Blenheim Palace et al

Today we went to Blenheim Palace, a place we've both been intending to see since we have been in the UK.

Upon arrival we're faced with a massive, imposing, yellow stone building with the most incredible, ornate gates.

Inside the Palace and it went down hill a bit as we were herded through a 35 minute 'production' of make believe goings ons in order to educate us of the Palace's history. Obviously set up to baby sit those without enough get-up-and-go to enjoy a wander through a building alone.

The next part was the State rooms which were also very disappointing -especially after seeing Basildon yesterday. The room in which Winston Churchill was born was very drab, the whole place was in a completely different league to the likes of Basildon. A smaller more personal property tends to feel warmer and more 'loved'. Blenheim felt like it was simply out to make money at the expense of personality.

It was a different story once out in the grounds. They were beautiful. We walked beside the lake to the 'Cascade' - a man made waterfall. I think it was made by Capability Brown - what
didn't that man do?

We walked back along the lake and saw herons flying, fishermen fishing and lots of bird life that I'm not clever enough to know.

Unfortunately we have just missed out on the colour of autumn this trip. In some spots the trees are just beginning to show a tinge of colour. Another few weeks and the area will be in full autumnal colour.

The formal gardens complete with fountain and ponds were lovely and not too many people about because of the cold winds.

We left Blenheim Palace and headed west until a sign came into view announcing an Historic Wool Church. Curious... It turns out this area (Northleach in Gloucestershire) was known for it's wool production so all very sensible. There were some very old 'brasses' of some of the locals from the 15th and 16th centuries. And a very pretty churchyard and village.

We've stopped somewhere tonight in a quaint old pub, the real issue being is we have no idea exactly where we are. We know we were on the road heading towards Chepstow...

On the road again!

Mum and I decided to hire a car today and take off for a bit of a look around. We have no idea where we intend to end up except that tomorrow we will go to Blenheim Palace.

Mum is awaiting news on a job that will possibly mean she has to go to work, but if that doesn't happen we will return to London on Sunday.

Today we headed out of London about 1pm and drove to Reading where we stopped at the worlds most boring cafe for some lunch. We then did our favourite trick of taking back roads and seeing where we ended up. But we did want to go to Basildon Park on the way so after some lovely country lanes and a bit of back tracking, we made it there before closing.

It was a pretty house set in big wooded fields and a nice garden in progress in the grounds. The room stewards were all so passionate about their allocated room it became a battle of time to get around the place before it closed. A balance of listening and being interested while also trying to get out of the room before being bored to death by the details of the carpet of this particular room.

Back into the car and some more country lanes until we went over a series of bridges that took us over the Thames. The light was stunning with the sun not far off setting so we stopped and took a few photos.

Some more rural roads and we made it to Oxford where accommodation, it seemed, was at a premium. We eventually got ourselves a room and had some dinner in a local pub and are now settled in for the evening with a box of chocolates, a computer each and too many photos to sort!

Pearlies

Today was the annual Pearlie King and Queen harvest parade.

Mum and I went to see what it was all about and were very pleasantly surprised by the afternoon of sunshine, dancing, humour and more 'pearls' then you could poke a stick at.

There were dozens of Pearlie Kings and Queens along with a few Princes and Princesses. One of whom was only 5 weeks old! Very cute in her pearl (in this case actually buttons) dress and hat! Another little girl was only 2 and dressed beautifully along with her mum.

Also several Mayors of various locations - London, Essex and Sussex - all in their robes and Mayoral chains. Some Morris dancers, a few marching bands (of differing levels of enthusiasm...) and some little may pole dancers who were joined at one point by the Mayors and Pearlies. A lively and amusing moment!There were donkeys with carts carrying harvest goods and big dogs towing little carts with harvest goods amongst other things - a puppy was being carried in one cart.

Obsession

I have installed page counters on 2 of my blogs - would be all three if blog.com would allow them (stinkers!).

And as a result I have become completely obessed with the statistics! I love stats and this is an absolute dream to me!! I check them as often as possible and once even remembered after closing down the computer that I didn't actually blog anything. But the stats were interesting so who cares...

It even has a geolocation option so I can see where the readers are from. UK, USA, NZ, Singapore, Canada, Lebanon (?!!) and Australia so far. Must find out why my sister in Armenia doesn't show up!

So read on and keep me happy!

Brunch

Yesterday was Teresa's real birthday so we went out to brunch at her usual haunt.

All was good until one of the group found a piece of plastic in her hash browns. The manager eventually arrived and with a voice of complete mistrust asked some very pointed questions about where it was found, etc. And then went on to say the chef didn't recognise it as something that would be found in the kitchen. So without actually saying it she was accusing the woman of placing it in her hashbrown...

For the sake of £7 I don't think it would be worth that much effort.

We were then thinking of having some dessert and the manager then came over again and said we had to leave as the table was booked for 15 minutes time. Unbeknownst to us they had given us a 2 hour timeslot to have brunch.

By that point I was dead keen to leave.

We found a lovely cafe that did the most incredible cakes and had coffee and cake instead. Utterly divine and no bolshy wait staff at all!!

Slightly different to the dining experience of the night before.

Dinner

I went to dinner today with friends Teresa and Heather at the Ivy. It will be Teresa's birthday tomorrow so a celebration was needed.

Starting with a bottle of my favourite champers in the bar (hoping it was to everyone's taste... my taste buds were indeed impressed) and soon moved to our table for the evening.
A quick look around and there was John Cleese - my complete inability to star-spot is clearly high lighted here as I was facing him and didn't even recognise him after he was pointed out!

A short time later and Helena Bonham-Carter turned up with Tim Burton (has that man no hair brush???) and a few others to dine one table over from ours.

Charles Darwin sat in the corner eating alone... well, OK, we had no idea who he was, but he really did look like Charles Darwin and he was eating alone.

Some stringy haired lads appeared a little later... surely they must be 'someone' - why else would you let such a scruffy bunch in?

Who on earth was that at the head of the table behind us...? Very familiar face...

Rather unfortunate that on the night Lucy and I went last year, no one of any note turned up and we ate 'alone'.

The lobster was excruciatingly good again, as was the sticky toffee pudding and the wine.

The finale was offered when Teresa and Heather ordered a Baked Alaska to share and the waiteress turned up with all the ingredients and put on a seriously spectacular display of fire on a pudding.

Delicious...

Scary things eating stuff in the garden

I finished my contract yesterday so sit here today looking at my computer screen wondering what I really ought to be doing.

The fact is there a 1000 things I could be doing but instead choose to wander aimlessly around my (very small) room occassionally sitting at my computer for a game of Zuma or to play with some photos.

Earlier today I was in the garden talking to a soon-to-be dad of two when I noticed a very large spider in a very large web. Upon closer inspection, I realised there were, in fact, two very large spiders in two very large webs and one of them was eating something very big and very strange.

...just wondering how often I can use the word 'very' in one sentence...


I of course found my camera and now have 72 photos of above mentioned spiders. This is the one that was eating - but in this photo the thing being eaten is quite a bit smaller then is was when I was busy on the phone.



This one lost his web after a micro hurricane (a swift breeze in reality) wizzed through and bent a branch which caused his web's anchor to snap. The web became a little bundle of silk and Mr Spider walked up and down a thread a couple of times then gave up and went to bed.

Hmmm, a spider that thinks like me...