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.
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