A pleasant late summer…….

….. we’ve had a steady stream of visitors to stay over the past few weeks and showing them around has reinforced for us, the beauty of the environment we are living in.

We get to wander down the garden path to our “pub gate” and visit our ‘local’ which is a character filled 17^th century English pub.

Malmsbury is just down the road with it’s beautiful abbey dating back to 676!…..good ancient pub there also!

We have spare tennis rackets and have enjoyed some hilarious “anything goes” games of doubles. We have our own rules – no scores – no killing yourself to get to a ball – if the ball is still moving it’s in play – hardly Wimbledon but fun!

The heating in the pool has been turned off but it’s sitting at around 24 degrees which is pleasant enough if you are hardy Kiwis – we are and so are some of our visitors!

We’ve also visited Sudley Castle where Katherine Parr (the last wife of Henry VIII) lived and died. We have joined the National Trust, which for a small annual fee you can visit heaps of amazing old houses and gardens – they do nice ‘teas’ also, which is rather different to our Ponsonby café culture – but hey! “When in Rome…….”

…..Speaking of which…tomorrow we are off to Italy for two weeks….our first time, but a lifelong dream…….

It’s been a mission getting everything and everyone in place here so we can get away for an extended period, but this time tomorrow we’ll be on our way……….we think of you heaps and wish you were here xxxxxxxxx

Summer in the UK is very cool…..

……….often in more ways than one! On a good day the temperature sits around 25° but sometimes can be about 18 – 19……we actually like that. The really cool thing though, (and we’ve mentioned this heaps of times) is the seasons, and summer is no exception. The intense colours and the rate of growth that everything undertakes never fails to impact upon us.
At the moment the fields are full of wheat ready to be harvested and the other day we went for a walk in a wheat field and the sound of the wind through the wheat was like being in a field full of rattle snakes. We could see where Robert Joyce got his inspiration for his song “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”.
We also visited the Snowshill lavender farm – 50 acres of lavender and the bees and butterflys were having a ball! We have to confess we did inhale!
Meanwhile on our evening walk along the almost dried up source of the Thames, we happened upon some friends that we had mentioned to you previously – the family of swans……now gangly adolescents and full of themselves. Interestingly, when we were in London last Saturday, the Thames didn’t look depleted at all…..how does that work?...…The source is practically non existent at the moment!
Another thing we love is the very cool “old things” that you get to visit…some of them are – like the stone circles, barrows or great earth mounds, damn near prehistoric and nobody knows what they were about they are so old. Even so…who forgot???????
One of the relatively ‘new’ things that we visited recently was Sudley Castle, built between 1000 and 1400, very cool place, a few of Henry VIII’s wives lived or visited there….it had been ‘modernised’ by then!
Have just checked the temperatures in Tuscany and on average they are about 35°…we won’t take our warm coats……but the thing is, by the time we get back to England, mid September, autumn will be upon us and all our vistas will be changing yet again. The seasons are a constant reminder against complacency and we think occasionally of Aesops fabled “The Ant and the Grasshopper”……it’s all about preparing for change.
We have friends arriving this Saturday, then more next week AND THEN we are off on holiday……..miss you and wish you were here xxxxxxx

……Where to start??????……………

…….it’s been a pretty “full on” couple of months. We always knew that when our employers would be in residence it would be “busy”….but NOTHING prepared us for “life as a servant” in real time. Our typical day would start at 7.30ish and we would be lucky to fall into bed at 11.30pm and this went on every day for 6 weeks. But the good news is….we did it and survived! We are still slightly punch drunk from the experience …..I can only liken it to a major event that just goes on and on and on.
For the first month we had a chef which was fantastic, but then it fell back on my shoulders and cooking three, three course meals a day, each served with ‘silver service’ is quite daunting….but it’s over and everyone was pleased ……talk about a learning curve!!!! The guest list could go from the house full of 8-9 people to 5 or 6 extra guests in the matter of ½ an hour as could the timing of lunch from 1.30pm to anywhere between 1 & 2…….or dinner at 8.30pm could be anywhere between 8 & 9.30pm…..
One night I noticed the Egyptian security guard walking past the kitchen window, we had the two Philipino staff from Hong Kong on laundry, our Nepalese gardener helping Rod serve - his wife helping a Polish girl with the dishes and me cooking for international guests– a regular ‘league of Nations’….there were a lot of laughs and a few tears! Our employer is lovely, but expects a five star level of service at all times and in all things and gives no quarter! What ever the situation we were expected to deal with it and deliver…….fortunately we did in spite of Rod having a major operation in the middle of it all – and that’s a whole other story!
We’ve had some wonderful visitors from NZ over the past few weeks and we are looking forward to more pending before we hit Tuscany at the end of the month……..