It’s all been happening here since our last update.
Fathers Day came and went fairly quietly. It’s a bit strange having it in June instead of September. The following weekend we all went out to Rushmoor Country Park near Louth. It’s a working farm that has a big range of creatures – sheep, goats, pigs, cows, horses, owls, falcons, ducks, geese, peacocks, squirrels, chipmunks, ferrets, baby bunnies, rats, guinea pigs and a wallaby.
The playground has an interesting swing set which is supposed to be a gorilla, but looks more like Homer Simpson with a gorilla mask.
We have recently taken possession of our first genuine Picasso. If only it was as impressive as it sounds – we didn’t buy a painting, we bought a car (a French one at that), so it’s goodbye to the faithful Astra rental car. We set out to get a Golf, Focus or Astra estate (they’re not called wagons over here) and ended up with one of these, although ours is purple (we think it’s silver but officially it’s purple):
As an artist Carolyn is a bit uneasy about a car being named after a famous artist, but it is slightly cube-shaped, so maybe it’s a French interpretation of cubist transport. Maybe it’s just not authentic enough – perhaps Picasso would have put both headlights on one side and the door on top.
So far it’s done well – although it’s not a big car it has heaps of room, the kids sit up nice and high, it has a good big boot for travelling and it’s pretty economical.
We’ve also been catching up with our first Aussie visitors. Carolyn’s sister (Janelle or Sam, take your pick), her husband Antony and their girls Jessie and Katie have been over in Derbyshire for most of July to help Antony’s grandmother celebrate her 90th birthday.
We had a day out with them at Sherwood Forest Park in Nottingham, they stayed a night with us at Saltfleet and we spent a couple of days with them last week in Chesterfield. While in Derbyshire we visited the Chesterfield Parish Church with its crooked spire:
The real story behind it is that they built the spire using unseasoned timber, which warped over a couple of years, but we like the popular myth – that the devil sat on it while resting on his way to Sheffield. Clearly Chesterfieldites had a problem with Sheffield at some stage.
We also went to Chatsworth House, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. We’re not sure why it’s not actually in Devonshire, but there you go.
It was used in the movie “The Duchess”, which was about a previous Duchess of Devonshire, played by Keira Knightley. It was also used as Mr Darcy’s house, Pemberley in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice. It's a hugely impressive building with gorgeous gardens, although we found the interior a bit dark and oppressive.
Still in Derbyshire, we spent a day at Castleton, which is a very quaint village with a ruined castle up on the hill.
Heading home from Derbyshire was a bit emotional, being our final goodbye to family - we won’t see them again for who knows how long.
Also last week, we had a visit from some Canberra Aussies. Jenny Armstrong and Tom & Annie Bishop have been in Russia for the biennial mission trip and have come to the UK for a bit of look-see before heading home, so they diverted to sunny (maybe that should be less-wet) Lincolnshire. It was great to catch up with them and to hear how the mission trip went. The people at the Crown Inn (at the corner of our street) weren’t all that sure what to do with seven Aussies at once, but we all enjoyed being together and eating our custard-submerged desserts.
More soon!
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