The Easter weekend was right in the middle of a two-week break from school for Elise and Charis. I had Good Friday through the Tuesday after Easter off work. It was a good chance to get out of town. Enter an invitation from John, Carol, and Marti Oldfield to come visit them in Swindon. Carol is my grandmother's brother's daughter. Our families have crossed paths going back to my childhood in Kenya, a visit to Bath with Kristine in 1999 shortly before getting engaged in Paris, and a trip to the UK shortly before Elise was born in 2005. They graciously opened their home to us for the Easter weekend.
We made the trip to Swindon from Melbourne early on the afternoon of Good Friday. The GPS kept us off the motorways, which we thought was a good thing. That was until we were on a two-lane country road and behind a slow-moving tractor for several miles. Begin choice words at our GPS. Then we hit traffic going into Moreton-in-Marsh, which is a popular holiday town in the Cotswolds (of course having one road going into it that is also two-lane). Increase choice words at our GPS. Then we hit traffic going into Stow-on-the-Wold. Increase (again) the choice words at our GPS. Naturally we did not fault ourselves for not doing any research beforehand on the route to take. And naturally we did not defend our GPS on the grounds that other routes would also be busy on a holiday weekend. We just told Miranda (our GPS) that after her poor performance on the Center Parcs trip followed by poor performance on this trip, she doesn't get our blind faith anymore. Perhaps she never should have. Truthfully, the delays didn't add a ton of time. It was supposed to be a 2.5 hour drive, and we made it in ~3.25 hours. All things considered, that's not bad. Clare didn't sympathize. She fell apart shortly after we got through the Cotswolds, with about 30 min to go. Note to self: 3 yr old's car trip tolerance is not much over 2.5 hrs. If driving longer than that, strongly consider making a stop.
The area around Swindon is famous for the limestone shapes carved into the landscape. The farm near the Oldfields' has a horse carved into the hill. It's evidently around 200 years old. This is pretty impressive considering the limestone has to be cleaned up every year. We took a walk up to the farm Friday afternoon. It was a good way for all of us to unwind after the drive. Unfortunately we couldn't get a good photo of the horse with the camera. Maybe next time.
Notice Elise's uncharacteristic absence from the walk? It has to do with the lovely back garden at the Oldfields' house. As we enjoyed tea and biscuits on the back porch, John gave me a warning. The flagstones lining the pond are unstable. Don't walk on them, because they could give way and plunge you into the pond. Elise, being an independent 8 yr old, gave me a reproachful look when I passed on John's warning and proceeded to go down to the garden with her sisters. Some time later we looked down to see a tottering Elise on one of the previously mentioned unstable flagstones. She tottered forward and made a mighty leap. The mighty leap didn't clear the pond. No permanent harm was done, but she did get a banged up knee. So she stayed home with Carol while we took our walk.
John and Marti took us to Avebury on Saturday. Kristine and I went there with them during our visit in 2005. The item of interest on that trip was the standing stones, which is evidently the largest collection in the UK. This time the stones got a photo to prove that we walked past them. They didn't get any further attention.
The item of interest this time Avebury Manor, for two reasons. The manor has been set up so that each room is decorated to show what it would have looked like at different periods in the history of the house. This means there is interesting information to learn as you tour the house. The rooms are also set up with furnishings that can be touched, handled, and in any other way manipulated. This means that it provides great tactile engagement for young children (who might or might not have tried to avoid having their picture taken in front of the house).
We spent most of our time in the kitchen, which was decorated to the time the Titanic sailed (they had a commemorative newspaper, which I didn't photograph).
The woman in the kitchen was a very good sport with the girls. She let Clare spend quite a bit of time stirring the flour bowl. To Clare's credit, she did leave the flour in the bowl when she was done. Most of it anyway.
At one point the woman looked at me after hearing us talking, and said "Do I detect a touch of Transatlantic in your accents?"
At one point the woman looked at me after hearing us talking, and said "Do I detect a touch of Transatlantic in your accents?"
Me (smiling): Just a touch, but not if you listen to my oldest daughter (pointing to Elise).
I had a friend who tried to teach me Transatlantic. I learned two words.
<<pause for a deep breath>>
Glitter
<<pause for another deep breath>>
Mascara
How did I do?
Me (smiling): your Transatlantic is better than my English.
That whole thing about tactile learning? Elaborately decorated dining room with hand-painted wallpaper wasn't of much interest.
As was the adjacent room where Queen Anne would have received guests and otherwise spent her time. There was an embroidery stand where present-day guests could embroider names or other designs on a cloth that stayed there for others to add to. Kristine embroidered our initials (SKECC) while the older two girls watched. Clared busied herself among the other needles and spools of thread. Fortunately, they (the needles and thread) survived her curiosity, and her fingers didn't receive any pricks.
We did spend some time on the manor grounds. The girls turned this into an opportunity to play hide-and-seek from the camera. Which was great for the adults. We stood in one place and talked. The girls ran around while I occasionally pointed the camera at them to make sure they kept running.
Much of our time in the Oldfields' house involved games of different types. John introduced Elise and Charis to Monopoly with British property cards.
We also played Dutch Blitz and Phase 10. Somewhere along the line Elise and Charis decided that Phase 10 is more fun when they team up and play against Daddy. Kristine denies all responsibility for the gloating and trash-talking that they're learning when they finish a hand ahead of me. She claims that behavior was learned from watching their father. I claim innocence.
Somewhere between getting our piano in Melbourne tuned and playable, and visiting the Oldfields in Swindon, Elise (and Charis under her tutelage) decided it would be fun to work on memorizing the piano songs she is learning. I'm excited to watch this part of their musical development.
Marti's brother Alex and his wife drove down from London for Easter dinner. We all (barely) fit around the Oldfields' table. Elise put the time she was not hiking with us Friday to good use by making name tags for everyone.
On Monday John and Marti took the girls and I to Bowood House and Gardens. The house has been the stately home of the Lansdowne family for several centuries. One of the Landsowne ancestors, the 2nd Earl, was Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. He also negotiated peace with the United States after the War of Independence. Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen there on 1 August 1774. With such an impressive history, naturally we visited the important areas in the estate.
Like the Tractor Ted area.
And the adventure playground. Clare, because she is Clare, paid no attention to the fact that everyone else on the rope ladder was a couple years older than her. She climbed on and clambered up after her sisters.
The platform in the background? That's the toddler slide that Clare turned up her nose at.
The girls really enjoyed being up so high. I mostly enjoyed watching them have so much fun being up that high. Mostly.
Clare, again because she is Clare, insisted on going down the tallest slide in the playground. She had an excited cheering section watching her.
We did eventually leave the playground and spend some time exploring the grounds of the estate. This picture of the running girls is becoming a familiar one.
We found a couple swans who hopefully approached the girls, looking for bread. They were disappointed.
I think the girls' favorite area of the grounds was right around this little stream.
There was a little cave they climbed into.
And came out of relatively soon when they discovered there was just barely enough room for the three of them.
Clare, who had been playing hard for a couple hours by now, got tired and needed some encouragement to keep walking. She picked a beautiful place to do it.
This is the closest we got to the Bowood house. If you look closely, you can see it in the background.
The last stop at Bowood was a paddock on the edge of the parking lot, where we greeted the Shetland ponies. Clare and Charis were a little apprehensive at first. Marti did a good job helping them make friends with the ponies. Like the swans, the ponies were disappointed at the humans who didn't give them any treats.
We finished our weekend with a birthday tea ring to celebrate Charis turning 6.
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