“And we all went up to Somerset”………

……..we sang as we drove to visit a friend last Sunday. South/West England is very beautiful and when the sun shines it’s stunning. Totally out of context we thought we’d share this ‘snow’ photo with you. It indicates the secret life of the hedgerows – Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit, Brer Deer and assorted birds. The snow has disappeared and the spring flowers are starting to ‘spring’…seasons come and go quite quickly here.
We went and visited a friend in Somerset and her two boys, who now think it is very cool to ‘talk like Kiwis’ and according to her are practicing saying “i’ for ‘e’…..we don’t know what she is talking about – the Queen and us talk the same!!!!
As we drove through very typical, very traditional English country side we suddenly came upon a ‘bling thing’….part of a meditation centre. It looked quite strange in that setting and raised a few questions for us.
We have introduced you to our very tiny village, which is not shown on a lot of maps, so when we saw a sign saying “New Zealand ½ mile” we couldn’t resist turning off to visit.
We drove down an ever narrowing country lane and finally our Satnav said “You have reached your destination”………really…???????? We were in the middle of nowhere………….!
We don’t think it was a particularly clever p--- take! Much love xxxxxx

Our tiny village………

…….it was a beautiful day for a walk, so yesterday we went exploring. We have had snow for over a week now and it has been very beautiful but hard for the tradesmen who have a deadline of finishing this place by May – we are talking EVERYTHING formal gardens, pool, tennis court, security systems etc. Anyway, now the snow is gradually melting and sloppy mud is replacing it…..not half as pretty.
Our village is very tiny and our back wall runs nearly the full length of the main road.
There aren’t any shops or anything, just houses and a bus stop BUT we do have a rather nice 300 year old pub and so a gate is being installed in our wall to be opened with a swipe card. When the systems are complete, we will be able to operate all the gates from our kitchen, our bedroom as well as the main house and see who is there from the camera systems. All very “state of the art”. The garden designers are now walking around placing sculptures and statues and we can’t wait to see the finished result.
Our last job was like living in Cornwall Park. This job is like an upgrade to the Domain’s formal gardens and Wintergarden, with the Cornwall Park elements periphery.
The Cotswolds are very beautiful. It is an organic beauty, all the walls, buildings and structures, being built out of local stone, by local artisans reflect the colour of the earth as do the winter trees and hedgerows, the result being soft and harmonious with an authentic picture book quality. Well, it’s Saturday and so time to step into the picture book and soak up some local culture. There is a dance in the local village hall tonight…….what does one wear to a local village dance???????? Wish you were here…xxxxxx

We STILL have snow…….

…….it’s been nearly a week now and we still get a little thrill of excitement every time we look out the window and see that it is “white”. We haven’t had much time to get out and amongst it. Our employers have been in residence for the last 4 days. The Manor is in the last months of a 2 year complete refurbishment of all buildings and gardens. The house has been totally gutted inside and rebuilt with all mod cons, but still retains centuries old integrity. Likewise the gardens are being completely redesigned but will still look as if they have always been here. We will now have a heated swimming pool and a brand new tennis court. It is the most glorious place to live and work. Once all the trades people have finished we will virtually have the place to ourselves for most of the year, except for gardeners etc. This will be our employer’s summer holiday home and any other time they can snatch a few days in their busy international schedule.
They are the most interesting, incredibly ‘real’ people to be with and we love them being here. It is full on and we end up exhausted, but they are warm,caring and fun to be with. Their guests and visitors are the same. We had a luncheon party yesterday, and although staff, we are spoken to and treated like people rather than servants and it is truly refreshing and most unusual in this role I can tell you! I was talking with a lady who had a lot of silver things like dog whistles around her neck – I asked her about them and she told me they lived in such a large house she had a different whistle for each of her family and when she wanted them she just “blew” and they came running!!!!!!
Our employers always travel with staff and once we get established we will probably have to travel with them to other destinations. This time they brought only one of their staff with them. You learn a lot about who you are working for when you spend time with someone who has worked for them for many years. We are astonished that we have been lucky enough to get this gig, not only is it like working in an art museum but we also work for people who care for and truly value their staff. Do come and visit, but don’t come when our employers are in residence as we wont even see you……we run from morning till night……but happily………xxxxxxxx

Winter Wonderland……..

 
 
 
 

……….we have been experiencing sub zero temperatures over the last few days and it’s made everything rather misty and mysterious. Yesterday a frosting appeared on the trees and by this morning they were white, the ground is still brown….apparently it is too cold to snow….I don’t truly get that!
Today we went for a walk along a disused canal, it was breathtakingly beautiful albeit rather chilly. The temperatures are set to rise to a massive 10 degrees over the next few days so we’ll be up to our armpits in mud as there is so much work going on around our grounds.
Meeting some really interesting people. We had supper last night with two Artisans who are working on the manor. For some reason it seems much easier to make friends here than it was in Essex. In our experience people are friendlier in this part of the country, complete strangers greet us and comment on our South African accents!!!! We haven’t come up with a rational explanation for it yet?….Have just found some really cheap train fares to London…..so we will be hitting the ‘big smoke’ again shortly……….in the meantime the Cotswolds have plenty to keep us enthralled………..

Life as a 5* servant……..

 
 
 
 

……..It's good to be here at the manor full-time now...we're meeting the locals and finding that we are surrounded with friendly, supportive and outgoing people...within 24 hours of being here we were invited to dinner....back at our last gig we were only invited to dinner once in 18 months ....working 12 hour days may have had something to do with it!!!!
Anyhow...we're trying to figure out what the first thing we're supposed to be doing is......It’s major! There are bulldozers, earth-movers, diggers, graders, electricians, plumbers, interior decoraters, landscapers, gardeners, stone-masons..........there are wires hanging out of the walls, bedrooms and bathrooms to finish, dustcloths over very serious antique furnishings and fittings and a kitchen of amazing equipment which needs to be figured out. Every cupboard and shelf is so full of stuff for preparing, cooking and serving food that we are wondering…. "Where does the food fit?"
We went for a walk to the source of the Thames – astonishing when you think of how it grows, expands and becomes such a major water way……As you can see, we have snow on the ground and an original “ice bucket”! The houses are so snuggly and warm though, you don’t realize the sub-zero temps until you stand outside for a few minutes.
Miss you all heaps and hope that you are enjoying a truly splendid summer…….much love xxxx

Christmas……..

 
 
 
 
….was with cousins Kelly, R.J. and his partner Eduardo…it was fun…their friends are all ‘foreigners’ as well, so we partied without a “Brit” in sight and it was outrageous. It took us a few days in Portugal to recoup!!……..Ahhhh…..Portugal….our new fav place (next to Paris of course)…..it was wonderful. The people are friendly, the food is incredible.
We found restaurants that wanted us to try local food and plied us with all sorts of little treats. We stayed in Faro in the Algarve and after a few days decided that we would like to go up into the hills and explore the villages up there. We checked out the public transport system, it was slightly better than Auckland, but it wasn’t going to get us where we wanted to go AND back, so we decided to hire a car. We have managed up until now to avoid this. The idea of actually driving on the ‘wrong side’ had become a very scary prospect, particulary as we have been passengers in ‘left hand drive cars’ and have spent all our time cringing as we have gone around roundabouts!!!! New Year’s Resolution – “No fear”…..so off we went – first roundabout I screeched at Rod “Watch the left! Watch the left”……we got through and didn’t look back, it was great – so look out Europe – we are taking to the road. More about Portugal when I've edited the photos.
Settling into our new job……snow on the ground…..it’s a “winter wonderland”….more about that later……..much love xxxxxx

Berlin……..

 
 
 
 

.......having a few spare days before Christmas, we decided to spend them with Hattie in Berlin. Those of you who know Hattie will be thrilled to know that she is living her dream. She works regularly with a variety of musicians and has a very bohemian flat in an inner city suburb; the church steeple is the view from her car park. It was great to hang out, go to a few of her pre-Christmas gigs and of course to visit “the wall”. Astonishing to drive through a city with remnants of something that was so ‘huge’ in our lifetime and discover that we really know so little about it. The first big realization for us was that Berlin was actually situated in Eastern Germany and that the wall created a small piece of West Germany (in effect an island) in what was in fact part of the Eastern Bloc. For some reason we had imagined that “the wall” went neatly through a city, tidily dividing East from West, which it sort of did of course, but not in the way we’d envisaged.
We spent a very informative afternoon with a friend of Hattie’s explaining to us, how it
was for Berliners when the wall came down, suddenly, without warning……one friend had been out of the city on a gig – he came home to a totally new way of life….extraordinary……Hope your Christmas was great…..more about ours later…..lots of love xxxxxx