Monday 14 May 2012

WEEK 2 AND 3 - Ludlow

Greetings to you all, and I hope your weather is not as bad as ours.  We are still waiting for the rain to stop - although we have had a few lovely days today is bleak and cold again with the promise of more to come, straight off the Arctic Circle.  I guess the good news is that the drought has been officially cancelled.            

We have had fun exploring more small villages and new areas that we have not been to.  Last year there was a documentary on a village in Shropshire called Ludlow.  It was highlighted as the most successful village in England as it had no empty shops, successful markets and no unemployment.  Thought we needed to check it out so took a drive last week.  The country side is just gorgeous - much more rolling and hilly and has more dairy farms rather than so much cropping like around Knightcote.  Stopped for coffee along the way at a gorgeous cafe/deli/fishery/butchery /wine shop in a small settlement called Ombersely.   Was jammed packed with gorgeous preserves, chutneys and the like.  Like all small places here it has a huge Church with large graveyard.

Ludlow is famous for geological research and the museum has fossils of plants and animals that are some of the oldest known.  The town has lots of Georgian half timbered Tudor Buildings.  The most notable of these is the Feathers Pub which has a really ornate facade.  The name comes from the industry of arrow making which was a huge industry here.  There is also a ruined castle built in 1086, but damaged in the civil war.  Prince Arthur, King Henry VIII eldest brother died in Ludlow and his heart is buried in the Church here.

We had to meet with the letting agent who is arranging visits to the property here.  His company - Loyd and Townsend Rose arrange holidays for the wealthy across the globe.  Their website www.ltr.co.uk is worth checking out.  Most of their properties are vast with clients spending tens of thousands of pounds a week.  We feel quite humbled being part of their offerings as some of their places are 40 roomed castles with seating at dinner for up to 200.  Quite magnificent.  However we have a confirmed booking for an American family in July.  There is some lovely photos on the web site of this place.  It is listed as Knight Farm.

Had another wonderful afternoon with the Hills last Saturday.  Their bosses were out of town and as they have now bought a car and can get about, they came across to Banbury and then onto Knighcote.  Had many laughs once again comparing notes.

Looking forward to our next Kiwi visitors - Carol and Graham King who will be with us from the 25 for a few nights and then Michelle McDonnell will be here and we are going to check out some famous gardens together.

Hope you are all behaving - Debbie Clarke sent me a gorgeous photo of the autumn splendor of the trees up our drive way.  Made me quite homesick.  Anyhow - love hearing from you all so keep emails coming.

Church at Ombersley

The gorgeous deli where we had coffee at Ombersley

Huge Wisteria about to burst on house next to deli

The ornately decorated put called Feathers in Ludlow

The boy and all his toys mowing stripes in the lawn

Shopping at market with new Trelise Cooper bag sent by Carrie and Rhys

Tudor style houses at Ludlow
Love and smiles The Cook and the Gardener.

Saturday 5 May 2012

Beginning the 2012 Journey

Here we are back in Pongolia for another Summer - hahahahaha.  The weather has been bloody freezing, (highs of 10 during the day) wet, bleak, sunless and windy for our first week.   Not quite what we were expecting.  Like the rest of the world the weather patterns are completely up the whop and so very different to the drought we arrived in last year.

The bad weather did give us a wonderful chance to get over our jet lag without any bother about what work we should be doing,  The Saturday night we arrived we closed the gates at 7.30pm, went straight to bed and managed a 12 hour sleep - bliss!!

We were feeling a bit restless by Monday and the sun did come out that day and gave us a high of      16 deg (felt positively tropical)  so we headed down to Cirencester - the capital of the cotswolds and a town with a huge Roman history.  The drive through the Cotswolds was just gorgeous - a real patchwork of beautiful rolling fields of yellow (rape in flower), and a mixture of yellow and grey greens with wheat and barley crops.   They have a museum which exhibits mosiac tile floors that have been rescued from old Roman sites as the area was a busy settlement in 43BC.  The tiling is quite spectacular with its detail and variety of patterns.  Not far away is the site of an old Roman Villa - really an extensvie mansion with hot and cold baths, drainage systems etc. and covered an area of about an acre.
In the 1800's two hunters had to dig down a rabbit hole to retreive their ferret and discovered all these small coloured tiles.  They showed the owner of the land and he arranged for 50 of his workers to excavate the site over a period of 10 years.  The dig was not conducted like a proper archeological process, but he did put up coverings over the massive floor areas to protect them.  Lucky for us the site now belongs to the National Trust and is well protected.

Found a really lovely cafe called Made by Bob for lunch - delicious food and decor and had a good look around the market and bazaar which had a good standard of gifty things for sale.

John and Barbara Hill are over here for 1 year and living in the South Cotswolds near Malmsbury.  We made contact with them on Thursday and took a drive over to join them for dinner and check out their digs.  It was so wonderful to see fellow kiwis and I know we were as excited as each other.  The lady they are working for has done some serious PR for two local guys who own a very impressive and grand hotel and next door a lovely pub/restaurant called The Potting Shed.  She managed to secure a table for us for dinner at the last minute and we had a fabulous meal and shared much hilarity comparing notes.  It did us both the world of good to have a laugh and unwind after the stress of travel and settling in to foreign surroundings.

The wet weather has prevented us from doing too much outside - managed a trip to the library to gather lots of travel books and we braved the cold and reacquainted ourselves with the gorgeous Barley and cute as Maisey.  Went for a good brisk walk with them for an hour around the usual circuit and enjoyed watching them play, run in puddles, and bound along beside us.

Have had a cuppa with our very favourite Knightcotians - Richard and Rita Sanderson and just like the first visit we had with them it started out as tea and finished with wine.  Moira and Graham, our neighbours has also had us in for a cuppa yesterday afternoon and we had a visit from George Wood who called to say hi.  Our other neighbour, Veronica delivered a community newsletter with news of the jubilee celebrations and also gardening club news.

Spent today (Saturday)  gardening and mowing as the place is starting to look quite wooly.  Areas of grass are still very waterlogged, but the stripes look very lush on the house lawns.  Are not expecting to see Susie until early June so will have it looking smashing by then. 

Thinking of you all - all the time lots of loves and smiles Jonnie and Sue







Bright yellow rape seed and green wheat fields

Country lane on way to Cirencester

Lovely english house and stone wall

Old Roman mosaic discovered in Cirencester

Roman floor mosaic dating back to 43BC

New thatch for the roof of the Three Pidgeons Pub in Banbury