Winter Daylight Saving……..

………..started today and so that means now it will get dark at 4.30pm instead of 5.30!!! But it does mean (at the moment anyway…) that we are getting up in the dusk instead of the dark!! But it’s lovely, the house is so warm and cosy and the woollen jumpers are too hot for indoors.
Autumn continues at Mill Green and part of Rod’s “Life as a Servant” (in between pouring wine for 3 lunch parties this week – that’s a lot of cooking folks!!!!)… has been getting out in the afternoon and trying to deal with the leaf fall. The gardeners have all been away this week as it’s been mid-term break, so Rod, being Rod, took up the challenge. The shot shows one afternoon’s work – I got to light the fire – love that!!
So while the days are shorter, they are no less beautiful and this weekend Wayne came down from London – yes it is truly only 30 minutes away!
An early morning walk yesterday meant we had mushrooms and bacon for breakfast.
We are still gathering chestnuts and getting more proficient at cooking them! It’s just as well there are so many because the squirrels are going hard out to get lots in before winter really kicks in…they are so cute! As the leaves thin in the forest – just close by – it’s much easier to see the deer – they just wander freely everywhere. Our employer is trying to fence our place to keep them out. However, there is a public walkway through our land and a lady has complained that she has to open the gate now when she comes over the stiles as her Labrador can’t get through the fence! Apparently public walkways are absolutely sacrosanct in England – you own the land BUT the public (and all the relevant H&S bumpf that goes with that) have walking rights over it????????
The pond has been stocked with trout recently.....so that when family come they can fly fish....mmmmmn!
Off to Suffolk today to explore (we are taking the boss’s BMW for a little spin)……then Seville on Thursday for 10 days ……more about that later……..we miss you all and really, really wish you were here xxxxxxx

Maldon revisited…..MountFitchett Castle AND the “Secret Nuclear Bunker”……

……..we decided to revisit Maldon and we weren’t disappointed, sat on the river bank, drank a pint and ate chips – you gotta love that ‘health food’!!! (Ian and Janet – we counted that as our ‘annual fish & chip blow out’ – just slightly early!)

We visited this amazing 9th century Norman village and castle which has been replicated on the exact site of the original– very interesting and well done, animals wandering around – ancient chook breeds, deer, goats – it was lovely.

Then driving home we came upon the sign “Secret Nuclear Bunker”……..really? How many people know now we thought?…….Anyway after driving along windy country roads we came across this site set in the forest – 20 miles from the centre of London, where the government was prepared to debunk to – so to speak – during the cold war….if the flag went up. Would have been a fairly lonely existence if they’d survived I should imagine. Anyway mildly interesting and one ponders on how things may have turned out…………………..???

“Life as a Servant” continues and we still love it….had a lunch party for 10 yesterday and it was fun…we dressed up in our best servile gear and ponced around pouring champers and serving filet steak in maderia sauce. Everyone had a splendid time and we managed to maintain our ‘professional invisability’! Miss you all heaps and love hearing from you xxxxxxxxxx

Autumn in Essex……….

……..it’s such a beautiful time of the year in a lovely part of the world. The days are shorter and cooler. Subsequently the nights are longer and warmer!
The leaves are falling, as quickly as they are raked up there seem to be just as many again. Our employer does not like noisy leaf blowers and can afford guys with rakes, so it’s all hands on deck to cope with the leaf fall. I’m sure the guys MUST win eventually!
My niece Ellie, came down from London yesterday and we went for a walk in the woods and gathered chestnuts, we roasted a few in the oven last night and they are good. We also gathered some mushrooms, fortunately just minutes before we cooked them, there was a programme on telly about a guy gathering wild food. He said don’t eat these kind of fungi – very nasty results……..goodness me we thought “that was lucky”!!!!!! They looked very like unopened mushrooms, but the bottom of the stalk was a bit bulbous…gulp!
It’s also the time of year when birds migrate from colder places to winter over and so we went down to Leigh on Sea which is at the mouth of the Thames and saw the wild geese gathering, they come down from Siberia – all meet up at Leigh on Sea – I guess they have a bit of a festival and then all head off further south. Very civilized.
Talking of flying things…. ….as in NZ, we get lots hot air types at this time of the year. This particular one almost crashed landed in one of our paddocks, managed to get a bit of height again, went a bit further and then came down in a town…..no one was injured except maybe a bit of pride. Two weeks until Seville…….more about that later……miss you heaps and love hearing from you xxxxxxxxx

Thanks to Brian................

…….we finally got around to visiting the pub at the end of our driveway. We’ve been meaning to but…………….we are always on the way to somewhere else????? E.g. Burham on Crouch (see lovely. picturesque little town featuring a ‘licensed’ Chinese Restaurant no less. Anyway Brian and Jane (that’s Jane in the photo) came down for the weekend and, last night as we were working until about 8, they slipped down the driveway for a pint at our very own ‘local’ and came back raving about how good it was. So, next day, to take our mind of the Rugby World Cup tragedy, we walked 100 metres down our driveway for lunch and a pint or two, it was great. So, not only do we live in the equivalent of “Cornwall Park”, we also have our very own ‘local’ AND we are 35 minutes from the centre of London – all we need is you lot to come and share it with us????????
Speaking of Burnham on Crouch……….we have yet to explore Paglesham Churchend and Paglesham Eastend, Fingringhoe, Tollshunt’s Knights, Tollshunt’s D’arcy and Tollshunt’s Major, Curling Tye Green, Fobbing, Mucking, St Mary Hoo, North Shoebury and Shoeburyness, Layer de la Haye and Layer Breton. That is just a mere few of the fascinating place names within a short drive of where we are. We were driving around reading them in silly accents and then realized that here, we actually have a silly accent (most people think we are Aussie or South African…..puleeze!!!) and that Papatoetoe, Rangitoto or Manukau, could be considered ‘different’……so when in Rome…….don’t take the p…s!!! Off to Spain in a few weeks…more about that later. Miss you all and wish you were here, lots of love xx

Life as a servant part II – Reinventing oneself……..

.......In the olden days he would have called himself by the grand titles of “Rose Pruner” – Cellar Master and Game Keeper!!! The interesting thing is the reality check that living outside your comfort zone gives you. And we’ve found that travel really does this.
In England, we know nothing and nobody, so this means that we are “nobodies” and so as Ana said “you can take a holiday from yourself”. He’s enjoying his new gig as - dead header - grog monitor and chicken herder!!!!
That’s not to say that it doesn’t have it’s ’wrist slitting’ moments!!!
Enough time has lapsed now for us to share an “Oh my God” moment from several weeks ago.
Woke up late one morning and wondered why? Something was different……..”Oh
sh--t”, we hadn’t heard the bantam cocks crowing!!! Rod leapt out of bed and disappeared for 20 minutes, while I snuggled up and enjoyed a few extra zzzzzzzzzzz’s. He walked back in ashen-faced…”I forgot to lock up the bantam hutch and the fox has taken all the bantams!!!” These bantams were our employer’s pride and joy. It was horrible. Our employer’s were fantastic. They were more concerned about Rod having a nervous breakdown and said “what’s done, can’t be undone – leave it be”. We now have a fresh flock and they are the most guarded, over-protected group of chickens you could imagine. It’s hard sometimes here, but we love it…….miss you all heaps and look for your emails, it reminds us that to some people we are ‘somebody’ xxxxxxxxxxx

Clacton on Sea – Thorpe le Skolen – Frinton on Sea or Walton on Naze ????????.....

…..we finally opted for ‘Walton on Naze’ for our day and night off after much deliberation – there are so many choices??? Anyway, what the heck is a “Naze” we wanted to find out. Now going to the beach in England is definitely not like going to the beach as we know it. In some instances it can be more like going to the Easter Show, but that’s another blog. Beach Huts (the size of a small windowless garden shed)????????? Now what are they about? You can’t just go and buy one for a start, you have to wait years in some instances to get one and then apply…. Now if you are lucky ….”lucky”?? …enough to finally get one, it is going to set you back anything between £30,000 to £60,000 no kidding! So what we really want to know is what do you do with it? You can sit in it, while everyone else sits on the steps or on the sand, or in the many purpose-built shelters. I suppose you can change into your togs in it…..and you can make a cup of tea in it. You could chat with the hut people inches away on either side of you, or in front of you or behind you….. BUT! you cannot sleep in it or have more than about 4 people in it. We just don’t get it………..
Anyway back to ‘Walton on Naze’ - we stayed in a gorgeous little pub, great food, an excellent bottle of NZ wine and went to sleep to the sound of the sea – bliss. They said they didn’t want to do breakfast until 10am, which was great for us – a sleep-in AND a good walk before the most enormous breakfast we have ever undertaken. Then we went for a walk along the most interesting beach. The cliffs behind it are crumbling away and washing down bits of fossilized trees, bones, all manner of things. It is one of the most significant paleontological sites in England. I found a fossilized poo for Sammy, we also found sharks teeth and Rod thought he had found a large tooth thing and so lugged it back up the cliff only to find out it was a fossilized sponge of quite modern times – like a mere few thousand years, where as my poo is 2.6 million years old!!!
Also there is this amazing tower, 3 or 4 centuries old, which is 9 stories of art gallery……by the way we finally found out that Naze is a derivation of an old English word for nose – so Walton on the Naze is named because it’s on a bit of land that juts out………………lots of love xxxxxxx

Aldeburgh.............

…….pronounced “Allborough”……is a little village on the coast which we decided to drag ourselves away from the pool at our place and visit. The most glorious coastline, with lovely pebbles (no sand to get in your fish and chips – which are THE best in the world!). We stayed in a little Inn opposite ‘The Moot House’ which is in effect ‘The Town Hall’ where the council still convenes. Our Inn was 16th Century and the Moot House was much older than that. Incredible, when you think of the sea air continually battering at it. The fishing boats just launch off the beach and you can buy fish caught that day from the little shacks. As we strolled through the village, we came across Magoo the parrot. Magoo stands on his front fence and says “hello” to people as they walk past and then as we walked away he made the most astonishing noise of a telephone ringing!!! Certainly got our attention!
We saw this ‘thing’ in the distance and as we walked to it we found it was a huge sculpture of a scallop shell. Benjamin Britten, the composer lived in Aldeburgh and it is a tribute to him. It’s very tactile, you can climb and sit on it, though it does dominate the landscape and as such is very controversial. Speaking of dominating the landscape and I guess for us very controversial, if you see the long shot of the beach, there is a very large round white dome to the left – is it a sound shell or theatre we asked – nope it’s a nuclear power station…….here’s the thing, we drove down towards it and couldn’t find it…..as you get near it, it disappears…how do they do that? (One has to ask…why were we driving toward it???) Lots of love, we really enjoy hearing from you so thanks for the Emails, we are missing friends and family dreadfully xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx