The Lovetts In England

Aysgarth Falls, Buckden and Kilnsey - August 2012

The following day we packed up and headed off into the Yorkshire Dales National Park on a mission to find some decent coffee and a nice place to stop for breakfast. We never found the coffee, but took in some stunning scenery before stopping at Aysgarth Falls to eat. We had been there on our way back from the Lake District in 2009 and were happy to sit at a picnic table near the falls to eat our variety of pastries. After breaky we wandered up the river, then headed off through Buckden to Yockenthwaite, where we parked the car near some sheep and took a walk to Hubberholme (what a great village name!) and back along the River Wharfe. The scenery was fantastic, as was the old world war 2 fighter that flew through the valley below us!

After a very tiring walk, we stopped off in Buckden for a cool drink and a bite to eat before heading home through Harrogate and York.

Sherringham Park - August 2012

Norfolk

We had the privilege of being invited to the wedding of Luke Franklin and Toni Strong earlier this week. As the wedding was in Fakenham, Norfolk and the reception in Norwich, we decided to make a holiday out of it. Heading off early on Tuesday, we drove South through Boston then turned East into Norfolk, eventually stopping at Hunstanton, where we ate our breakfast in a park on the Promenade looking out over The Wash. They say that on a clear day you can see Skegness from there. It was a clear (and gusty) day and we can verify that “they” are right in this case.

After breakfast, we headed east along the A149 through some charming villages like Burnham Deepdale, Burnham Overy Staithe and Wells-Next-The-Sea toward Cromer and on to Sherringham Park. We spent a couple of hours wandering through the park and climbing the gazebo which gives wonderful views of the country around the park.

Felbrigg Hall - August 2012

After lunch we headed over to Felbrigg Hall, a magnificent old stately home with about 500 acres of park and gardens. We had dinner in the garden before heading into Norwich to check in at the Travelodge Heathersett, just outside of the city.

On Wednesday morning we went into Norwich, parked at Castle Mall shopping centre and had a walk through Elm Hill, down to Quayside (where we got what is probably the best coffee since arriving in the UK, from the King of Hearts Cafe) along Tombland, through the grounds of the Cathedral and to the Royal Arcade. Back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding, then off to Fakenham. The wedding was held at the church of St Peter & St Paul, and was a really lovely ceremony. The reception was held at Open in Norwich and was our first hog roast dinner (delicious!). We had a great time and enjoyed the many musical performances by Luke & Toni’s friends from NGM in Bristol.

Norwich - August 2012

Horsey Wind Pump and Beach - August 2012

On Thursday we drove out to the Horsey Wind Pump (in Horsey, naturally) where, after another picnic breakfast of pastries and fruit, we explored the old wind pump then had a walk out to the beach to see if we could spot any seals. There were a few floating just off shore, checking out the humans on the beach – they were very cute but it proved impossible to get a decent picture of them!

Blickling Estate - August 2012

We got in the car and headed for the Blickling Estate – an absolutely stunning old stately home with huge gardens. the rain started to come down quite heavily on the way there and continued all afternoon, so we were content to look around the house and explore the second-hand bookstore rather than tour the grounds.

London 2012 07 21 - The Cars

Only a short trip, but quite relaxing, helping us to rejuvenate before getting back to the grind of school and work on Monday.

Saturday 21 July 2012

Big Day Out in London

Summer’s supposed to be here, but we haven’t seen much in the way of summer weather so far,although it looks like it will arrive in time for the Olympics which start on Friday. Earlier in the week we noticed that Saturday was forecast as a reasonably warm, clear day, so we decided to make a day trip to London. Lots of research by Carolyn produced a plan to revisit the Hyde Park Rose garden, some indulgence of interests and then a visit to St Paul’s Cathedral.

So up at 5.30 to get ready, in the car around 6.30 and we headed off. No issues with it being too dark - as it starts getting light around 3.30am at the moment, it was well and truly daytime by the time we set off. A quick pitstop for fuel, air and coffee at Peterborough Services, then back in the car bound for Cockfosters tube station which is the last stop on the Piccadilly line – parking there is pretty secure and quite cheap on a Saturday (£1.50 for the whole day). After buying some Tube day tickets we got on the next train and got to Hyde Park Corner around 11am.

We spent the first hour or so wandering around the Rose Garden, which is one of our favourite places in England. It was one of the first places we visited when we first arrived from Australia, so holds a special place for us all. While a lot of the rose bushes were not in bloom, those that were blooming were worth seeing. We managed to find a “Blue Moon”, which is the rose that Carolyn had in her wedding bouquet. Jack spent 20 minutes or so eavesdropping on a school tour group from Italy while their guide told them some history of the UK. It was a good chance for him to hear some actual Italian, rather than just from his Rosetta Stone course at school. We also saw some Robin Red-Breasts and Blue Tits feeding in the bushes. We do see them from time to time at home, but don’t generally get so close to them. They’re very cute little guys.

We walked a little further through the park to the lower end of the Serpentine. There was a lot of work going on to prepare for the Olympic torch concert which is on Thursday night. Lots of areas closed off, but still plenty of room for our picnic lunch watching the squirrels doing their thing around the park.

After lunch we split up – Carolyn and Anna going to the Wellington Arch to do some sketching, Jack and Scott heading into Knightsbridge to do some car-spotting. Jack was stoked when we walked out of the park to Knightsbridge (the road) and straightaway saw a Ferrari dealership with a 599 GTO in the showroom (there aren’t many of them and this one was a racing version as well) and an FF, neither of which we’d seen in “in the flesh” before.

After spotting a few more Ferraris, a couple of Audi R8s, any number of Bentleys, Range Rovers and Porsches a a couple of ridiculously stretched limos, we eventually found the McLaren shop which had a couple of MP4-12C road cars, another MP4-12 bare chassis (everything but the body), the car the Lewis Hamilton drove to his Formula 1 world championship in 2008 (hanging vertically over the door!) and one of Ayrton Senna’s F1 cars from the 1980’s. We thought that was pretty cool till Jack turned around and noticed a car sitting at the intersection behind us – a very shiny black Bugatti Veyron. Neither of us had seen one on the road before, so it was pretty cool to spot one. Unfortunately we couldn’t get pictures before it headed up Brompton Road towards Harrods’, so you’ll just have to take our word for it that we saw it! We had to chase it to try to see it again, ignoring the other cars around but it had got away.

London 2012 07 21 - St Paul's Cathedral

After a quick walk through Harrod’s we headed back to meet up with Carolyn and Anna (seeing a red London bus done up as a wedding car on the way) at the Wellington Arch, and hopped on the tube to St Paul’s station. From there we walked (you guessed it) to St Paul’s Cathedral which is one of the most magnificent buildings. Designed by Christopher Wren, it is stunning on the outside, beautiful on the inside and has so much history. After getting our ticket we were deliberating about where to go, when a volunteer guide came over and asked if we needed any help. She described some of the history of the cathedral and what the options were for seeing it. In the middle of a sentence she turned to Anna and said “You have a lovely face! What’s your name?”. She then went on to tell Anna that she would be able to remember her visit to St Paul’s because of the “mad Londoner” she spoke to. She was quite a character!

Unlike when we visited in 1996 (and were scared off by the cost), the entrance fee now includes an opportunity to go up into the dome. The first level is the Whispering Gallery which is 257 steps up a timber spiral staircase inside the dome, where you can have people on opposite sides of the dome able to converse due to the acoustic quirks of the design. We tested it and found that you need to use a deep voice – Carolyn and Anna could hear me but I couldn’t hear them till Anna used her deepest voice to say “Manly rules” (which is unfortunate as they had lost their game on Friday to the stupid Bulldogs, who now lead the NRL competition). Up another 119 steps on a steep stone spiral staircase and you get to the Stone Gallery, which is on the outside of the dome and affords great 360-degree views of the city. It is fairly deep and has a high stone railing about 8 feet tall so is quite safe. The Gold Gallery is a further 152 steps up by way of a series of metal spiral staircases, the kind with latticed steps which you can see through, so that can be a bit off-putting for people with height issues. A few steps before getting out to the viewing area outside, there is a small window in the floor looking back down to the cathedral floor about 85 metres down. It gives a strange perspective on the cathedral!

Out on the viewing platform there is not a lot of space between the wall and the 4 foot high stone railing so it was a bit squashy, lots of people trying to get past each other and having to negotiate who was prepared to squeeze up against the railing and who wasn’t. The view out towards Canary Wharf in the East end is dominated by tall office buildings, including the Gherkin. Further round toward the south is the stunning Shard, which opened earlier this month and is Europe’s tallest building. Working further round you get a great view of the Thames, the Tower Bridge (which has giant Olympic rings on it at the moment), the new Globe Shakespeare theatre, the London Eye and, right near the cathedral, the Old Bailey.

London 2012 07 21 - The Rest

After a long walk back down the 528 steps, we were quite exhausted, so we headed down to the crypt, as you do. Down there we saw the tombs of Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Wellington and a few other notable military people. We couldn’t get into the Chapel of St Faith or to see Christopher Wren’s tomb as the area was closing. We did indulge in afternoon tea in the cafe with some wonderful chocolate brownies, scones with jam and clotted cream and lemon drizzle cake. It was an expensive but delicious treat to end the afternoon.

Back to the tube station for the trip to Cockfosters before driving back home with a dinner stop at Peterborough. Back home around 9.30 (it was still light then) and falling into bed. A memorable family day out.

Monday 2 May 2011

Springtime!

Well, we thought we’d been a few months since posting, but didn’t realise that it has now been one year, almost to the day! Sorry if you’ve been waiting for more posts – we promise to fill in the gap over the next few weeks.

Anyway – to Spring! The country here has undergone a transformation. After the bleakness of winter we had the transition to gold. First the daffodils, now the rape crops are filling the fields with bright yellow and gold.

The trees are all green (except for the palm in our front yard which seems not to have survived the harsh winter), the hedges have gone from masses of sticks to lush green and flowering and the songbirds are out. From about 4.30 in the morning. While we’d be happy if they slept in a little longer in the morning it is something special to hear blackbirds, robins and a host of other songbirds when we wake up. There’s even a cuckoo nearby who doesn’t seem to understand that he’s only supposed to make his noise on the hour.

We’ve just come off a couple of weeks of stunning clear weather which happily coincided with school holidays and a week off for Scott. He had to work in Nottingham for a couple of days (Thursday and Friday) at the end of the first week of the school holidays, so we upgraded the hotel to a family room and Carolyn and the kids spent some time exploring Nottingham during Scott’s working days, in nice weather for once. On Saturday we packed the car up and spent the day at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire. The house had belonged to Bess of Hardwick, the Countess of Shrewsbury. It is a magnificent property with wonderful gardens. We were fortunate to encounter a chaffinch warbling and singing while we stood just a few feet away. Unfortunately we couldn’t time a photo of it actually doing this, so you’ll have to take our word for it. There was also a lovely pear and apple orchard and many, many blossoms. They even had a wattle tree in bloom.

Hardwick Hall April 2011

We decided to make the most of the good weather during the holidays and get out to visit some new and familiar places. Belton House is a favourite and we had a great day walking through the vast gardens which were full of spring blooms. And of course it was Rosings Park in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, so we can always imagine Colin Firth striding along the footpaths, brooding about something. In case you’re wondering about the close up of Jack - Scott was lining up a nice picture of Carolyn looking along the “approach to Rosings Park” path when Jack (with perfect timing) stuck his head in the way to ask “what are you doing Dad?”. Apparently taking a photo of you, Jack!

Belton House April 2011

Peckover House April 2011

Another day trip took us to Peckover House in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. This is a town house with a beautiful 2 acre garden – well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. Wisbech was the home of Thomas Clarkson who, with William Wilberforce and others, played such an important role in getting slavery abolished, so there is a monument to him just a short walk from Peckover House.

Monday 3 May 2010

Gold, Gold, Gold!

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz … you know the rest or have no idea what this is about, so why bother continuing?

Spring is here is the Northern Hemisphere and you can tell because of these things:

The birds are twittering. A lot. from 4.30am.
Daylight savings is back, so the sun (gold) is up before 6am and setting around 8.30pm already.
The sun is out more often, sending the temperature soaring into double-digits at times.
Everywhere you look there are daffodils (gold). They are so plentiful on the side of the roads that they’re going for 50p per bunch in the shops.

Spring has also brought with it a refurbishment at the Cardsave office, requiring 19 consecutive days of work for Scott over Easter and the weekend previous. Now that the refurbishment is over, he’s moving on to migrating Cardsave to new systems, so there will be more overtime for a few more weeks. But let’s rewind a little.

The last week of Term 2 saw the European Student Convention, a gathering of the schools and home-schools who use the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. Locksley Christian School sends the students from the Upper Learning Centre to Convention each year, so Jack got his first taste of it this year. Over the course of 4 days the students compete in events in academic, sporting and cultural categories and Jack was entered in a wide range of things including a chess tournament, track and field, art and drama. The Clown Act was Jack’s biggest and most daunting event, being only his second time on stage and his first solo on-stage performance. We had received an SMS telling us that Jack was in the running for a medal for his act so tuned in on the web site to watch the evening rally, where medals were to be presented. Jack was called up, so we knew he would be receiving a medal. Imagine our surprise when he wasn’t called up for third place and our joy when he wasn’t called up for 2nd place either. He had actually won and, we’re told, was in a different league than the other clowns. We were (and still are) very proud of him for doing something new and “out there” and for doing it so very well. Congratulations to Jack for a great result and to the other Locksley students who won a large collection of medals. Jack was just as happy at the opportunity to spot supercars on the trip as he was winning his medal (gold).

The first week of school holidays was pretty quiet, with Scott at work throughout the Easter weekend. It was also quite a quite a cool week, as we forgot to order heating oil, so the heat ran out on Easter Sunday for a couple of days till new oil could be delivered.

We’ve tried to make the most of the weekends since Easter where Scott hasn’t been working. We had a daytrip to Binbrook and Willingham Woods a couple of weeks ago. Binbrook is a village on the Lincolnshire Wolds and during WWII was near an airbase (Binbrook airfield) which was home to a large RAAF contingent. While the base no longer exists, there is a monument to the RAAF flyers in the village and St Mary’s church in Binbrook has a roll of honour for all the Aussies based there who lost their lives in the war. When we parked to see the monument, we discovered we were in Orford Road and, seeing that Jack was wearing his Sea Eagles shirt, we thought it a good photo opportunity. Matt Orford was the Sea Eagles half-back till the end of 2009, now he plays for Bradford in Yorkshire. We went down to the church and were very grateful when the church warden interrupted his lawn-mowing to walk home and get the keys to open the building just so that we could have a sticky-beak.

Willingham Woods is not far from Binbrook and is a lovely wooded area with ponds, walks and excellent climbing trees. Kind of like Sherwood Forest on a much smaller scale and perfect for a relaxing picnic lunch. Jack spotted a couple of Porsches, a Maserati and a Lamborghini Gallardo on the way home while enjoying some Roses chocolates.

On Thursday the 15th of April, we packed up the car and headed west to West Yorkshire for a couple of days. Heading initially for Haworth, Nev the satnav decided to take us on down a dead-end road, then made us turn left when the map showed us having to turn right. Scott being the stubborn mule he is sided with Nev instead of Carolyn (a bit risky, that) and headed up a single lane road which would require reversing if someone came the other way. At the top of the steep hill we came across a most beautiful view across the valley to Haworth which we were able to enjoy from a park bench at the side of the road while eating our lunch. The view included a gum tree in someone’s back yard - why someone would plant a gum tree in their backyard in the Yorkshire moors is quite beyond us, but it was nice to see. After lunch we headed into Haworth and walked up the steep cobbled road to the Bronte Parsonage Museum where we could see how the Bronte family lived. Patrick Bronte was appointed the Perpetual Curate of the Haworth Church and raised his family there including his famous children Charlotte, Anne and Emily who wrote their famous novels in the parsonage. It was quite moving to see how they lived and to learn more about the tragic circumstances of their family.

Off to the Belmont Guest House in Harrogate and a most delicious dinner at Brio restaurant – if you ever visit Harrogate and want a great feed, go there. The Belmont provided another delicious meal for brekky on Friday then we headed out past a car dealership which made Jack so excited he almost cried (it had Porsches, Bentleys and an Aston Martin), through Killinghome (a village which ironically had everything except a funeral home or slaughterhouse) and out to Fountains Abbey. We planned to go just for the morning but ended up leaving at 6pm. The abbey was built by a group of monks from York who didn’t like the way the Benedictine monks there were living – too comfortable they thought. So they went to Fountains to set up their own place. Unfortunately they had no money or shelter, so ended up spending their first winter there living in a makeshift shelter under an elm tree, eventually being given some money to build something more permanent. It ended up being a huge monastery which made a large income from sheep farming and the produce that came from them (wool, milk. cheese, etc). It was in the end targetted by Henry VIII for dissolution, when the monks were booted out and the abbey stripped of anything of value, the proceeds going toward the cost of Henry’s wars.

The property itself was sold and eventually acquired by someone who liked the romance of the place and added landscaped parkland to it in the the 17th century and is now a World Heritage site. It was a most beautiful and fascinating place – very picturesque and somewhere that we will visit again. Jack had to get a video of the Porsche\Bentley\Aston dealership on the way back to the guesthouse which was interrupted by another tasty dinner at Brio.

Sunday morning brought another fantastic English breakfast before we saddled up and headed off, via places like Bedlam to Brimham Rocks. What an amazing place – full of weird rock formations and wonderful views across the moors and Menwith Hill, a RAF base which,like Pine Gap in Australia, “provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the United States of America”, but looks like a bunch of giant golf balls. Jack and Anna had a wonderful time exploring the rocks and caves and we enjoyed watching them and looking at the views.

We broke up the trip home with a quick stop at Nostell Priory near Wakefield. Quite a lovely place and somewhere we plan to visit again soon.