Fools and Horses……..

……we went to the local Gymkhana to experience some of the country’s cultural heritage. As promised, parts of it were pure “Thelwell”, some parts farcical, but we were filled with a sense of envy for those privileged kids participating. Horses are such wonderful noble creatures and while some are incredibly patient and long suffering, others express much disdain at being expected to jump over things at the apparent whim of Freddie or Beatrice and stop suddenly at the very idea. The parents urge from the side with encouraging “Oh! darling!...never mind…well done you!”
We assuaged thoughts of our deprived childhoods by returning to our “manor” and flinging ourselves into the heated swimming pool with surround sound in the ‘hedge’. Work here has been racked up yet another notch as our employer is coming for 6 weeks from this weekend. The other day I was doing something inside and selected some of my favourite music from a panel in the wall. I couldn’t seem to get any volume, so kept pressing the control until I could hear it. It was not as good as other rooms “must get one of the techies to check it out” I thought. The site manager rushed inside and said “What’s going on? Everyone is being deafened on the site!!!” I had accidently activated the “hedge” surrounding the swimming pool and was blasting the site with Beethoven, much to the shock and horror of the workmen….and probably most of the village! Such is life as a servant!
All is pretty much in readiness for the residency. A chef arrives on Sunday…to whom I will be “sous chef”……the chef has cooked for Royalty so I have great expectations of learning heaps. We will be pretty much “off planet” i.e. in another world for the next 6 weeks so please don’t think we have forgotten you. We miss you and wish you were here – in fact some of you will be in a very short time, can’t wait……lots of love xxxxx

Life as a servant continues…….

……earlier this week our employers spent a few days here. They arrived with 5 suitcases which was 1 suitcase too many for our car – a lovely late model Honda Jazz. “I think we need something a little larger for you” said our employer – “I think a Audi A6”. This aforementioned car is for our personal use as well as being our work vehicle. We buy the petrol when we go traveling. With this in mind we reached a compromise and are changing our present car for an Audi A4 Estate. Anyway we went to look at cars on Friday. Work here is coming to an end but there is a push to get everything finished by the end of the month – yay! It took us half an hour to get out of the driveway. We had to get the following moved – a small digger, a truck, a large front end loader, a grader, another truck, another truck and several cars!
We have been worried about our lovely swan who we observed nesting for weeks and then she disappeared. We were walking along the stream (which becomes the mighty Thames) the other night and there they were, Mother, Father and 7 ugly ducklings – glorious.
It is a Bank Holiday weekend – sunny and warm – most unusual for Britain. We went to London for the day yesterday and it was magical…..everyone smiles and are really friendly and happy when the sun comes out. We strolled along South Bank and it was going “off”…..there were masses of buskers and on a small space of beach ‘youths’ were flinging themselves acrobatically backwards off the wall…a new urban youth artform???
There was a lady with two budgies who could tell your fortune (she says)…the budgies pick a card (any card!)…bit random! It was great to be in London.
We are going to a local gymkhana tomorrow apparently it’s totally “Thelwell”.
Lots of love xxxxxxx

Everyman and his dog……..

…..goes to the 4 day Badminton Horse Trials and we were invited to attend yesterday. It is a great quintessential “English Event”…..held annually at the home of the Duke of Beaufort. It is incredibly prestigious and I’m proud to say Mark Todd has won it three times! Only 2 other people have won it more – one being Mark Phillips and the most successful a woman! Great place for one of our favourite pastimes “people watching”…..there was the “country set”, the “smart set”, the “horsey set”, the “corporate set” and “the rest” – The artistocracy hang-out at the ‘house’ and come out to ride – Zara Phillips and the like. I’m not sure where we fitted in – the friend who invited us works for the main sponsor and so we enjoyed a bit of corporate hospitality. We also enjoyed a spot of retail therapy as well as watching the competition of course.
Meanwhile the countryside here is ridiculously beautiful…..the ‘rape’ is in flower and it is so vibrantly brilliant it almost looks radio active!
Work continues here for the impending summer residency of our employer and at the moment the driveway and car parks are being ‘done’ – I glanced out of the kitchen window last week and did a double take – a mountain of gravel had appeared with a huge digger thing perched on top. The mature gardens continue to roll out and from one day to the next we (the people who live here!) aren’t sure what is new and what has been here for a week or more…….it all looks as if it has always been here. Much love xxxxxxxx

Cornwall magic……….

We were approaching the little harbour village of Fowey. Rod and I have this thing when we are driving if I suddenly yell “STOP” he does! I had spotted this gorgeous “bus stop”…….we checked it out and it was quite magical – there was a little clock, books, magazines to read while you wait and fresh flowers - it was quite, quite wonderful. We drove down into the village and the shops were all shut being after 6 o’clock, including a gift shop specializing in candles – however, outside still on a display were samples of the stock in the shop…….?? The only apparent deliquents were the molly hawkes ripping into the days rubbish in the street……..we left Fowey with a smile.
On returning to Ewen and talking with various people we believe it’s a different story in summer when hundreds of holiday makers descend on Cornwall queuing to drive around the narrow streets – maybe the bus stop and candle shop are an antidote to the dreaded crowded holiday when we all mutter through gritted teeth “are we having fun yet”!!!
Visiting places out of season has a lot of merit…….do come and visit us out of season??
Much love xxxxxx

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