Start of Summer

Today the Ehdaie's flew back to Seattle after spending their holiday as our next-door neighbors! It was so great to see them, catch up, and of course see more of London with them. On Sunday we visited Kensington Palace, the Orangery restaurant, and Kensington Gardens. We've had bizarre weather in London, so while it was pouring rain during lunch, the day ended up being sunny and beautiful. After Kensington, we walked to Notting Hill where we browsed the stalls, people watched, and ate cupcakes from the famous Hummingbird Bakery where I ate carrot cake with the best cream cheese frosting I've ever tasted. 

Also last weekend Mom and Dad surprised Franny and me with seeing the play "War Horse" in the West End. It was an incredible play- from how realistic the horses (mechanical puppets) seemed to the story itself. It was fairly minimal on the stage, no extravagant sets or costumes, just really well performed. So we had a great night out that night, and then another night went out for Indian food with the Ehdaie's. 

School has been far more relaxed this week because we're now on 'summer timetable,' meaning that we have one lesson for either a whole day or a half day with one break in the middle for lunch. It's perfect for all day Art or English but I wasn't loving it when I had all day Maths! Today was nice, though, because for History my class went into London to the Clink Prison Museum at South Bank. We have been studying crime and punishment in Britain through the ages so my teacher organised a trip to one of the first prisons in England; it was really interesting to hear more about the conditions of prisons in the 12th-18th centuries.

We have more very exciting summer plans coming up, so more bientot...

The Orangery

Queen Victoria

Notting Hill

Another Thames Walk and Ham House & Garden

Last week Steven and I took advantage of having a full 8 hours free to take a full 8-mile London walk. We had seen the suggested route in a "Best Hikes in England" book and decided to go for it. After a 45-minute bus ride to Kingston, we began our walk along the Thames Waterway, and wound through open fields, covered woods, residential neighborhoods, and parklands until we reached Ham House and Garden. We weren't planning to spend much time in the Gardens, but found that we couldn't help ourselves- the sun was shining and it felt glorious to walk through the flowers, herbs, lawns, and well designed greenery. We had lunch and tea (truth be told, Steven chose lunch and beer, but I enjoyed my tea) at the Orangery on the grounds, and sat outside admiring the view.

Much of the walk back was through Richmond Park and this time it didn't pour down on us and we actually spotted loads of the wild deer that the Park is noted for. We even saw a little fawn, but they all moved too quickly to get any good pics. The look-out from the Mound at the top of Richmond Park is spectacular. We finished our eight mile loop back in Kingston, and nearly fell asleep on the bus ride home. Needless to say, I was in bed quite early that night.

This week our dear friends, The Ehdaies, are visiting, so we'll post some of those adventures soon. And Franny made it back safely from a FABULOUS week in France. Life is full and we are feeling very lucky.

Holiday in the North (Part Two)

Ancient Stone Circle

St. Bega's Church

As Greta has already written, last week was the girls' final Half Term Break and we headed up north for a great week of amazing hikes, exploring small towns, delicious pub meals, horseback riding, and visiting with family. This is our kind of UK holiday! After a complete fiasco with our car rental, we finally got on the road and headed North, stopping in Banbury (of Banbury Cross fame- we saw the fine lady on her white horse) for lunch. Our first half of the week we stayed in a charming cottage on a small river in the Lake District, and then the last few days were spent in Shropshire at Susan and Robert's. None of us had ever been to the Lake District and it was breath takingly beautiful up there, with rolling green hills, sheep dotting the landscape everywhere, crystal clear lakes, and quaint little villages that weren't too crowded with the summer season visitors yet. There was a fantastic pub right around the corner from our cottage and walks right out our door, it was absolutely ideal (other than the not great weather).

We always have such a nice relaxed time staying with the cousins, eating wonderful meals with ingredients from their impressive garden, collecting eggs from their hens in the mornings, playing games around the table at night, long walks through the countryside, and the kids dancing for hours to the Wii "Just Dance" game. And this time we also arranged a horse riding expedition in a nature reserve in Wales, which was fantastic. It was such fun to see the kids trotting along through the woods, and brought back nice memories of  horse-back riding as a young girl. Franny hadn't had any real experience riding and Greta had only been a couple of times, but they both did very well on the trail and looked like naturals.

It was a long ride back down to London on Sunday and the grey and rainy weather didn't help matters. But Franny was excited as can be because she was getting ready for her big trip to France this week. So, I am writing about last week to keep my mind off of this week- I miss my baby! But I'm sure that she is having an amazing time and will bring back lifetime memories of her school trip to Normandy when she was just eleven. In fact, I think that we have created quite a few lasting memories this year...for all of us. And as a result of this week up North, I now have a new favorite dessert: sticky toffee pudding with ice cream- good stuff.

The Lake District

Our cottage

Hiking up CatBells

Postbox in the middle of the woods

 

 

 

Camouflaged

Town of Cockermouth

 

William Wordsworth's house

Village duck race

 

Although Franny and I still have over five more weeks of school, we did just have off last week for the June half-term. So we rented a car and drove north for six hours to the Lake District. It was really beautiful scenery, with green hills and blue lakes, and little villages. We stayed in Cumbria (home of Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth) in a cottage in a tiny town near Lake Bassenthwaithe. On our last night there the village held their annual duck race: sadly it wasn't real ducks like we thought, but rubber ones that you can bet money on for which will make it to the end of the stream first. It was a great area for hiking too, and it was so nice to come home after a long day taking walks and visiting villages to such a cosy and comfortable house. We were in a very northern part of England, almost to Scotland. The landscape was different to the other trips to the countryside we've taken this year- the Lake District has mountains whereas the other areas we've been to have small rolling hills, and while we saw the largest lakes in England last week, a few weeks ago in Dorset we spent time at the beach. I think I preferred the Lake District's scenery actually, despite the fact that I normally love everything about the beach and seaside towns. But it was so peaceful and calm, and the lakes looked amazing to swim in when it's hot...which it definitely hasn't been in England recently- starting last week we've had pouring rain almost every day. The lakes also had lots of tiny islands that you could easily swim to from the shore, which I would love to do. I guess we'll just have to go back...