Autumn is beautiful in England……..

…….the seasons here are amazing and now as we approach our second autumn, we are more prepared for the rapidity with which the seasons change and so are making the most of it. Today we went for a ‘ramble’. There is a walkway which goes through our place and meanders over the countryside for 10 miles called St Peter’s Way, we have only ever done bits of it. Today we decided, armed with our ordinance map, to go for it – 4 hours they reckon. Well, the first thing we came across was the big haystack in one of our fields. The other day there were two big machines in the paddock, one sweeping all the hay into rows and the other driving over the rows and spitting bales of hay out the back, terribly efficient – today a huge haystack – just like days of yore – no polythene wrapped monstrosities’ here! On we went, following the discreet signs. We came across a field of horses – they were so friendly and decided to follow us, but alas they weren’t up for climbing over a style – pity, we really liked them.
On we went and then as always happens in our experience of England, without warning, the signs ran out. “Not to worry” said we, “we have our trusty ordinance map”! But, with no idea of where we actually were it was a bit tricky, so we pressed on. Lovely autumn day, lots of blackberries to sustain us and then all of a sudden things started to look horribly familiar, instead of doing a lovely 4 hour loop, we had managed an hour loop….never mind ….we went back to our pond and talked to the geese while we ate our bread and cheese and drank our ales. Must get better at map reading………..miss you all AGAIN…..lots of love xxxxxxx

He aha te mea nui? He tangata. He tangata. He tangata. What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, ...

………it is people. We can’t begin to say how important this was to us on our recent trip home. It was a very brief visit and we only caught up with a few of our nearest and dearest, but those we did manage to see, thank-you. Being in NZ filled our hearts and minds with aroha and now it is back to “Te aro Anglia” – “the way of the English”!!!! “Life as a servant” hit us with all it’s harsh reality on our return, intensified by the joys of jet lag. It has been ‘full on’….the class system and it’s ensuing stratification causes some people to try to establish their place in the hierarchy as soon as an opportunity presents itself. When we left for 14 days it would appear it kicked in immediately and there was a bit of a scramble. The interim carer took it upon herself to create all manner of “rotas” (English word for “rosters”) for extra staff for weird times of the day. It’s taken a few days to sort out the lack of mandate and now we are struggling to get everyone back in their rightful place – as Rod says “it’s like herding chickens” – one of his jobs that nobody else wants! Any how we are back. The leaves are beginning to turn, swimming in the “heated pool” first thing in the morning is bloody cold and we are looking forward to the arrival of our grand daughter from Norway and Patty from NZ – yay! Miss you all even more now….get over here…….much love xxxxxx