Oh my, we have had the most glorious days at last, although today it is much cooler. But the week preceding the Olympic opening has been fine and warm (the English would say hot).
How many of you watched the opening ceremony of the games. We had Kate and David Church join us for a meal and we set up so we could watch it on the big screen in the barn. We loved the lack of flashiness that other openings have displayed, and particularly liked the message of inspiration to the next generation they portrayed. Thought Rowan Atkinson and the Queen stole the show. Apparantly the skit with HRH was filmed 3 months ago.
The coverage here is super biased towards GB and as usual the media have hyped up the performance of all their athletes and have had to do a bit of humble pie eating. For the opening event which was the Kiwi ladies football game played in Wales, our team did not even get a mention. We would have had a profile of all the opposition players to the inth degree. However as they are hosts, I guess they can be like that.
Our trip into London was great and we always have a wonderful sense of excitement being in that wonderful city. Our hotel was very central in High St, Kensington and this allowed us to cover huge areas on foot. We checked into our hotel and then walked into Oxford St to meet my brother Bill for lunch. Along the way we passed the Royal Albert Hall - it is such a glorious building. The proms season was about to start that week so we picked up a programme in the hope that we may get to a concert. The idea for the proms is to bring classical music to everyone so not only can you buy seated tickets for a show, but if you queue on the day you can buy standing tickets for two different spots (either in the centre, or up the top which is apparently better acoustics and you can have a picnic) for £5. How great is that. The performances run everyday for 53 days. Around this area are all
the schools of music buildings and hostels which are quite grand. Next to the RA Hall is the Victoria and Albert museum which is my favourite in the whole world. Had to pop in there for a quick look and then we discovered the science museum across the road. We also managed a visit to the British Museum which is another magnificent building.
Bill took us to an excellent italian restaurant and I am still salivating over my seafood spagetti. It was delicious. We walked down to the Tate modern art museum after lunch and were thoroughly confused and mostly unimpressed by most of the art. The building itself is fantastic. It started its days as a coal fired power plant and they have done the most amazing transformation of it. We caught parts of a tour of art students led by an art professor and it was interesting listening to the interpretation of some works as explained by her, but we were still scratching our heads when we left.
Friday we were booked to have afternoon tea at Kensington Palace in the Orangarie. It certainly gives a new importance to oranges having to grow them in an orangarie all those years ago. They were meant to reflect ones wealth. This one is now a cafe as I guess they can import the oranges from Spain. The Palace is home to a whole bunch of royals. William and Katherine live there as did Princess Margaret when she was alive. I think Charles and his sidekick is there too. It is a much more modern looking building in dark brick and the part we were allowed to tour through has lots of history. Obviously you are not allowed in the state apartments. We walked back to the hotel through the Park private road which houses mostly international embassies. The London Plane trees are giant and gorgeous and provided much needed shelter from the rain. The street is under CCTV surveliance and some of the embassies have armed guards outside. You are certainly not allowed to take any photos.
The next week took us across to the town of Wynchcombe. We had spotted a rather lovely painting by a dutch artist who lived in the latter part of the 1900's on one of our earlier visits to the town and could not stop thinking about it. John made the decision that we really should have it, so after moderate haggling we managed to secure it. The previous owner had a gallery, but had passed away and his wife was selling it. It is very restful - is a painting of two old fishing boats up on a sand bank.
The fine weather has allowed us to get right around the garden and tidy everything up. Feels good to have it back up to date. It only took two days of hot sun and the ground started to crack - just awful soil.
We spent a weekend in Chelmsford with Bill and Ali. We drove across leisurely on the Friday taking the back roads and avoiding major roads. We had time to visit Maldon which is famous for its salt. Jamie Oliver is the main promoter of the product and it was a small family business until it got a mention from him. We were entertained by a gypsy wedding which was held in the church opposite the cafe where we had afternoon tea. The Bride was very frou frou and she was carried away in a cinderella coach with two horses. One had to see it to believe it. The main reason for the weekend was to help them with their allotment. It is a new project for them, which they are just loving. Quite a big parcel of land and they have divided what was a jungle into small beds. Part of it still needed digging over so we helped them with that and dug out nettles that stood about shoulder height. Saturday we spent at a wonderful food festival near where they live and as it was the first fine day for weeks, it was a real success.
Follow the adventures of The Cook and The Gardener
Monday, 30 July 2012
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Mid summer and still raining!!
Well hello again - and yes still raining here. Apparently the jet stream has shifted south and is sitting right over Britain, and this is bringing more rain that one could ever imagine. Even the pohms are saying, 'bloody weather' and I have to say they generally just get on with it no matter what the weather is doing. They say - there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.
Last Monday morning I looked out the window and the rain was horizontal so called my neighbour to see if she was walking (3 doors away) down to Zumba. She was shocked that I should ask - of course she said!! I did feel a little pathetic, so put on the coat of off I went. Just love Zumba - its just like dancing and you can jiggle as much or as little as you like - and it is such a novelty to be able to walk there.
We have been working hard and fast on fine days to keep up with the maintenance and gardening. Have gotten right round the garden now, so most things are under control. John has been strimming widly all the woodland areas and mowing any fine moment that the grass is dry enough. Still picking gorgeous bouquets of roses and starting to enjoy some lovely little gem lettuces, strawberries, heaps of rhubarb, broad beans and corgettes.
Took a visit up to Coventry which is about half an hour away. The town is pretty ordinary as it was one of the major hits by the Germans during the war and there are very spectacular ruins of the cathedral. They have cleverly designed and built a fabulous new cathedral which joins on to the ruins, but the old one would have been very impressive. We walked up St Stevens Spire which is 181 steps and you get a very good 360 view of the landscape. We could almost see Banbury.
Invited our new Kiwi friends over - Kate and David - they tend the property for James Murdoch and his wife Katherine. (Yes that is the media magnate guy who has been in the new alot - well here anyway - because of the phone hacking scandal. Kate is an ex Tauranga girl and her husband David an American, but they are such fun and enjoying other Kiwi company too. The property they look after is just gorgeous, but their term will end in November as the Murdochs are off to live in New York permantely. We have met them for coffee and they were the folk who asked us to join them at the quizz night.
Attended Carmen at a theatre in Cheltehnam last week with John and Barbara Hill. It was a modern take of it and in english, so easy to follow if your Italian is not too good. We had a gorgeous meal at a Turkish restaurant first - lovely flavours in the food. This week John and I will join them again for another show called Top Hat. Is song and dance - 50's style and we are going to eat at Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant there. It looks fantastic - is a gorgeous huge stone building and the entry has a large tub all planted with lovely fresh herbs. Will keep you posted!!
We have had for the past week our first paying guests to stay. They are from the US, although the gentleman went to prep school in Oxford, so I think is really English. His daughter, about 17 and his girlfriend and her daughter, about the same age and both called Honey - (for petes sake, how american is that). They have been very easy guests tho - out every day early and home late at night. Havn't even cooked a meal here, although there has been a trail of wet towels that we have had to collect daily.
Hope we have met their expectations - I baked a luscious apple cake which they are enjoying and have put fresh flowers in the rooms daily - but for 5000 pounds for the weeks rent, you almost want to start polishing their shoes!! His rental car is the very latest and largest merc.
We spent a wet Tuesday last week at Sudely Castle with the Hills. Sudley was the home of Katherine Parr who was Henry VIII last and surviving wife. She remarried two months after his death a Thomas Seymour and has a child to him, but died 5 days after childbirth. Thomas did not cope and fled the castle and headed into London to try to gain favour of the young Elizabeth (Henrys' daughter by Anne Boleyn. Sadly there is no record as to what ever happened to the baby. Another twist in the tale is that Thomas Seymour was a brother to Jane Seymour - 3rd wife of Henry.
The castle was bought in the early 1900's by a wealthy merchant family who have restored it beautifully and kept fantastic records and artifacts. (In fact as John and Barb were leaving their place of work they said they were off to Sudley Castle. The reply was from their boss - Oh my Godson owns that!!) One of the latter owners was an Emma Dent - her family headed the silk production and manufacture in England - so quite wealthy - but she had a gorgeous and vast collection of embroidery. One piece of lace and silk work, was worked on by Anne Boleyn and was made for the christening of Princess Elizabeth who of course became Queen Elizabeth I.
The castle gardens were absolutely gorgeous and I even braved the rain and went over to the rose bed to bury my nose in all the old fashioned blooms. They smell utterly gorgeous and I just cant get enough of them. The knot garden was pretty gorgeous too as was the secret garden. Poor John, I have so many ideas for Gargan Road when we return!
Last night (Sat) we went along to the Secret Auction held at the Hall. It was designed as a fundraiser for hall refurbishment and was great fun. The team had managed to get all manner of things donated and they were then auctioned off. Each item was numbered and displayed, but the auctioner had a bunch of envelopes with an approximate value on it so you did not know what you were bidding for. She, however would give you the approximate value of the item inside so you did not bid £300 for a £10 item. It was such fun - one couple had been particularly quiet for most of the night and when we stopped midway through the evening for desert and pimms we mentioned to them that they had not said much. One of the items for auction was an artifical christmas tree which they DID NOT want so they were waiting for it to go before they called. Funnily just after desert they put in a bid and ended up with the f......g christmas tree - as he put it. It bought the house down. One guy won a trial Zumba class, so we are waiting till Monday to give him the big welcome at class. I won a £20 beauty voucher so was very happy with that. John got a bottle of Lindauer and a signed book by Jeremy Clarkson. I donated a bouquet of flowers, and our favourite Rita got that. I think they raised about £700 so were very pleased with the evening.
Will watch the mens final of Wimbledon thisafternoon and then want to visit some local artists who have work on show. There is a two week term of artists opening their studios all through the region and three are in Knightcote so can walk to them. We found a fabulous artist yesterday who did stunning mixed media stuff - her work was a combo of Timo Rannali and Louise Prastiti - In fact she looked up both artists on Google. We loved one of her originals of Tenby which is a beach resort in Wales that we loved. Ummm might be returning to buy it!!
Well I hope this week brings some better weather - we are off to London for a night on Wednesday so might next chat will be about that. Love to you all The Cook and the Gardener.
Last Monday morning I looked out the window and the rain was horizontal so called my neighbour to see if she was walking (3 doors away) down to Zumba. She was shocked that I should ask - of course she said!! I did feel a little pathetic, so put on the coat of off I went. Just love Zumba - its just like dancing and you can jiggle as much or as little as you like - and it is such a novelty to be able to walk there.
We have been working hard and fast on fine days to keep up with the maintenance and gardening. Have gotten right round the garden now, so most things are under control. John has been strimming widly all the woodland areas and mowing any fine moment that the grass is dry enough. Still picking gorgeous bouquets of roses and starting to enjoy some lovely little gem lettuces, strawberries, heaps of rhubarb, broad beans and corgettes.
Took a visit up to Coventry which is about half an hour away. The town is pretty ordinary as it was one of the major hits by the Germans during the war and there are very spectacular ruins of the cathedral. They have cleverly designed and built a fabulous new cathedral which joins on to the ruins, but the old one would have been very impressive. We walked up St Stevens Spire which is 181 steps and you get a very good 360 view of the landscape. We could almost see Banbury.
Invited our new Kiwi friends over - Kate and David - they tend the property for James Murdoch and his wife Katherine. (Yes that is the media magnate guy who has been in the new alot - well here anyway - because of the phone hacking scandal. Kate is an ex Tauranga girl and her husband David an American, but they are such fun and enjoying other Kiwi company too. The property they look after is just gorgeous, but their term will end in November as the Murdochs are off to live in New York permantely. We have met them for coffee and they were the folk who asked us to join them at the quizz night.
Attended Carmen at a theatre in Cheltehnam last week with John and Barbara Hill. It was a modern take of it and in english, so easy to follow if your Italian is not too good. We had a gorgeous meal at a Turkish restaurant first - lovely flavours in the food. This week John and I will join them again for another show called Top Hat. Is song and dance - 50's style and we are going to eat at Jamie Olivers Italian restaurant there. It looks fantastic - is a gorgeous huge stone building and the entry has a large tub all planted with lovely fresh herbs. Will keep you posted!!
We have had for the past week our first paying guests to stay. They are from the US, although the gentleman went to prep school in Oxford, so I think is really English. His daughter, about 17 and his girlfriend and her daughter, about the same age and both called Honey - (for petes sake, how american is that). They have been very easy guests tho - out every day early and home late at night. Havn't even cooked a meal here, although there has been a trail of wet towels that we have had to collect daily.
Hope we have met their expectations - I baked a luscious apple cake which they are enjoying and have put fresh flowers in the rooms daily - but for 5000 pounds for the weeks rent, you almost want to start polishing their shoes!! His rental car is the very latest and largest merc.
We spent a wet Tuesday last week at Sudely Castle with the Hills. Sudley was the home of Katherine Parr who was Henry VIII last and surviving wife. She remarried two months after his death a Thomas Seymour and has a child to him, but died 5 days after childbirth. Thomas did not cope and fled the castle and headed into London to try to gain favour of the young Elizabeth (Henrys' daughter by Anne Boleyn. Sadly there is no record as to what ever happened to the baby. Another twist in the tale is that Thomas Seymour was a brother to Jane Seymour - 3rd wife of Henry.
The castle was bought in the early 1900's by a wealthy merchant family who have restored it beautifully and kept fantastic records and artifacts. (In fact as John and Barb were leaving their place of work they said they were off to Sudley Castle. The reply was from their boss - Oh my Godson owns that!!) One of the latter owners was an Emma Dent - her family headed the silk production and manufacture in England - so quite wealthy - but she had a gorgeous and vast collection of embroidery. One piece of lace and silk work, was worked on by Anne Boleyn and was made for the christening of Princess Elizabeth who of course became Queen Elizabeth I.
The castle gardens were absolutely gorgeous and I even braved the rain and went over to the rose bed to bury my nose in all the old fashioned blooms. They smell utterly gorgeous and I just cant get enough of them. The knot garden was pretty gorgeous too as was the secret garden. Poor John, I have so many ideas for Gargan Road when we return!
Last night (Sat) we went along to the Secret Auction held at the Hall. It was designed as a fundraiser for hall refurbishment and was great fun. The team had managed to get all manner of things donated and they were then auctioned off. Each item was numbered and displayed, but the auctioner had a bunch of envelopes with an approximate value on it so you did not know what you were bidding for. She, however would give you the approximate value of the item inside so you did not bid £300 for a £10 item. It was such fun - one couple had been particularly quiet for most of the night and when we stopped midway through the evening for desert and pimms we mentioned to them that they had not said much. One of the items for auction was an artifical christmas tree which they DID NOT want so they were waiting for it to go before they called. Funnily just after desert they put in a bid and ended up with the f......g christmas tree - as he put it. It bought the house down. One guy won a trial Zumba class, so we are waiting till Monday to give him the big welcome at class. I won a £20 beauty voucher so was very happy with that. John got a bottle of Lindauer and a signed book by Jeremy Clarkson. I donated a bouquet of flowers, and our favourite Rita got that. I think they raised about £700 so were very pleased with the evening.
Will watch the mens final of Wimbledon thisafternoon and then want to visit some local artists who have work on show. There is a two week term of artists opening their studios all through the region and three are in Knightcote so can walk to them. We found a fabulous artist yesterday who did stunning mixed media stuff - her work was a combo of Timo Rannali and Louise Prastiti - In fact she looked up both artists on Google. We loved one of her originals of Tenby which is a beach resort in Wales that we loved. Ummm might be returning to buy it!!
Well I hope this week brings some better weather - we are off to London for a night on Wednesday so might next chat will be about that. Love to you all The Cook and the Gardener.
Saturday, 7 July 2012
Better Weather
Well at last we have had some sunny days so have been able to do some work around the property. John is barely keeping up with the mowing though - the growth is rampant. One huge chore this week was to cut the main hedge, which is an all day job. It looks very tidy now though and I have been able to get into areas of the garden which were a bit junglefied.
Finally the peonies are flowering along with the rugosa roses which smell heavenly.
Saturday morning I attended a womens breakfast which our neighbour organises. John and I helped her and her hubby set up the hall the previous afternoon - I got to do the table flowers. Luckily their house is right next to the hall so about 6 men cook (john included) and serve the breakfast. It is such fun and runs really smoothly.
Saturday afternoon we caught up with Barbara and John Hill over at Oxford. They had some time off were able to come back here for dinner and stay the night. Oxford was teeming with people and it was the last exam day, so you can imagine the parties that were about to happen. Pubs and bars were filled with students. They had to attend formal dinners at their colleges in the evening and as we left on the bus we saw row of kids all dressed formally lined up ready to go to dinner.
Sunday John and I took a drive over to Wrest Park - about a hour and 15 min away and met with my brother and his wife. Wrest Park has undergone a 20 year restoration and is quite magnificant. The property was owned initially by Earl de Grey and his wife Henrietta in the 16oo's and has had a succession of family own it up until just after the first world war. As always it is filled with lavish pavillions, long water features, and orangies which are designed to show wealth. The cutest part was the dog cemetry in the woods, which has proper headstones for about 30 dogs over the years.
Saturday 23rd June we joined a few of the locals here in Knghtcote for a Safari Supper. This is usually organised by Sarah - Barley and Maisey's Mum. It was such a fun night. There are three parts to the meal and everyone is mixed up for each course. The lovely thing about having it in the village is that you just walk to your next destination. You are told where to go for your starter, and then you do not open the envelope until 15min before the next course to find out where each of you go for the main and so on, but then end up at one place for coffee, cheese, port etc. Was a fabulous way to meet some more villagers and we have even found some tennis players and are going to have our own Wimbledon with lots of pimms and strawberries. We hosted a main course, but went on to another place for desert and aTina had made carameled porridge with honey and whiskey and a gorgeous pavlova with berries galore. Was delicious.
We joined a couple of other Kiwis for a pub quizz night over at Broughton - that is also where I have been going to art classes - The questions were very tricky and even though we were lots of points down on the winners we displayed the usual good kiwi spirit and sportsmanship!!
Veronica, one of our neighbours suggested I might like to go to art classes with her. Our teacher is just lovely and makes you have a go at anything. Last class we had to study black, white and grey so had to mix to get different shades of grey - and had to copy a black and white picture. She asked that we use quite wide brushes - I felt like Rolf Harris!! but was surprisingly pleased with what I turned out. Sadly the classes finish next week for school holidays for 8 weeks.
Sorry still for no pictures - those of you who dont like reading without pictures will be getting a bit frustrated, but our computer has died, so need to remedy the situation somehow, but promise pics next time.
Hope you are not too freezing over there. Lot of loves The cook and the gardener.
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