but I have not had a chance to go until now. It was well worth it. It is only 20 minutes from our house!   It is the childhood home and favorite residence of Queen Elizabeth I. Built in 1497. Elizabeth I wasn't the only one who lived there. Henry VIII's other children Edward and his eldest daughter Queen Mary lived there between 1533 and 1536. It was fun to see since I read so much about it in Gregory Philippa's books "The Boleyn Inheritance,"  "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Constant Princess." (Excellent books by the way...)

Here is Alex looking out at some of the gardens.

The front

They had the most exotic flowers

I loved these masks on the garden wall

Gorgeous!

Entrance to the more wild, "unkempt" part of the garden still unbelievably green and beautiful! Next time I go, I will have to be sure to see the inside of the house. We came on the wrong day and it was closed.

Bath for an Old Fat Pigeon??

After our weekend of Jubilee celebrations, we headed down to the gorgeous old city of Bath (or B-ah-th if you are my children correcting my pronunciation) set in Somerset, England. The city was first established as a spa by the Romans sometime in the AD 60s about 20 years after they had arrived in Britain (AD43).  They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs. Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973. Much later, it became popular as a spa town during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone. The city is about a three hour drive from our house. We have been here before but were happy to return for another look.

Here is Sammy and her cousin listening intently at the museum on their audio guide phones. We went with Charles' cousin's family who live here in London but are soon moving back to the states.

An interesting fact I just learned - In March 2012 a hoard of 30,000 silver Roman coins, one of the largest hoards discovered in Britain, was discovered in Bath during an archaeological dig. The coins, believed to date from the third century, were unearthed about 450 feet from the Roman Baths! Wow! Here is Alexandra sitting at one of the large roman baths.

Another view

After an exciting day in Bath, we drove to our Bed & Breakfast which Charles' cousin found online. We decided to book it because we simply loved the name - "The Fat Pigeon." It was an hour or so outside of Bath and we had a bit of a hard time finding it. We were also due to arrive well after their deadline of 8pm so it started to look like we would have no place to stay the night. However, after emails, phone calls and begging as well as getting lost driving through some narrow, dirt roads and last but not least, Sammy vomiting, we came upon this amazing castle-like house.  We thought it could not possibly be our Bed & Breakfast. Well surprise, surprise - it was! We just had to enter from the back. 

This is a photo of the front of the house, I found on the website. The actual name of the house was the Brympton d'Evercy or Brympton House. A little history:  Brympton House was not built in its entirety all at once; instead, it was slowly expanded between about 1220, when it was begun by the D'Evercy family, and the 18th century. It once served as a boys' school during WWII. Today it is occasionally hired out as a location for filming, or weddings, it remains essentially a private residence. During its long history Brympton d'Evercy has belonged to just five families, the most recent owner purchased the property in 2007. (Our camera battery was dying just as we arrived so I get a few pictures of my own but not many.)

This is the wedding hall with wooden benches and ivy crawling up the columns. There were also several old fire pits along the right wall. Gorgeous! (From the website)

The view out the back of the house (From the website)

A closer view of the front door

Night view from the website

This is the ballroom that was just down one flight of stairs from our rooms. The back cabinets you see in this picture were full of dozens and dozens of gorgeous hand-painted tea cups of all kinds.

This is the view from the back of the house in the spring (from the website)

Now for my pictures - this is a view of the back of the house entering into the actual Bed & Breakfast entrance.

The winding staircase with the bell at the top. We climbed this staircase to get to our rooms.

Leading to the front of the house - chicken coop on the left

Our room with the large old fireplace that Abby was afraid to sleep by.

This is the view of the gardens from our room!

This is the view out the back of the house from one of the ballroom windows. Breath-taking!

This is looking out the ballroom window down onto the back porch or veranda

Ok you are probably thinking - enough pictures already - but I can't help it! This place was GORGEOUS! The pictures don't do it justice. I could not get over this view from the ballroom window out the back. It looked like a painting to me. There is a little row boat on the edge of the pond (you can't see it too well from my picture) but it just made it look so idyllic. It was unbelievable!

This is the old chapel and graveyard surrounding it on the premises (this is the only picture I got of it). I must say, thinking that we were just booking a cute little Bed & Breakfast cottage and then ending up with this could not have been a better set up. We were all walking around in complete excitement and amazement! Now will someone I know pleeeease just come get married here so I can attend your weddding?? I think I have definitely managed to go on and on about this house so I will end here and begin another post about our next day's adventures.... 

Diamond Jubilee Four-Day Party

The Diamond Jubilee was four days of parties for us and for the country. However, we got an additional five days for the Jubilee since it was also half term for Abby and Sammy. The Diamond Jubilee was celebrating 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II being on the throne. We started off the weekend (Saturday) at the Hertfordshire Jubilee County show. The above picture shows the sheep competition. It was very fun to watch because it reminded me of the movie "Babe." 

There were lots of farm animals to see and lots of very good food to eat. 

We saw the all-human circus while at the county show too. 

Alex loved her light-up twirly toy the most

We also got to watch some amazing equestrian horse jumping. Very impressive and entertaining! I could have sat there and watched that all day.

We also saw the Devil's horsemen (show horses) and various horse relay races. Here is Sammy at the Jubilee Arena cheering for the Hertfordshire horse and pony team.

On Sunday, I contemplated taking the girls to the Flotilla event on the Thames where 1000 boats went up the Thames River in London and the Queen watched it all from a beautiful golden barge. However, we also had a neighborhood party planned on the same day. So I decided against going to the Flotilla event and going to our neighborhood party so we could meet some more of our neighbors. I am sure glad I did. If you watched it on television, you know that Sunday's flotilla had awful rainy weather. It was down pouring on all the royals. We went to our party just around the corner. They had a hog roast and roasted a whole pig on a spit. They had a bouncy castle, games, stalls selling various items and a whole lot of food. However, the rain came down on us too. Our food was soaking wet, the tents were leaking because of all the rain and we were all drenched. Alex was crying because she wanted to go on the bouncy castle but she didn't want to go on it because it was slippery, but she did want to go on it... Needless to say, we left the party early, met no new neighbors and went home. We built a blanket fort in the front room and watched the flotilla on t.v. 

On Monday, the village just next to ours had fireworks, bon fires, games, food and more. We watched the concert at Buckingham palace on t.v. Tuesday, we went to yet ANOTHER party. This one was with some friends of ours and for me, it was the highlight of all the jubilee celebrations. All the food was English from cucumber sandwiches, to tarts, cupcakes, sausage rolls, pickled onions, trifles, strawberries n' cream etc etc. The cupcakes were decorated with the Union Jack, Big Ben, the London Eye and as flower pots - all homemade!

The decorations would have made anyone feel patriotic!

We watched the Queen on t.v. in the royal procession to St. Paul's while we nibbled on our English delicacies!

The tables were so festive.

These cute little thrones holding cupcakes were the centerpiece for the tables. One has the Union Jack  and the other has Big Ben on it if you look closely. Adorable!

The kids played pin the tail on the corgi. A corgi is the kind of dog the Queen has. We also played "pass the parcel" a favorite English game. There was an adult version and children version. I had to sing a solo of the national anthem in the adult version of the game. I was able to do it since I have heard "God Save the Queen" about a hundred times this weekend. 

Each child got a mask of one of the royal family. The adults tried on the masks too and did their best impressions of the various personalities.

Abby put on the Queen's mask and did not take it off the rest of the night. She didn't speak to anyone just wandered in and out of the room listening to the clacking of her heels on the wood floor and perfecting her Queenly walk and wave. It became kind of eery to see the Queen wandering around. Charles feared that he would wake up in the middle of the night with the "Queen" standing over him. Even a week later, Abby is still wearing the mask whenever she gets a chance....It was certainly a weekend to remember. Who knows what will be next? How long with the Queen live? Will they celebrate her 64th Jubilee when she actually becomes the longest reigning monarch surpassing Victoria's 63 years or will they wait until her 70th year to do it all again? Will she make it that long or will we be here to witness the first coronation in 60+ years? It all remains to be seen...I am glad we have been able to witness both her 50th Golden Jubilee and now her 60th Diamond Jubilee. Long live the Queen! (More to come on our activities and travels the rest of the week.)