West on the A30

Early next morning we were on the road to East Lambrook Garden, a place I'd wanted to visit for years. It seemed to me to be the perfect cottage garden. I have several cottage garden books and Margery Fish's garden always figures prominently in them. Alas, the unusual heat had taken its toll on the plants and it all looked a bit faded, but we enjoyed our visit none the less.

On the way back to the car park, we had one of those I'm a tacky tourist moments. An elderly gentleman was being escorted into the garden by a young woman. He was dressed in his Sunday best; black suit with waist coat, starched white shirt and tie. He must have been sweltering, but he knew that proper attire was required for a garden visit. I was almost embarrassed to be so lightly dressed.

After our visit we hopped in our trusty Yaris and headed west on the A30 rolling along past Ilminster, Honiton, Exeter, Launceston, and Bodmin. There we turned off the motorway and things got interesting.



The road became smaller.......

and smaller.

Like one lane small. And edged with granite banks. But every so often there would be a little lay-by where you'd scoot over to let someone pass. Of course the locals knew where all the lay-bys were and sometimes would force their hand so to speak, but they were always right and being forced to back up to the closest turnout became second nature to the Lord of the Manor after a bit. I must say the lorries were dreadfully close at times, but the little Yaris was returned with no damage. Well, not exactly no damage, but almost invisible damage. Ok, you could see it, but it was really small!

And the villages became more quaint. And we got hungry.....

So we stopped here at the St. Mabyn Inn...

and had the Sunday roast. Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes, huge amounts of fresh veg, and local ale to wash it all down. What could be better?

After lunch we waddled around the village then we drove out to Port Isaac for a little look see before heading to the cousin's home in St. Kew.

The coast along this part of England reminded us of Northern California's rugged coast so we felt quite at home.

And then right on shedyul we arrived at this cosy cottage for tea and began the most pleasant three days of our trip. Do come back and join us for tea, won't you?

Silly Saturday

We've been forked! Look what we found on our lawn this morning. Aaaahhh...high school.

We're having a party here tomorrow so I have lots to do and no time for a long blog. I'll try to continue the England trip on Monday, but in the mean time, I'm cleaning and doing laundry.

Does anyone know why my washer does this? Is it the wrong washing powder? Or too much? Help.

Silbury, Lacock & Shaftesbury

Join us as we head off on the next leg of our trip. I hope we can all fit in this tiny car.

After a leisurely breakfast at the Lodge we finally go on the road around 1100 hrs. We intended to leave earlier, but we found it difficult to tear ourselves away from the gorgeous view of the henge and the interesting conversation with Andrew and Susan.



On our way to Silbury Hill we passed the Wagon and Horses where we had eaten supper the night before. Isn't that thatched roof fabulous? And those flower baskets? We saw them everywhere and I just loved them and tried to duplicate them at home with no success.



One can't actually walk on Silbury Hill, but we were able to pull off the road and get a good view of it. We also stopped at West Kennet Longbarrow. I found all these prehistoric ruins fascinating.

After a short drive on the A30 we arrived in Lacock. Pippajo has a nice blog about Lacock that you'd enjoy too. We had a nice visit there. I particularly enjoyed the original details on the buildings and took lots of photos of things I wanted: boot scrapers, hardware, flower baskets, century old beams.

After a short drive south on the A350, we stopped at Compton Abbas Airfield for a fly-in. The Lord of the Manor is a pilot and we frequently visit air fields in our travels. The LOM had great fun watching the old airplanes taking off and landing, but I found the crowd more interesting. What a delightful little slice of English life; people of every age having a nice day out, eating, drinking, sun bathing, talking and flying.

Going back through Shaftesbury, we saw this funny little car. It's a Messerschmidt and seats two tandem style. And we thought our car was tiny!

We walked past the giant loaf of Hovis bread and down famous Gold Hill for this breath taking sight. We sat on a convenient bench and just drank in the view. Then we had to walk back UP the steep hill. Huff Puff.

Our last attraction of the day was the Cerne Abbas Giant. He's...well...um...really big. I hope my blog isn't X-rated now.

We had a big day and we were tired so we found lodging at the Hollies in Martock and had a cozy supper. Please join us again tomorrow when we head to East Lambrook Garden and points west.

Avebury

I was thinking about Avebury recently so I thought I'd share some photos with you. We took this trip in July of 2006, originally to see Pavarotti at Warwick Castle, but then he took ill and the concert was cancelled and you know the rest of that story. But we went anyway and had a great time visiting the Lord of the Manor's relatives.

Here is the tiny little Yaris we rented at Heathrow. It was brand new, clean and shiny (what were they thinking?) and it got a zillion miles to the gallon and kept up on the motorway. Great little car.

We hopped in and with my map on my lap, I directed the LOM towards Avebury. After peering at Stonehenge from behind the ropes, I'd always wanted to see a henge up close and personal.

And we certainly did that. We stayed at the Lodge, the white house in the photo below. You can also see it just above the large stone in the photo above.

Being within the stones allowed us early access the next morning. It was only us and the sheep, lots of sheep, at 0700 hrs. We walked around the whole thing marveling at the size of the stones and the precision of their arrangement. And avoiding sheep poo.

The henge is surrounded by this huge ditch. Quite a massive project and all very fascinating, but finally we said "Cheerio" to the sheep and went back for breakfast.

We also explored the village. Here's the pub; it's said to be haunted so we didn't go inside.

Here's the church through the lynch gate.

And here are some charming little cottages.

I'm glad you joined us on our visit to Avebury. I hope you can continue on to Silbury Hill and beyond with us tomorrow.

Ring me up or post me a letter some time, won't you?

Princess Mary's Gift Book

When I picked up this old book to share with you, I had no idea I'd be learning about fairies, but indeed that's what happened.

The book is called Princess Mary's Gift Book and was sponsored by Princess Mary in 1917 to raise money for WWI.

I enjoyed the charming stories and beautiful illustrations....

Isn't this one precious?

And this one looks so sweet.

Then I googled Princess Mary's Gift Book to read about it's history, and I found that two creative girls apparently used illustrations from this very book as inspiration for the great Cottingley Fairy Hoax. It was quite a sensation in Yorkshire and later throughout England. Even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who, incidentally contributed a story to this book) was consulted by folks trying to disprove the hoax.

And there on page 104 I found some of the fairies that seemed to have inspired the girls. They probably had this book in their nursery, read it many times and wanted to believe in fairies, so they made some "paper dolls" and things got a little carried away. I'm sure it was all in good fun. In fact it sounds like something I may have done when I was a little girl. And at one time or another I'm sure we all believed in fairies and gnomes and trolls and ghosts. Maybe some of us still do. Do you?

Stepping Back in Time

I did some time-traveling today. It seemed like it anyway. First I perforated a pattern for a sign I had to paint later. See I'm a sign painter. Sort of. Well used to be. I guess I still am. Nobody in their right mind paints signs anymore; they're all vinyl. But way back in the dark ages I learned to be a sign painter (sign writer for my UK readers). And every now and then someone insists on a hand painted sign. Which brings me back to today's story.

That tool has a little pokie wheel that actually punches holes in the paper. We have an electric perforator which is a lot faster, but when we got our new computerized telephone system about 10 years ago, we realized the perforator really messes it up, so we can't use it anymore. So I put the pattern over some shipping foam and traced over the letters that I had the computer draw for me. In the old days I would have drawn them by hand too, but now we have the computer do that. Then I gathered my materials: paint, brushes, pounce bag, rags, thinner, lard oil, palettes. And off I went.

Even driving to the boat was a step back in time. When I was a kid my family used to drive this road about once a month to visit my grandparents. It goes through the delta area of California's Central Valley. It's a maze of rivers, sloughs, and irrigation ditches. Acres and acres of land are farmed here in corn, tomatoes, beans, and my favorite: asparagus. In fact, California grows the BEST asparagus in the world. Something to do with the peat soil. But all that water makes it very foggy in the winter. And today was no different.

Click on this photo to see what it looked like along Trapper Slough. You want to be real careful along here. One little "oops" and you'd be in the slough. I remember one night coming home from my grandparent's house it was sooooo foggy, my dad had to roll the window down, hang his head out and practically feel his way along the line in the middle of the road.

When I arrived at the boat yard they showed me the boat...

....and gave me this to stand on.

Hey, it's not all easy street out there, you know. The styrofoam blocks were a little wobbly, and it was cold in that open metal building, but I got it done. Here's what it looked like.

If I'd done it in vinyl it would have looked just the same only better, and been cheaper and faster. But the customer got what he wanted and that's what's important.

The job went well, the customer was happy, we got paid, I enjoyed my bit of time-traveling, and the fog had lifted quite a bit when I left for home. Hey, maybe I was on easy street after all.