Excellent start to the July 1st long weekend

July is Saskatoon berry month and in anticipation of making some saskatoon berry rhubarb jam so we headed out to the Saskatoon Berry Farm, a short drive from our home. We were too early to get Saskatoon berries (available toward the end of July) but found a great display of hanging flower pots! The farm sells trees, fruit, flowers, shrubs, gardening and landscaping materials and home decorating items. You can even go into their small restaurant to sample a slice Saskatoon Berry pie made on the premies, or buy preserves. It's a little gem located smack dab in the middle of the prairies!

Andy's rhubarb & apple pie!

Came home June 28 after my CREW Board meeting around 6:30, just in time to sample the homemade rhubarb & apple pie Andy made for dessert. This was a proud first for Andy! It was deliciously tart, almost hot (no one could wait for it to cool down before cutting into it) and was quite the sensory experience with the contrast between the hot fruit and vanilla ice cream!

Wizard Mad!

Since Christmas we have been playing the card game Wizard ... pretty much non-stop! After dinner we usually play a game or two. Can't really play with just 2 players so Lyden, Andy and I play 3 handed, 4 handed when Erin joins us and 6 handed when Rachel and Tyler come over on Sundays. When we returned from holidays, Lyden gave Andy his belated Father's Day Gift, "Wizard Deluxe" (shown in top photo) which gave us an added dimension to the game - instead of calling how many tricks we expect to get, each player uses the Wizard dial and then turns it face down on the table - no one knows how many tricks the other players are going for so it is less easy to "stitch someone up" by making them take extra tricks they did not call. We took a Wizard game to England and introduced Nev and Teresa to the game which they thoroughly enjoyed. Poor Teresa never won a game the whole time we were there! Recipe for family bonding: Wizard!

Back in Canada

We returned home yesterday ... the 8.5 hour flight wasn't too bad - a few screaming kids but thankfully they were not sitting directly behind or in front of us! Mom picked us up at the airport and dropped us at home. We were shocked to see how well our perennial garden had progressed in our absence - the peonies are in full bloom!

Apart from Lyden successfully killing the potted basil plant sitting by the sink, there were no unpleasant surprises awaiting us when we returned from home.

We went to bed just before 8pm and we were wide awake at 1:14 am but managed to go back to sleep until 5:45am. I usually find it much easier dealing with jetlag on the return trip but we didn't have much of a struggle with jetlag going to the UK this time, thankfully!

Warwick

Last stop on our way back to Coventry was Warwick (1/2 hour drive south of Coventry). It is famous for its castle and moat which we've visited on numerous occasions in the past. What we had not done in past is explore St. Mary's Church, which turned out to be very interesting! We could hear (but not see) a children's choir rehearsing in an annex to the church; there was an primary and secondary school art display at the front of the church, including a 6' palm tree, complete with paper mache bananas.

Top photo: gate to the City.

Second photo: underground crypt in St. Mary's church;

Third photo: the remains of the "ducking stool" - believe it or not, this was a medieval disciplinary device! The offender (thief, adulterer, etc.) would sit in a chair fastened to a beam which acted like a teeter-tooter (note illustration to the right of the stool). Their hands and legs would be clamped down by iron bars fastened to the chair. The offender would then be pushed through the city streets down to the river where they would be dunked the requisite number of times acording to the offence. Suprisingly, this "ducking" practice (which I surmise is another way of saying "dunking") only ceased in the early 1900's!

Painswick

Top photo: shaped trees in the church yard at Painswick church - the trees were groomed to perfection!

We stopped at this pretty Cotswold village not long after leaving Tetbury (where we had stayed on Monday night). We walked down a steep road not far from the church to see the Costwold countryside view shown in the photo below.

Tetbury

We stayed in Tetbury on our way back from Bath which is a Cotswold market town on the A46. It is filled with antique stores galore which is where this delightful lion sculpture was found!

Pultney Bridge, Bath

We had a great dinner at No. 5, a French Bistro located on the Pultney Bridge. Note the 3 tiered weir which was installed in 1972 to control flooding.

Another Bath view

Taken from near Pulteney bridge.

North Parade - Bath

This photo: the North Parade, turn left outside of our our hotel and this was the view.

Roman Baths

Top photo: Me, standing on the terrace above the Roman Baths with Bath Abbey in the background; bottom photo: looking down from the terrace to the Roman Baths below.

Bath

We stayed one night in Bath at the Abbey Hotel (top photo) which, as one might suspect, was located very close to the Abbey and the Roman Baths (entrance to the Roman Baths is on the right in front of the Abbey in the 2nd photo). The city is founded around the only naturally occurring hot springs in the UK. It was first documented as a Roman Spa, although tradition suggests that it was founded earlier. The waters from its spring were believed to be a cure for many afflictions. From Elizabethan to Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. The city contains many fine examples of Georgian architecture, most notably the Royal Crescent.

Morton in the Marsh & Cirencester

Sunday, June 17 we set off for the City of Bath and passed through many Cotswold pretty towns, villages and cities on our way. Top photo: Morton in the Marsh, a small market town and the bottom two photos were taken in the City of Circenseter.

BBQ'er in training

The whole family came over to celebrate Teresa's 68th birthday party (Paul & Helen, Charlotte & Sarah, Helen's eldest daughter Daniella, her partner Mick and their 3 girls, Mark, Danny, Sam, the twins Sophie & Chloe and David). Danny was quick to learn the finer art of BBQ'ing from Uncle Andy.

Lunch with Sally

Andy and I drove to Leamington Spa to visit Sally. We had lunch at the Waterman Pub in Warwick. It was great to see Sally again - the last time we spent any time together was in 1999!

Canal views from the Folkestone

Barn Owl

We noticed this "neighbour" in the barge moored up next to ours - apparently the owl was found injured and orphaned as a baby and the man who nursed him back to health and had the owl properly registered (note the ring around his leg) to him (owl is 10 weeks old).

Negotiating through the Locks

Top photo is approaching a lock, going uphill. Andy and I would jump off the boat as we approached a lock, run up to the lock, open the gates and Nev would drive the boat into the lock. We then close the gates behind the boat, fill the lock up by opening up the "sluices" or paddles (with a special lever provided with the boat) at the top end of the lock. Once the lock has filled up with water such that the water in the lock is level with the canal on the other side of the gate, Andy and I push open the gate and lower the sluices. The boat then drives through the gate and we close the gate behind us, jump back onto the boat and carry on. The third photo you will note a woman sitting on the balancing beam. We nicknamed this woman and her husband the "Lock Nazis" - they were retired boat owners who travel the canals for most of the year, the past 10 years and had little to nil patience for novice boaters. They appeared to be in a hurry and gave much unsolicited advice as to when and how to open the locks! This was afterall, our fourth day on the canals and we considered ourselves well seasoned veterans by this time!
The third photo is of "Captain Nev", navigating the boat we rented (the Folkestone) through the lock.

Napton church

Napton on the Hill - Village scenes

What a pretty little village! The top photo is of the Butcher & Arms, a very upscale pub & eatery. Andy and I walked up to Napton from the boat mooring and were rewarded with beautiful country scenes from the top of the hill in every direction, a quaint church and stone cottages, manor houses and converted barns, and flowers in bloom everywhere!

Napton locks

This photo was taken after working our boat uphill through 5 locks at Napton.

Exploring Braunston

After mooring the boat, Andy and I walked up to the medevial village of Braunston, boasting of two pubs, post office, small grocery store, butchers, fish & chip shop and the "modern" church which was rebuilt on the Norman church site in the early 1800's. Inside the church were two side altars made of stone which apparently had to be hidden following the Reformation after which, church altars were fashioned from wood. Most churches viewed from the canal were set upon a hill where their spires could be seen for miles around.

Canal Holiday

Travelling the Grand Union & Oxford Canals was an adventure. We passed by little hamlets, villages and towns surrounded by beautiful country scenes as these shown here. Lots of sheep, occassionally cattle and just past the Napton locks, water buffalo!

UK Day 6 - Car boot sale & Tattershall Castle

Wednesday, June 6 we started our day off by going to a car boot sale in Skegness. It wasn't a very nice day as these photo might suggest! Afterwards we headed off to Tattershall Castle which is maintained by the National Trust. It was built by Lord Ralph Cromwell in 1440 and centuries later was abandoned and had fallen into disrepair. A successful campaign by Lord Curzon in 1911 ensured its restoration. He bought the castle, oversaw the restoration and when he died, it was turned over to the National Trust. We walked up 150 steps which lead from one level to the next each containing great halls with massive carved fireplaces until we eventually reached the rooftop (which is where Andy took this photo of the church).

UK Day 5 - Woodhall Spa

Went through Woodhall Spa and stopped to admire this impressive Tudor hotel which was used by the RAF during the war. We also stopped at a little tea shop in the town which was filled with airforce memorbilia on the walls with wartime songs playing in the background. There were 3 elderly ladies having their tea in an adjoining table and I couldn't help but overhear one of the old dears say "I dare think I talk too much - I seem to have been talking all day long - I ought really to be quiet else you'll be sick of me" and then proceeded to talk the whole time we were there! Too funny.

UK Day 5 - Willoughby

We explored the small village of Willoughby (amongst others) and explored its 14th century church. Captain John Smith, famous for his role in the Pochahontas story, was baptised at the Willoughby church. It was rather fascinating to read the tombstones found just outside the main church doors - one entire family actually, all buried in the same plot, the last to die was Sarah Hill in 1906, who was predecased by her husband and 5 children, one on Christmas Day and one as young as 3 months!

UK Day 3 & 4 - Louth

Just returned to Coventry ... our plans to go to York were changed following being hit by a car on our way out of town - nothing serious, just a "bump" as they say here. After sorting out the insurance details and arranging for a replacement rental car we were off albeit 6 hours later so we just went straight to Skegness to the caravan. We explored little country villages and towns near Skegness, which is located on the east coast of England. The lower photo is a pub in Louth, a market town. The structure was built in 1621. The top photo was also taken in Louth. We explored the Louth parish church which was rather fanciful to be called just a "parish church" I thought! The church spire is shown in the first photo above.

UK - Day 2

I must say I'm rather chuffed with how well I've adapted to jetlag. After arriving yesterday in Coventry at 10:15, we went for a nap around noon (4am Calgary time) for 2.5 hours and then went to bed at 9pm. We both slept soundly until 6am when Andy woke up. Andy promised to take Danny for a run so he went down to collect him at 7am and they went for a 3K run. Andy commented how easy it is to run in England - he finds is much harder to run in Calgary by comparison, because of its elevation. After breakfast we made our plans for the week - travelling to the City of York tomorrow to sightsee (about a 2 hour drive from Coventry) and then head to Nev & Teresa's caravan at the seaside in Skegness until Thursday. From there, we intend to take day trips to Boston and surrounding little market towns near Skegness. Paul dropped by this morning with two fishing rod sets he picked up at a car boot sale for our trip on the canal - apparently we do not need fishing licenses if we fish from the boat (but would need them if we fished from bank - odd logic to me!). After a bit of shopping at the local outdoor sports centre, we ventured off to Coombe Abbey (first photo). Coombe Abbey was once, as the name suggests, a monastery but it was renovated years ago into a hotel. It is surrounded by acres of pastoral land and has an arborteum, open fields and picnic areas. Lots of families took advantage of the beautiful sunshine and went to the park to have a picnic. We walked the grounds for about two hours after which Nev & Teresa dropped us off in the City Centre on our way back to town. Andy and I took in the Herbert Museum located near the old Coventry Cathedral (second photo), and after enjoying a coffee at Starbucks in the precinct, caught the no. 36 double decker bus home to Kereseley.

UK - 1st day

Had a good flight to England - arrived on time at Manchester airport at 6am Sat. June 2 - took the 8am train from the airport to Coventry changing trains in Crewe - thankfully we did not have to haul our luggage up any stairs to get to the correct adjoining platform at Crewe. Nephew Danny (10) met us at the train station with Nev & Teresa. Had a BBQ in the back garden with Paul & Helen, Charlotte, Sara, Mark, Danny & the twins Sophie & Chloe (2.5 years old). No surprise, Uncle Andy hit it off with the girls! (seen here coloring with Chloe).