Our very last day in England was spent walking the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of English playwright William Shakespeare. Sadly, the entire town is a tourist trap. However, one of the quieter places to visit is the cathedral where his body lies.
Original Tudor Houses built for the elderly:
Enjoy!
Diana
We spent our last Saturday in England with good friends, the Drijfhout family, at Shrugborough. If you only have a little bit of time and want a taste of England this is a really great place to visit. It had the old English mansion/stately home, gorgeous landscape with pastureland and statuary, as well as a working farm. There were also locals who used old fashioned craft materials to demonstate and sell their wares. So much to do at one place. We didn’t have time to walk around the property beyond the buildings themselves.
The Grand Home (front)
(back)
Gardener’s Cottage and garden:
Working Farm and Farmhouse:
Cool cows:
Some images from in the Grand House:
In the laundry there was an iron stove, as in, a stove expressly built to heat irons. I thought this was really cool. The irons each had a place of their own and there were several different shaped iron each for different parts of clothing; flat or curved bottom, pointed or round tipped. I’ve seen the irons before but never the stove.
The girls wearing servants’/maids’ clothing:
The toy room (a very poor photo). There were some really awesome toys in that room. The kids wanted to go beyond the barriers and play for a bit.
Enjoy!
Diana
We celebrated the birthday of a wonderful 7 year-old! For his cake he asked me to copy some Playmobil toys–his Pteranodon on a tree.
Enjoy!
Diana
The churches in the Birmingham area invited one another to come together at Ragley Hall. There was a house to view, a craft and garden fair, as well as some informally organized games to play.
Playing Parachute games:
Emma thinking it was the greatest skirt ever for twirling.
With friends:
Enjoy!
Diana
On our way home from Bournemouth we spent a day in Winchester. Looking back on the pictures gives me the goosebumps. There was so much history in a relatively small area of land.
Winchester was the pre-medieval capital city of England during the time of Alfred the Great.
The last of four city gates (the east gate).
The gate had a small interactive museum on the second floor (first floor in England, the ground floor being considered floor Zero, which makes more sense from a number line perspective.)
Winchester is also the site of Winchester Cathedral, apparently with the longest nave in northwest Europe. Very impressive!
The original cathedral was started in 1079 and completed in 1093.
Left 11th century, right 13th century.
One of many pictures I took of these tiles.
The cathedral also is the site of Jane Austen’s grave.
Winchester also has an old mill that was part of a gift from Queen Mary and Prince Philip of Spain to the city, to help pay for the expense of hosting their wedding.
Enjoy!
Diana
We visited a fellow home educating family in Bournemouth and had a wonderful time getting to know them. We were introduced to them via a family from Oxford whom we met while in church in London back in June. It was really exciting to meet all these wonderful people via via our time in England. I find it amazing how the connections are made.
The family wanted to show us some of their favourite sites nearby, the closest being the beach, and the other a RSPB site called Arne. The new species we saw while driving there were the marsh harrier and the little egret.
A castle ruins we saw as we were driving about.
Enjoy!
Diana
After visiting friends in Bristol we drove further south to Bournemouth. Stonehenge was more or less on the way, so we stopped in there as well. It was windy and cold, so we ‘ran ’round the block’ as fast as we could. 
With the crowd.
Without the crowd.
See the funny face (or not)?
Birds have more rights.
Some very cold and wet pilgrims.
Enjoy!
Diana
We purchased a year pass to the National Trust sites and haven’t had much chance to use it. Once we were back in the UK we decided to make the most of our pass. The first free day we had we went to two fairly local sites. One we visited several months ago and the other was a new one to us. We had a great day out and really enjoyed walking through the buildings as well as the landscaped gardens around them.
Funny Kids:
Packwood House (see also previous posting):
This next photo is the newest renovation. It was the barn and now houses the grand hall where large dinners and/or dances took place.
An interesting find in an English grand house! It’s a Dutch Bible commentary or something of the kind. When I asked a guide about it she said that the last owner of the estate had collected items that he thought of value but would otherwise have been thrown out. She thought the commmentary had been somewhat controversial.
Signs of spring:
Enjoy!
Diana
Pete’s Dad was born in Zwolle and went to school for his last two years in the Netherlands in Kampen. Pete’s Opa also spent the last 10 years of his life in Kampen. So we toured these two towns with my father-in-law as guide.
The house Dad was born in.
The last house Dad’s family lived in prior to emigration to Canada.
Opa’s grandparent’s house.
We also visited a Stadboererij, a house in the middle of town which housed a farmer family as well as their cattle. The cattle were pastured on the dikes around the town. There were originally about 150 of these small farms within the city walls with the last one leaving as of the year 2000. Most of them were strongly discouraged long before then for hygiene reasons. The one we visited is the last remaining building preserved as a piece of the town’s history.
Enjoy!
Diana
On the evening of our 13th wedding anniversary Pete and I treated our four children to a four course dinner. We pretended that we were at a very nice resturant with a dressed up dinnner table and served them waitress style. The kids had a great time.
The dressed up table:
A very special Indian Batik table cloth from Ten Thousand Villages. Wine glasses and special cutlery (the kids enjoyed a sparkling juice).
Here is what we served:
A lovely garden salad with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and topped with marble cheese and a homemade caesar dressing.
A Rachel Rae stoup with sausage and kale (so yummy).
Steak, barbequed to perfection, and steamed green beans.
And to finish off some real vanilla ice cream with home-made berry sauce and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.
The dinner took 2 hours to share and we enjoyed every minute. The clean-up on the other hand, well, that was a chore, but part and parcel of the package.
Enjoy!
Diana