Cornish pasties and Devonshire teas…….

…….we were a bit overdue for a few days away and so we decided to head for Cornwall. One of the things about living the life we do is the contrasts that we are continually coming up against. For example, just before we left, an old guy came to calibrate our sundial. This ordinary old guy has travelled all over the world just to calibrate and situate rich folk’s sun dials….now there’s a career path for you! The thing is….each sundial only shows the correct time (if it’s not cloudy) once a year! The rest of the time you have to make adjustments to what you are reading using a compensator…….we could go on and on but that is another story. I guess some people check their Rolex against their sundial!!!!!! Anyway off we went to Cornwall to clear our heads!!!
More contrasts…..to access the gorgeous little fishing villages you have to drive down roads resembling a steep luge, into narrow streets built for nothing larger than a fish cart, SUV’s don’t make any sense in places like this ……………………..In our little Honda, we were negotiating a particularly tricky, steep luge type road and I said to Rod “isn’t it lucky they’ve been able to work out a one way system”……..”I’m not sure they have” said Rod – whoops down and around the corner came a whopping SUV……we breathed in and they backed back and we all went happily on our way. Munching Cornish pasties, sitting on a hill in Fowey, over looking Polruan was just about as good as eating Devonshire teas in a Heritage House surrounded by woods filled with blue bells. While we can’t wait to visit more places in Europe…..England still has a lot of fascination and exploration to offer. However there is a trade off for us – between the luxury of our everyday accommodation here at the Manor and “roughing” it in B & B accommodation!
Meanwhile we are back to ‘life as a servant’………..do come and visit……we miss you xxxxxxx

Easter Sunday.........

We went to the Easter service at the local church this morning. (Festivals like Xmas and Easter tend to make more sense over here) and we wanted to hear the choir as one of the friends we've made is the choir master and his pianist is disappearing for a holiday and he needs someone to play behind the choir at a community concert coming up in May. (That's
Rod).
After the service a couple of people we knew asked if we were at a loose end would we like to come for a trip with them in a helicopter for an hour or so. Ummmm let us think about that??????. It was fabulous! They took us sightseeing up through the Cotswolds, it was interesting to see the famed Cheltenham Raceway and the usually frantic M5 devoid of cars.
We flew over our place and while things are looking good here and steadily improving, it’s still very much a work in progress. However the tennis court is nearly finished and we've started playing our very much “free form style of tennis”. If the ball is in motion you can whack it!!!
Spring is in full ‘burst’ and the wild flowers are gorgeous. We've found a lovely walk by the Thames Stream quite close to the manor where a swan has built a nest and is sitting on her eggs. The trees are budding and we can hear woodpeckers. Life is pleasant enough here. The work is good and the environment is looking lovelier by the day. We're 'on hold' a bit as far as continuing our sojourns around Britain & Europe are concerned. There are a few fish -hooks that need to be worked out regarding the time we have off and what we can do with it. This revolves around security issues here at the manor. Everyone agrees that we can't be expected to be here on-call 24/7 but no-one's actually making any moves or even suggesting how it can be otherwise. None of these difficulties are with our employer. His head-honcho for his European and British property interests is involved and learning how to negotiate effectively with him is a whole new art-form. However, we're confident it'll all work out in the end. We hope you had a wonderful Easter Break…….much love xxxxx

Rambling around...........

………. when you are driving around in this country you can come across all sorts of unusual (for Kiwi’s) stuff. We found this cunningly disguised hanger, apparently still in use – I guess if war with Europe ever breaks out again………..!!!!! We wanted to explore Bradford on Avon – a very picturesque little town we’d only driven through. Wasn’t actually that much to explore, but it was very pretty. The fascinating thing was this little bridge attachment…..we assumed it was a ‘lock up’ for bad guys, which it had been, but the interesting thing was…it had also been a church….maybe a hermit’s chapel or some such??? One of the things we have found fascinating over the last two seasons of Spring are the communities of crow’s nests. They build them together, like suburbs, they lay their eggs and then they all hang around and gossip…loudly……then the leaves come on the trees and they all seem to disappear. The seasons here still enthrall us, just when you think winter is going to continue for ever up pops Spring and everything changes. Work continues here in the most astonishing fashion and EVERYTHING will be finished and in place by the end of May in preparation for our employers summer residency……most days there are at least 60 contractors cars in the carpark….which incidently will be restored to grass by the end of May…… …….wish you were here xxxxxxxx