Back to Work

I don't actually have a job, so when I say "back to work", I'm using that term rather loosely and what I'm really saying is that I'm back working on my hobbies. We got back late on Tuesday night and used Wednesday to catch up on mail, laundry, and checking in with my kids. Oh, and Laura came from New York for a few days, so there was serious visiting to do with her! By Thursday morning at 8:30 am I was back out on my bike trying to rid myself of the effects of the raspberry mousse. Actually, I didn't really gain weight on the trip, but my goal is still to lose another (dare I hope) 10 lbs. That afternoon I realized that I had a bridal shower to attend that night and needed to get busy on the gift I had planned. I worked from 3:00 until 7:15 on these:I'm not sure that the brides I've given these to fully appreciate the time and money that goes into these. The dishtowels are from Williams-Sonoma and run 4/$18, so just without time and thread they're not cheap. Then the next morning (Friday) I got up early and did this on an apron for a birthday breakfast: When I got my embroidery machine 2 1/2 years ago, I told Mark that it would never pay for itself. That wasn't the purpose of the machine. I wanted to be realistic--it was for pure enjoyment and satisfaction. Something for me. As a mother raising six children, I've always felt that it was important, even necessary, to have something that I enjoyed doing that wouldn't be undone by the next day, and more likely in the next hour. Things like laundry, doing the dishes, cleaning up the toys are done and undone everyday. Sewing was always something that I could look at for years afterward and say, "I did this" and be proud of my accomplishment. I feel that way now about my kids. I can look at them and say, "I did this" and be proud, but when they are little and you are in the throes of battle, you don't feel that way, thus the necessity for something else creative. I'm sure that if I were in to writing, decorating, painting, genealogy, those would have done the trick, too. I've kept track of the embroidery projects I've done in the last 30 months, mostly so I don't forget what I gave to who. I don't want to give someone the very same dishtowel on their next birthday! So now, just for me, I have to post some pictures of past projects. It helps me remember what I've been doing with my time:Saturday morning I was on the bike again, riding with Mark. We covered 44 miles in record time for us, averaging 15.8 mph. At one point we were cranking at 22 mph on the flats. I could almost believe I was 25 years old. Except when I was 25 I couldn't have done that.

Blenheim & Oxford - July 13

Since Morrie and Dawn had never been to Blenheim, and Mark and I were there some 13 years ago, we decided that we would spend the morning there. Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim, but since his father was the younger son in the family, he didn't live there. However, he was married and buried there. Blenheim is a palace. Actually, it is a Palace--the only such designation in England for a home not lived in by royalty. It was given to the 1st Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, by Queen Anne for winning an important battle (and thus the war) of the Spanish Succession which was fought in Blenheim, Germany. John Churchill was the great-great-grandfather of Georgiana Spencer Cavendish--sorry to keep bringing up her name, but everyone seems to be related! I am now going to go home and finish the book I started about (and by) Consuelo Vanderbilt who married the 9th Duke of Marlborough in the early 1900s. It was not a love match, the Duke's family needed the Vanderbilt money to renovate the Palace. Anyway, of all the stately homes we've been in, I think that I liked Castle Howard the best, but Blenheim is probably my second favorite.

From there we went on to Oxford for the afternoon before checking into the Airport Sheraton near Heathrow and returning the rental car on which we have put some 1300 miles. Upon arriving in Oxford, we had lunch at another pub called The Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein would meet to discuss.... I don't know, whatever authors discuss. Then we were off to see all the colleges that make up Oxford University. We mostly viewed them from the outside since a lot were closed to visitors, but we did go inside Christchurch and go into the dining hall which was used for the Harry Potter movies. It was packed with tourists and the lighting was bad, consequently not very good pictures. Here is the stairwell.This is a picture of the Radcliffe Library which has no significance, except it just looked cool. And the sky was brilliant.This is our last day in England. We will be sad to leave a country where when the waiter asks you what you will have and you say something like, "I think I'll have the steak" they exclaim "brilliant." Or "fantastic." And when you leave a shop, they say, "cheers." But it will be good to get home to our own beds and our own stuff. It's been a great trip.

The Cotswolds - July 12

We spent the day driving through the Cotswolds. The town we are staying in is called Shipton-under-Wychwood. Other towns we visited or drove through had names such as Bourton-on-the-Water, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter, Chipping Campden, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Stow-on-the-Wold, well, you get the idea. Mark has decided that a) we need to name our house, and b)we need to change the name of our town to Pleasanton-on-the-Creek. This is the Lamb Inn where we stayed.

The Cottswold towns have a different look to them. We also saw houses with the thatched roofs--obviously well taken care of.

Here I am in the stocks for public humiliation and punishment for being a bad navigator.Mark and I ate in the oldest pub/inn in England called The Eagle and Child. It's been around since 947. According to the information at the pub, it was used by the Royalists during the English civil war as headquarters. After a battle in the town square that was particularly bloody, it was said that ducks could be seen swimming in the pools of blood. The street became known as Duck's Bath Street or Digbeth Street. In this picture you can see the street sign as well as the pub.

A highlight of our trip was when we were driving through one of the small towns and saw a sign that said "Gardens Open Today" and there was free parking. We stopped not really knowing what it meant, but soon found out that the town was having a fundraiser that consisted of a Garden Tour of some 8 homes in the town. And it included tea. So we set off to explore gardens of just regular town folks. It was really interesting to talk to the homeowners about the work that went into their yards (gardens). They were quite surprised when Mark told them we came all the way from California to see this event! We had tea at the assembly hall and chatted amiably with the vicar. Morrie was happier than he looks!

We've eaten twice at the Lamb Inn where we are staying and they have had really delicious food. Their Steak Diane was divine and the raspberry mousse? Blissful.

Pemberly Times Two - July 11

Our week in the Lake District came to an end today and we packed up the car to head south. Mark decided that we should swing by Lyme Park and Chatsworth House on our way to the Cotswolds where we will be staying for two nights. Dawn had been quite jealous that I had been to see Lyme Park, better known as Pemberly (PBS version of Pride & Prejudice) but since we hadn’t been into the gardens or house, the men decided to make their wives happy! This is my Mr. Darcy.Every time we had been inside a stately home this last week, reference was always made to Chatsworth House as being the grandest in all of England. Chatsworth House was used for Pemberly in the movie version of Pride & Prejudice, so this made quite a Jane Austen day. Chatsworth House is home to the Dukes of Devonshire starting back in about the 1500s. Georgiana Spencer-Cavendish lived here with the 6th (?) Duke of Devonshire. Her story, told in the film “The Duchess”, was filmed here as well. Oh, and as we were driving past Preston we saw the temple spire from the freeway, so of course we had to get off and take some pictures. An added bonus that we hadn’t expected!

Hill Top and Beyond - July 10

Hill Top Farm, home of Beatrix Potter, was to be our first stop today. Apparently, we didn’t read the guidebook closely enough and the home and gallery are closed on Fridays! Bummer. We could have scheduled it any day this last week, so we blew it since we are leaving the Lake District tomorrow. However, the garden and gift shop were open, so we were able to take some pictures of the outside. One could imagine Peter Rabbit hopping around this garden: The map of the Lake District that we got from Lakeland Village (our place of residence this week) outlined a number of suggested walks, one beginning at Hill Top Farm, so we set off. It turned out to be a little bit longer than we anticipated (2.5 hours) but we saw beautiful views from the west side of Windermere whereas before we had seen it from the east side. I took a picture of the swans for you, Becca. We made it back to the car and went into the little village of Hawkshead where Beatrix Potter’s husband had his law practice.

When in Rome...Except We're Not - July 9

When I first thought about the things I'd like to do on this trip, I bought a big map of England that was laminated and started putting dots on the things that looked interesting to me as I read through the Dorling-Kindersley book about England. By putting dots on the map, I could plan for those things that were within range, distance-wise. One of the things that I most wanted to do but would take about a 2 hour drive was visit Hadrian's Wall. When the Romans came to Britain in 122 AD, they built forts to protect their claims. They also built a wall to keep out the Scots. It extended from coast to coast, was 9 feet wide and 15 feet high, and was completed in 4 years. They did not use slaves, but rather Roman craftsmen. The length was about 80 miles. I have to say, that the amount of stone walls in this country is amazing. There are sure a lot of rocks here! Every farm, every pasture, every house, garden, etc, is surrounded by stone walls. I guess the wet climate would have been hard on wood. Almost all the houses are stone, as well. At least the older ones. Here is a picture from another day of one of the walls: Anyway, back to Hadrian's wall... there were "Milecastles" all along the wall, with the occasional fort. Those Romans could really build and make things last, so at Housesteads they have uncovered quite a large fort (the foundations) and have lots of artifacts from Roman times. The Romans left around 400 AD.Here is a shot of the wall remains. It still goes most of the way across Britain. I'm on top of the wall shooting down at the path near it that Mark and Morrie are walking on. The ferns here are amazing! I can almost see Robin Hood walking along with his men. Not too far from Housesteads is Vindolanda that is a Roman community that pre-dates the wall. They are still uncovering artifacts from this area. They've already uncovered lots of pottery, jewelry, leather shoes, tools, etc. that they have on display there at the museum. One of the most amazing things that they have discovered here is actual writings--letters from people to each other. The earliest know writing from one woman to another is an invitation to a birthday celebration. It would be so cool to be transported back in time to see what this civilization looked and felt like. Returning to the Lake District, we got tickets for a local play for later in the evening, and then took an hour to drive through some of the countryside in the northern lakes area. It has very different terrain from the southern lakes area. Much more stark and not as lush. The roads were narrow and quite steep -- a 25% grade. We saw some cyclists going up as we were coming down. We were impressed! That is definitely a climb I wouldn't want to do. This is Buttermere Lake:

A Low Key Day - July 8

Dawn and I began the day with a walk. They don't really call it hiking here, they just walk all over the hills. We met a group of walkers that had come up for the day from Lancaster. They were part of a walking club. One of the men chatted with us and was most amiable, telling us of his trips to the States. They had walking poles, boots, and a map showing all of the trails in the area. He invited us to accompany them, "providing you can keep up." Uh, excuse me? You think you can outwalk me? I've dusted people WAY younger than me, and this guy was older. In fact, I've yet to meet someone who could walk FASTER than me. Granted, there are those that hike faster, but still.... So anyway, we walked with them for a while, but soon pulled ahead and were off on our way. We saw beautiful scenery (as usual) and this lovely little steam train that runs from Newby Bridge to Lake Windermere (by the way, I misspelled it before, sorry).We sort of treated today as our "sea day." Your know, when you are on a cruise, that's the day that you just hang out on the boat. We did some laundry and spent some time researching what we wanted to do tomorrow. In the afternoon, Mark took us exploring in Barrow-in-Furness where we saw Furness Abbey, among other things. Do you get the feeling that we like ruined abbeys?

Is It Better to Be a Duke or a Lord? - July 7

The weather today in the morning wasn't quite as nice as it previously has been--a bit rainy, so we didn't get out and about until the afternoon. We decided to go to Holker Hall, which has been the family house of Lord and Lady Cavendish for 400 years. The Cavendish family has the title of the Duke of Devonshire (eldest male) and the lesser title of Lord Cavendish. Interestingly enough, we learned from the guides that the son that the 5th Duke of Devonshire (remember the movie "The Duchess) was so hot for when he married to Georgiana Spencer (and they had just one son) was a life-long bachelor and had no children. So the title went to a cousin of his who was the Earl of Burlington. We also asked about the titles like Duke, Baron, Earl, etc. and she told us that the order was Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron, with Duke being the top. Another way to remember it is the first letters of "Did Mary Ever Visit Brighton?" Your welcome! The gardens were lovely with an interesting steps/waterfall. They even have their own stone circle!These two lambs were nursing in tandem quite vigorously. I really felt for the mother! We came home, fixed a little dinner, and Morrie & Mark were good sports and watched "Becoming Jane" with Dawn and I.

When Mark's in Charge.... - July 6

When Mark is in charge of deciding what we should do, you can really count on a full day. This day was not the Paris death march by any means, but if he can check off many spots of interest in one trip, he feels like he has really accomplished a lot. We began with a short hike which started not too far from Newby Bridge where we are staying. It was lush and green and when we got to the top, we had some beautiful views of Lake Windemere and the surrounding meadows.Mark at the top of the hill (above) Dawn, Morrie, and I on the trail:After our hike, we stopped for lunch at a recommended pub called the Mason Arms. We sat outside and it was lovely weather. I had fish and chips which were quite good. After lunch we got in the car and drove to The North--that's what it says on all the signs: The North. We passed Sizergh Castle and Dalemain House. There are so many castles and stately homes that it is hard to pay to see each one, so we have to be content to take pictures and move on. When we got as far as Penrith, we turned west and drove along Ullswater (lake), stopped and took some pictures, and then moved on. Next stop was Castlerigg Standing Stones. I read in the guide book that 70% of the standing stones in England are in Cumbria, so this group of stones were just off a rural road, not protected by anything, no admission. It was really cool. Apparently it was used as a sort of calendar. Next we drove back down to Grasmere and found the site of Wordsworth's graves next to St. Oswald's church. Next to that is the daffodil garden. I'm not sure if it is just in memory or the actual inspiration for Wordsworth's poem. This is Morrie & Dawn enjoying the bench in the Daffodil Garden: