Who’s reality is this........?????

……..we have been experiencing the most glorious unseasonal weather for the past 10 days. So much so that we have had to try and find some summer clothes. “Great” we are thinking – the UK is following NZ’s splendid summer example. However, pluses always come with a few minuses. We have garden designers working very hard to install an established mature garden by the beginning of June. Each day we have articulated trucks bringing in hedges, huge 40 foot trees and plants from Heathrow, flown in from Holland. There is an army of gardeners with all manner of diggers and implements (that we get to play on when they go home in the evening). The problem is, although the days have been lovely, it is a nightmare for the gardeners who had expected to have at least another month of cold weather before the plants and trees “woke up”……we have trees and shrubs yawning and waking up all over the place…not good….. it’s turned cold again today – I wonder if they will all go back to sleep??
Our employer was in residence over the weekend….he needed to go out for a few hours….we explained there was work happening on the driveway and we couldn’t leave the property – “No worry” said he “Quenty can bring in the helicopter”……the helicopter is stored 1/2hrs flight away…..down it came, in he hopped, took the controls and flew off for a few hours…….as you do!!!
The next day to clear our heads we went exploring, we found “Belas Knap” an ancient burial mound, (over 5000 years old) high on a hill near the village of Winchcombe and Sudley Castle. The thing that frequently strikes us as we drive through rolling pastures and forests, we are living in a country with 60 million people – where are they?????? Much love xxxxx

Circles of stones……..

….we went to visit the village of Avebury, about 30 minutes drive from here. We found out about it quite by accident. One of the builders on-site mentioned that we might find it interesting. Brian and Jane were coming for the weekend so we thought it a good place to take them.
Shrouded in typical British understatement we discovered a World Heritage Site which is apparently ‘world-famous’. Voted one of the ‘top five most spiritual places in the country’ and is one of ’Europe’s largest prehistoric stone circles’!!! There it sits, a beautiful little village, within a humungous stone circle. Astonishing!!………there are little shops, a school-house, a vicarage etc etc and it is all business as usual. Even a little village hall, with a notice advertising ‘Egyptian Dance Workshops’………It is very different from the Stonehenge which is considerably more hyped and possible less impressive. We are living in an amazing part of the country – chalk horses of various sizes appear on hills, Roman ampitheatres are used as BMX tracks…….We are surrounded, by what we consider to be enormously significant historic artifacts, to which the locals are quite ‘ho hum’.
Meanwhile spring is becoming more evident and it is hard to keep up a façade of “British reserve” when surrounded by so much glorious colour and rampant beauty after the rigours of winter………wish you were here……….xxxxxxx

It’s Spring……

…….and we went to London for the day – it’s a must every 8 weeks or so for a haircut (me – not Rod!). The sun was shining and the astonishing thing was….everyone was smiling. You could sit on the tube and people would beam at you – it never happens like that in winter. Because we were in London we decided to see The Mousetrap –Agatha Christie’s play that has been running for 57 years, in the same theatre. It was great, but we had picked the ‘villain’ by half time. I guess we are less innocent in this day and age. Still it was fun, we had a nice dinner and drove home. The cool thing about London now is that we can park at our employer’s London House in Sloan Square and catch the tube.
On a completely different tack, we had been driving around Cirencester (our closest town – 3 miles away) for several months noticing signs indicating “Roman Ampitheatre”
We decided to investigate. The curious thing about Britain is that they take you so far with signage and then it completely dries up, as did how to find the “Ampitheatre”!
Then we noticed some odd looking mounds behind some houses…….sure enough, hidden down an unmarked path was this amazing ancient site. It was completely surrounded by houses, kids use it as a bmx track, people walk their dogs, yobos party in it…. but it was incredible. The main ampitheatre had a corridor thing at each end and then out of sight were these smaller sort of scooped out bits which we guessed were sort of green rooms or dressing rooms OR maybe that was where they kept the lions……who knows……..this country never ceases to surprise us after almost 2 years……still heaps to do and see. Miss you and wish you were here xxxxx