End of August

The days are getting shorter and fall is fast approaching. I definitely felt a chill in the air yesterday and today. At least it was sunny for most of the day, though.

I took this picture of my husband earlier in the week, not because he doesn't iron often, because he irons more often than I do, but because of what he was watching while ironing. Now, he usually watches sports or MotoGP while ironing, but this time, he chose to watch The Gilmore Girls! What a sight!

Yesterday we drove about 35 minutes northwest of our house to a village called Gorsley for the Gorsley Festival. We had been invited to attend by a friend of ours at our church who is also involved with outreach to the Polish community in Herefordshire, as he is from Polish decent and can speak Polish fluently. The Gorsley festival is held at a church, but is extended into numerous large tents in the church yard. First we went through a labyrinth that our friend was volunteering for, then ate lunch, then waited in line for the main attraction... the flower show. Each of the arrangements represented a verse in the Bible. I mainly took these pictures to show my grandma, though. The place was packed with slow-moving grannies, so we curtailed our time in the "flower show" and left.
Afterward we drove to Newent, a little town that I've been wanting to visit for weeks now, which was on the way home. I had only heard great things about the town and in particular the Christian bookshop there. After a browse through the bookshop, which was a bit too crowded for my comfort, we just took a walk down the street to see what we could see. There were lots of "Old-e World-e" style buildings. Jeff managed to find a sweets shop, so we paid a visit and bought some nice sweeties. My favourite: honey comb, also known as Hokey Pokey. I need to experiment making my own sometime. There's even a recipe for it in my Nigella Express cookbook.

Today in the late afternoon I decided we should take a walk to take advantage of the dazzling sunshine - it had only poured shortly before this. I remembered a few weeks ago having seen a plum tree on the path by the Manor House near our house, so with a plastic carrier bag in hand, we set off in search of edible treasures. With a bit of reach and carefully pulling down branches, we were able to get about a half of carrier bag full of plums. But that wasn't all! We also found blackberries, though most aren't quite ready for picking, pears and apples.
I'm thinking of making an apple-blackberry-plum cobbler or crumble tomorrow evening for dessert. This week has lots in store. David Hepler is coming to stay with us tomorrow and Tuesday evenings and then Wednesday we're off to Scotland for Lindsey and Diane's wedding, which is Friday. We're staying overnight at David and Sharon Palmer's house near Preston on Wednesday night.

Tyntesfield

After many weekends not having done much (at least blog worthy), we visited another National Trust property. Tyntesfield (website) is located southwest of Bristol in North Sumerset, about 45 minutes from our house. This house, or should I say, mansion, was built in the early 1800's and was then bought by a wealthy entrepreneur named William Gibbs. The house and the land have only been owned by the National Trust since 2002, since which time the restoration on the whole house and its contents has taken place. In fact, the last descendant lived in the house until 2001!

Just imagine how massive this house must be under all the scaffolding!

The beginning of the gardens at the front of the house

A picture of the house with in the popular Gothic style of the Victorian era.

The library at the entrance of the house. There are bookshelves all around the room.

Most of the servants' bells

The atrium with a Gothic-style fire place (you can just see the top of it)

In the dry cupboard

The huge pool table in the gentleman's quarters

Taking time to smell a magnolia

Inside the house's chapel

The "fun-guy" we met on the way... it was actually really pretty

One of the many blackberry bushes I picked blackberries from!

Beautiful flowers in the Lady Garden

Lots of veg in the Kitchen Garden... now, if only I could learn how to grow veg at home... quite inspirational, to say the least.

A plum tree growing on the garden wall.

Jeff inside the Orangery, on which restoration has begun this year.

Another view of the house from the large garden

The unveiling of the house will take place in 2012, when we will be sure to make another visit.

End of June Weekend

Over the weekend, we went to Chastleton House, a National Trust property about an hour's drive from where we live in the Cotswolds.

"A rare gem of a Jacobean country house, Chastleton House was built between 1607 and 1612 by a wealthy wool merchant as an impressive statement of wealth and power. Owned by the same increasingly impoverished family until 1991, the house remained essentially unchanged for nearly 400 years as the interiors and contents gradually succumbed to the ravages of time. With virtually no intrusion from the 21st century, this fascinating place exudes an informal and timeless atmosphere in a gloriously unspoilt setting. "

The Chastleton House between the trees

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the interior, but I did manage to take a picture of the two croquet fields out a window. "On the site of old orchards are the croquet lawns, where in 1866 Walter Jones-Whitmore first codified the rules of the modern game, and unsurprisingly won the first tournament."

I couldn't help but to walk around the gardens literally taking the time to smell the roses. There were so many varieties and colours... and they smelt absolutely lovely, just like roses should smell!
On our drive to the Chastleton House, we spotted a sign saying "Ice Cream Parlour" with an arrow pointing down a narrow street. Being that it was a perfect summer day, we decided to add to the "perfectness" and find the ice cream parlour that the arrow was pointing to. After driving past fields and a little village, we came to a farm. The ice cream parlour was inside a barn! (See the open door?)

And it sure was yummy... though Jeff's lemon meringue ice cream was the best.

On Sunday, we invited friends of ours from church, Jon and Claire and their daughter, Eve (I can't put their surname), over for the afternoon.
After lunch we watched England lose to Germany in the World Cup while Eve played with a basket full of dead lettuce and dirt in the garden... she loved it!

I served homemade lemon custard tart for dessert... yum-o! And yes, those are roses and lavender from my garden.

Eve conked out on her daddy.

The aftermath of Eve's fun in the garden.

Our very strange flower... I have no idea what it is, but it's pretty!

Chepstow with Emma

Not too much has been happening in our life... at least not much to blog about, but yesterday evening we met with our friend Emma Wakeford, a friend of ours from our days in Munich, in Chepstow. She moved back to her home in Cardiff in April after living in Munich for 1 1/2 years. We also got to meet 3 of her friends who she spent the afternoon with. After having a drink (J2O for us) at a pub, we went to a fabulous Indian restaurant... my first British Indian experience! And was it ever delicious! Her boyfriend, James Hyslop, also a friend of ours from Munich, called during dinner. We got to talk with him for a few minutes. He lives in Atlanta, but they get to see each other every few weeks since he works for Delta Airlines. He plans to visit Emma in a few weeks, and we plan to get together while he's over.

A bit of other news is that I was offered a new position at Sainsbury's. I've been working in the bakery there for a month as a bread packer... not a glamourous job by any means, but nevertheless, it paid and was quite flexible. However, on Thursday, I was offered the job of a PA to the store manager and "PR Ambassador" - basically, organizing outreach to the community in and around Gloucester. I start tomorrow. I'm a bit unsure about the whole thing since many people have basically said "Good luck working with John" (the manager), so we'll see. It was very unexpected, but I'm grateful for the chance to try something new.

Brimpsfield Walk

Today was the Spring Bank Holiday, so we decided to do one of the walks in our "50 Walks in Gloucestershire" book. The 4-mile walk we chose is called "The Medieval Looters of Brimpsfield" and is described as "a walk through a vanished castle and secluded valleys, taking in charming Syde and tiny Caudle Green". Over the course of 2 hours, we walked past the site of a vanished castle, a church in which "some of the castle masonry found its way into the fabric of the church", small, but stunning cottages and walked through fields, forests, valleys and flocks of sheep.

A row of huge hedges over the path leading up to the church

The church in the village of Brimpsfield

Following the guide book through a field

A field of butter cups we just with the church in the background

Walking through a forest

Climbing over one of numerous stiles that separates fields

Past the Brimpsfield House, more like a mansion

Through a valley with a flock of sheep and their lambs


Continuing through a tree-lined valley

We only veered off course once... not bad. We were very glad to make use of a free afternoon and perfect walking weather - not too hot, nor too cold, and dry.

After the walk we drove to a view point we had passed on the way. It over looks Gloucester and the hills in the distance, including the Malverns.