Month: March 2017

Bob and I got into Leeds via train on the Saturday night that we left our housesit in West Farndon.  we arrived to a hopping atmosphere with lots of people in the station, including a hen party of older women who had definitely been enjoying themselves.  We weren’t sure what our trip to Leeds would bring, but we ended up having a lovely time.  We stayed in a hotel just outside the city center.  

Our first full day was sunny and warm.  We had a great walk through the ruins of an old Abbey, strolled along a canal, and explored a bit of the retail district. 

We walked to the Abbey through town, but we walked back into Leeds along a canal path.

After finding the bus station where we would pick up the Megabus for our journey to Newcastle on Tuesday we headed into the town center.

 

Our second day in Leeds wasn’t as sunny and warm, but we still had a good walkabout.  We walked a little over an hour to Roundhay Park which is a large park (over 700 acre so) on the northeast edge of the city with football fields, a tropical garden, a manor, ponds, and lots of walking trails.  In medieval times, the park was used as a royal hunting park.



Bob and I spent a day reminding ourselves of how incredibly intelligent other people can be by a visit to Bletchley Park.  In case you aren’t familiar with Bletchley Park, this is the area where a number of individuals worked on code-breaking during WWII.  Bob and I became interested in this after seeing the movie, Imitation Game, a few years ago.  The movie focused on the work of Alan Turing, but there were a number of individuals who contributed to the effort.  The grounds (and many of the buildings) where the individuals worked and lived are part of a tour of the grounds.  The whole experience is very well put together with an opening film to provide context for the exhibits, buildings, etc. that you see during your visit.

 

Bob and I spent our last full day at our West Farndon housesit doing a walk out of the community of Brackeley, a town in South Northamptonshire.  During our 2+ hour walk, we saw some of the town of Brackeley as well as the smaller village of Evenly.

Dogs

Bob and I spent Tuesday at Woodstock — nobody’s farm and no music.  This Woodstock is a small town in Oxfordshire, England.  We were there to visit Blenheim Palace, the principal residence of the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Winston Churchill. It was originally built as a reward to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, for the Duke’s military triumphs against the French and Bavarians in the Battle of Blenheim during the war of Spanish succession.

We toured the exhibit on Winston Churchill who was made an honorary American by President Kennedy, an exhibit on fashion, and the animated tour on the history of the home and family. We also explored the expansive grounds.

The palace is beautiful and has been the setting for some fashion shows for Dior.  The grounds are also amazing.

Bob and I are currently at our week-long housesit in the village of West Farndon in Northamptonshire in the East Midlands.  (We have been calling this our Banbury housesit as that is the closest bigger town, but our house is actually about 11 miles northeast.). We spent a lovely afternoon and evening, including a great homemade meal with the homeowners on Friday evening.  They are now off skiing in Austria with friends while we are caring for their lovely old home (formerly a mill house) and their two golden retrievers — Hebe and Stella.  

Hebe (the name of a type of plant as well as the Greek goddess of youth) is the grandmother of Stella.  Hebe has doggy Parkinson’s, so needs some assistance getting through the stiles on the nearby footpaths but other than that loves her walks (and meals) as much as Stella.  They are both very sweet natured and quite use to walking in areas with sheep (common here along the footpaths).

The closest town for shopping is Woodford Halse which is an easy 20 minute walk.  We walked the dogs there via the Jurassic Way walking route which runs very close to their property.  This route runs the length of Northamptonshire.  It has nothing to do with dinosaurs but is named for the Jurassic limestone escarpments that helped to create the old estuaries that the route follows.

From there we walked towards another village, Eydon (pronounced Eden), to the Harley Equestrian Country Lifestyle and Cafe that had been recommended as a good place for lunch and cute gifts by our homeowners.  We arrived there at about 1:30, and the cafe was busy with people having lunch or tea and cake.  We had a yummy lunch and perused the shop.

We walked into Eydon after lunch.  We found a local pub for perhaps a future visit before going home for an afternoon walk with the dogs.  

Today (Monday) Bob and I spent some time in Banbury to check out the local “big city.”  Banbury is a town of about 47,000 on the River Cherwell. Per Wikipedia, it is home to the world’s largest coffee-processing facility (Jacob’s Douwe Egberts — we’ve had their instant) and are known for their oval Banbury cakes.  I made a hair appointment for later this week, and then we did a short tour of the downtown area, including a stop in their free museum.

Bob and I spent much of our time during the last week getting even better acquainted with our “hood” — Isleworth, Brentford, Richmond, Kew, and Chiswick. We took in a play, Gaslight, at a lovely old theatre in Richmond. It reminded us a bit of the Paramount Theater in Austin. And we got in on a little of the Six Nations Rugby festivities by going to the pre-game activities at the famous Twickenham Stadium. We were outside (didn’t spring for the pricey tickets) the venue where Prince Harry and Princess Anne (as well as some footballers) were in attendance! England won big over Scotland to clinch the Six Nations cup. They (England) play Ireland today. If they win there, they would earn the Grand Slam, meaning they have won every game in the Six Nations championship.

We really loved our stay in Isleworth — awesome to be in a smaller, residential community with access to great running paths, good theatre, as well as easy access to the big city. The fact that we got to meet some new friends (human and animal) made it all the better.

The beautiful Richmond Theatre —

Some fun and informative finds walking to and along the Thames Path —

We had a rugby (not football) day one Saturday, as we headed to the famous Twickenham Stadium to participate (people watch) ahead of the Six Nations match between England and Scotland.  England won that game easily but lost today to Ireland.  While England still wins the Six Nations Cup, they don’t win the Grand Slam (winning all of their games in the championship series).

New friends that our homeowners introduced us to, Bev and Rae, got us into the Kew Royal Gardens for free.  They are members and are able to bring guests.

We walked to Chiswick (pronounced Chisik) one day to see the Chiswick House and Gardens and the Fuller’s Brewery (photo ops only) and then toured the Syon House and Garden in Isleworth on its opening day of the season.

Bob and I are just beginning our week-long housesit in Banbury, England, but we need to finish our posts for Isleworth/London.  The following is my attempt to show some our highlights from the big City of London with a second post to follow on our final excursions closer to Isleworth.  Our time in London over the past week or so was spent on seeing the sights from a boat, a pod, and a Skygarden.  We paid for the views from the boat and the pod (the Eye).  The Skygarden was free, but we had to reserve a time to go up.  We also made time to people watch and enjoy some the food at a local market.



So, the title of this post is punnier (maybe?) if you know that the name of the town is pronounced Eye-zell-worth rather than I’ll-worth.  Anyhoo, here’s the latest from Pecklandia.

First, you should meet our newest pets — Zoe, a Jack Russell and Queen of the house, Charlie (our 2nd Charlie), a chocolate Labrador and all-around Mr. Nice Guy and tail-wagger, and Tino, the puuurrr machine who knows that orange is the new black!

We are located in the parish of Isleworth in West London.  It is located along the Thames and has a lot of schools and parks.  There are children everywhere.  The younger ones are often on push scooters with their parents on their way to or from school.  We are generally dodging the older ones who are walking while texting or otherwise involved with their phones.  In less mundane matters, we are learning a bit about the history and royal ties of the local area.

The very cute nearby town of Richmond is part of the borough of Richmond-upon-Thames which straddles the Thames River. It has a large number of parks and conservation areas.  It has been home to royalty and is currently home (so we are told) to rock royalty including Mick Jagger. 

We have enjoyed walking and running along the paths that follow the Thames but have been surprised by flooding on them on more than one occasion.  One day I ran out on the path only to have part of it be under water when I ran back.  With London being so far inland we were sure it couldn’t be tidal, but we have learned we were wrong.  The Thames has one of the most powerful tidal flows of any river in England.  It is a tidal river for 55 miles from the outer estuary between the Essex and Kent coasts to just past Richmond.  The difference between high and low tide at Tower Pier can be up to 26 feet and it takes about 5 hours for the tide to come in and more than 7 to go back out.(londonsriver.com)

We spent a lovely afternoon at Wimbeldon touring the grounds, visiting the museum, and wishing we could come back some July to watch the games.  The most amazing part of the tour (since Rafael Nadal wasn’t around) was learning about all the work that goes into the seeding and maintaining of the grass. The grass has to be sufficiently dry before it is cut and then they only cut 1 mm at a time!  The ideal height for the grass is 8 mm.

 

We have made it into London a few times as well.  We have the best of both worlds. We are living in a lovely residential area but close enough to pop into the big city.  Our first trip into London was to the Kensington area to find a big head sculpture that we had seen in a brochure.  All we knew was that it was suppose to be near the High Street Kensington tube stop.  We checked in the station, outside of the station, in a couple of nearby parks, and at City Hall and the library without luck. We even asked a few passers by, but they didn’t know either.  Bob finally asked in the library, and they suggested we check the School of Design a few blocks away.  So you can thank a London librarian for the photo below.

We also spent a good part of a day visiting the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) and walking through some of London’s lovely parks.  We sat in on part of a session of the House of Commons and heard them debate a government proposal to address youth homelessness and heard another member propose that the nation hold celebrations later this year to mark the Queen’s Sapphire Anniversary on the throne.

We spent a couple of mostly wet days in Derby (pronounced more like Dawby) between house sits.  Derby is a city of about 230,000 located on the River Derwent.  It is home to the world’s second largest aero-engine manufacturer, Rolls Royce, but also for its lovely ceramics.

It also has a great, new mall called Intu Derby which houses one of the best cinemas we have seen.  We took in a late matinee, with wine and beer, to catch the (almost) Oscar-winning film, La La Land.  

The following is a quick pictorial overview of our stay.





Bob and I completed our Cardiff house sit with the Very Lovable Rita on Saturday evening February 25.  We left for Derby, England the next day and have now begun our London-area house sit, but more about all of that later.

Along with learning a couple of Welsh words, and watching our homeowners perform (on tv) in a Welsh- language soap opera, we also tried a few traditional Welsh dishes.  The first two dishes below we had at a lovely local pub.  The third we tried a sample of at a local market before buying some at the grocery.  Due to its name (laverbread), we initially had a bit of trouble finding it.  We assumed that it was in bread so we were looking for it in bakeries. It can be (sort of — see below).  But It is sold in its “raw” form in the seafood section.

We spent much of our last full day in Cardiff touring Cardiff Castle in central Cardiff.  We had stopped here on our last visit but hadn’t toured the grounds.  This time we toured the grounds as well as the house.  The grounds were originally the site of a Roman fort built around 50 AD.  Some of the Roman walls still remain.  It was later used by the Normans as a fort as well.  The property passed through the hands of many noble families before being inherited by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, a Scott, who renovated much of the facilities, including turning the home into his view of a Medieval Castle.  He and his family lived here only 6 weeks per year, but he is fondly regarded in Cardiff as he turned the city into one of the world’s leading coal exporters. Bob and I kept thinking that the name sounded familiar and through the power of Google we were able to confirm that he is the same gentleman who also had the castle in Thornhill, Scotland that we toured last year!