Seeing Red

If you know Chris, you MAY have realized he is a bit stubborn.  When he gets an idea in his head it is hard to change.  He has it in his head that this red shirt is the only shirt that "feels right".  He has literally worn this shirt every day of this trip so far (that's 32 days in a row, but who's counting?).  Now, Moms out there, don't panic ~ it gets washed when we have laundry facilities and he washes it by hand in the sink every other day or so when we don't.  I have definitely learned a lot over the last 6 (almost 7!) years of life with Chris ~ first and foremost to choose my battles wisely.

 

Every once in a great while, Chris can be spotted in a black and red sweatshirt worn over his red and black shirt ~ he can surprise you like that. :)

Chris ~ thanks for your patience with me ~ as God continues to grow patience in me and as we continue to work on shaping this stubbornness into the valuable trait of perseverance.  I love you Critter!

Our Homes Away from Home

Thought I would make a post to show you the wonderful places Jeff has found for us to stay.  I can't thank him enough ~ his planning has made this trip the wonderful experience it has been thus far.

Our first "Home Away from Home" was Dalhousie Castle, outside of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Below is Dalhousie at night ~ beautiful!

Next stop was "Kiloran", a B&B in Inverness, Scotland.  The proprietors, Anthony and Maggie, were so friendly and helpful ~ just what one would expect from people running a B&B.  

Ben and Chris with "Mr. Anthony".  Anthony was born and raised in Inverness, which made him the perfect person to give us advice on our day trips around the area.  He was wonderful to the boys and had a great Scottish accent.  Anthony and Maggie said they bought the house in rough condition and he re-did every room ~ it was beautifully done.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the dining room ~ I loved the look of it.  Below are a couple of pictures from our room, called "Muckle",which means "large" in Celtic.  We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Kiloran.

We left Scotland and headed for the area in northern England known as "The Lake District".  It was mountainous, very green, covered with thousands of sheep, miles of stone fences, and, as you might guess....lakes. :)   We stayed just outside a town called Ambleside at a property called Grove Farm.  This is a view of Grove Farm from the road across the fields.

A closer view of Grove Farm

One interesting thing we have noticed is that in each region we have visited, the houses are made of different types of stone.  In the Lake District, it was a lot of this flat grey stone.  This was the entrance to our part of the farm, called "High Grove".

Our Living Room

Our Kitchen

After the Lake District, we headed south to a village called Oakridge Lynch in the Cotswolds.  If you have ever seen an English Cottage in the movies, it was probably located here in the Cotswolds.

The property was called "Well Close".  It was owned by a really great family, whose two boys I have already introduced you to.  They live right next door to the property and had, not only 2 boys, but 2 huge rabbits, a kitten named Buttons who I thought Ben might try to smuggle into the car with us when we left and a big old chocolate lab named Oscar.  I think having the animals around really helped keep all of us from missing Emma too much.

There are very few bugs here in Great Britain, so there are no screens on any of the windows and people keep their windows wide open most of the time.  This is a refreshing change from Charlottesville, where we keep our windows closed nearly all year-round because either the air-conditioning is on or the heat is on.  Feels great to sleep with the fresh air coming in at night, though I will admit that 4 weeks into this trip now, it is getting a little too chilly.

We liked the area we were in so much, that when our time at "Well Close"came to an end and we had another 3 days before we had to be in Cornwall, we moved into the Davie's other rental property in a village about 15 minutes away called Minchinhampton.  The sign below is pretty typical of the area and made me smile.

There are cattle everywhere.  There was also a golf course in Minchinhampton.  I get the feeling they don't take golf quite as seriously as golfers in America.  There were pretty heavily traveled roads criss-crossing the course.  There were cows grazing on it, people riding horses across it, and people walking and riding bikes on paths around it.  Seeing as all four of us enjoy a round of golf, we found it pretty amusing.

This was Newton Cottage.  Another pretty typical Cotswold cottage.  It looks old but had all the amenities inside.

Newton Cottage was right across the street from what is called an "allotment garden".  Most people have small yards, and though most have beautiful flower gardens and often fruit trees, people grow their vegetables in the allotment gardens.  Apparently the village government is required by law to provide land for the people of the villages to use for growing food.  You get a small plot and you go and work it as much or as little as you want to.  If you give up your plot, it goes to the next person on the waiting list.  In some villages there is a 40 year waiting list for a plot.....kind of like with Packer tickets. :)  This is not a very good picture but I thought the whole concept very interesting so I wanted to include it.

And for those of you into detail....the stone of the houses in the Cotswolds is thicker and tan-colored than that of the Lake District.  :)

While I have loved all of the places we have visited, each area having a charm all its own, I may have loved our time in Cornwall the most so far.  Cornwall is the southwest corner of England, on the ocean ~ beach country.  There are immense rocky cliffs going down to beautiful beaches with blue-green water that makes you think you could be in the Caribbean.  Ben and Chris loved the beaches too.  The beaches of Cornwall will likely be a post all its own, so back to our "home" there.  We stayed at a cottage attached to an inn called Landewednack House.

Between our cottage and the ocean, there was a really old parish church with an eery but cool graveyard.  We have seen (and loved) many cathedrals and churches on this trip, and most have traditional steeples.  Churches all over Cornwall look like the church below, with a bigger, square "steeple".

We walked to the ocean the first day there ~ Ben and Chris were SO excited to get in the water, but it was very rocky near our cottage as you can see in the picture.  We tried a beach or two that day, but it was high tide so there was no sand.  The beach had to wait until the next day. :)

This is "The Sunday Cottage".  It was surrounded by amazing gardens, fruit trees, grape vines, manicured green areas, and an inground pool.  Ben and Chris' favorite part was the swing!

Notice the church and the ocean in the background.

Landewednack House had a fabulous cook ~ Antony.  He was hilarious, and always SO nice to Ben and Chris ~ slipping them candy all the time!  We usually ate breakfast at the inn ~ what a spread.  Never have I seen such attention to detail.  Met another nice family that we took some meals with who had a 1 year old daughter named Poppy who the boys were enthralled with....along with Poppy they also loved the 4 pugs and huge puffball of a cat.  They are making friends everywhere!

Guess that is it for Cornwall.  Will post soon about our stop in Dorset.

New "Mates" for Ben and Chris

No, Ben and Chris have not found girlfriends!  Here in England, boys call their friends "mates".  Little did we know when we rented a cottage in the Cotswolds, that the owners, who live right next door to the cottage, had two boys too.  Not only did they have two boys, but they were also ages 8 and 6.  Needless to say, Ben and Chris were thrilled to meet Ewan and Archie.  The four boys hit it off wonderfully.  Ben and Chris even got to have "tea" with their new mates at their house.  B and C are going to miss you two!

The Grand University City of Oxford

We spent the day, yesterday, in the city of Oxford.  I had heard of Oxford, always making a vague association in my mind with some sort of college there that really smart people attended.  Never had I dreamed of the almost 40 colleges there....with buildings so old it is difficult to wrap my mind around it.   We spent many hours walking around, trying to take it all in, but really only touching on all that is Oxford.

Our first stop was "Alice's Shop".

Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, is one of the many literary greats who spent time at Oxford. It is said that Alice's Shop is where Alice Liddell, a young girl whose father worked at Oxford ~ on whom Alice of the book is based ~ bought her candy.  It was filled with wonderful Alice memorabilia and trinkets.  Chris and I also had the privilege of being shown the area below that is usually closed to the public.  It shows the garden that was the Carroll's inspiration for the garden in Alice, including the famous little door.  Alice had a cat that used to sit in the chestnut tree in the picture ~ that cat was the basis for the famous "Cheshire cat" of the book.

Can you tell I love the literary stuff? :)

Next stop was Christ Church, one of the grandest of all Oxford colleges.  It was founded in 1525 (yes, that was 1525!) by Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII.  Ben and I are in our 3rd year of studying English History and had just read about Wolsey ~ I love it when there are natural connections between what we are studying and what we are seeing....makes it so much meaningful for him AND for me.  Due to how long it seems to take my computer to upload an image, I will try to pick out a few key pictures in an attempt to capture the essence of Christ Church.  The cathedral, in particular, was stunning (the building was constructed as a monastery church sometime between 1150 and 1210 ~ amazing!)   I don't think I will ever tire of cathedrals....though I think Ben and Chris might not be in my camp on this.

I can't even begin to describe the beauty of the stained glass.  I liked this one, in particular, even though it was just a smaller window in an obscure nook.  It is of Jonah looking out over Ninevah.

This one showed the martyrdom of Thomas a Beckett ~ another figure in English history that Ben and I have studied.  (His story is very interesting....you might want to look it up.)

Next we strolled through the Covered Market on Turl Street.  Could have spent hours there, but we had to find a place to eat...not always an easy task with Chris.  

One of the things I was looking forward to seeing at Oxford was the Bodleian Library.  In preparing for our trip to Great Britain, a dear friend got me started on a series of books by Laurie R. King about a character named Mary Russell who becomes associated with Sherlock Holmes.  I am typically not much of a mystery reader, but these books grabbed me.  Mary Russell attends Oxford and there are many Oxford references, first and foremost about the Bodleian, where she spends a great deal of her time.  I just had to see the place.  Most of it was not open to tours yesterday, but I got to walk around a little and check out "The Divinity School".  I was glad to see whatever parts of it I could.

This is the view from the courtyard of the Bodleian out toward the street.  There are signs everywhere that say "Silence, please".  I bought a coaster there so that I could pull it out at home to ask the boy for "Silence Please".

This room is referred to as "The Divinity School".  I believe I read it was the very first hall built specifically for lectures in all of Oxford.  It had the most interesting ceiling.  I think if you click on the pictures you can make them bigger and see more of the detail

These next pictures are of a place I had hoped to go into, but we only had time to stop by and take pictures of it.  It is a pub, called "The Eagle and Child".  It was frequented by C. S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, along with some other writers who met there regularly to discuss their writing back when they were teaching at Oxford.  C.S. Lewis has become a favorite of mine, so it was neat to think of walking in some of the places that he did.  Apparently "The Inklings", as they called themselves, referred to the pub as "The Bird and Baby".

While there is much more I could tell you about Oxford, I suppose it is better to leave you wanting more than to have you saying "Enough already!".  Oxford truly was a wonderful place ~ so much history and so much energy.  It is definitely a place I would like to go back to someday.  Maybe as the mother of a student......... :)