England wrap-up

Perry's Cider Farm, maker of delicious hard apple cider (in England, all cider is hard!)

In this idyllic orchard setting, we enjoyed a cream tea and a savory tea, plus cider samples...

...from barrels like this, with Stacey's Nan.

It was great to spend more time with Mary, who is looking very well and loved seeing her great-granddaughters.

We also took a couple of trips to public indoor swimming pools...

...where Cora's confidence swelled and she managed to take both feet off the ground, without wearing a flotation device or clinging to an adult's neck for dear life.

And, for good measure, a final picture of the babies.
Whoops, the babies and Stace, I meant to say.

We've been home a week, so it's time to put an end to the posts about our trip. We had a great flight home, and the girls again were brilliant on the airplane. Cora watched television the entire trip, except for the last hour, when she finally fell into a deep sleep. (This is now the fourth transatlantic flight in a row when she's fallen asleep only for the final hour.)

Violet was excellent, too. I imagine we'll have a different experience at Christmas, when Vi will be older and presumably mobile and more opinionated.

I wish I could say that Cora was as well-behaved while we were in England. We hit a difficult patch with her; she was tantrum-prone and rude a lot more often than we would have liked.

I've had friends with older children say that three is a harder age than two, and that seems to be the truth. Anyway, Stace and I know how fast the days, months and years fly by, and we know that this phase will be over in the blink of an eye.

Swannery

We went with Nan and Pop to the Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset one day during the second week of our trip. It's an ancient managed colony of the birds, on a lagoon just off the southern coast.
Here, Nan and Cora took the tractor ride from the visitors center and entrance to the actual swannery.

I like that photo - let's see it up close.

The tourist attraction also features a willow, or withy, maze in the shape of a swan, with a big willow egg in the center. We had fun finding butterflies, dead ends and feathers on our way to the egg. Above, Pop and Cora figure out which way we should go next.
Cora loved being our leader, and always needed to be in the lead. She was a bit disappointed to find that the egg was made of withies, though - she was expecting a real egg, I think.

After the maze, we made our way out to the swans. There were hundreds of them, along with other assorted water fowl.
Watching the swans take flight was funny. They have to run along the water, slap, slap, slap, before getting enough lift to get up in the air. Then, they only flew a short distance before landing again. It seemed like an awful lot of effort, and that swimming would be easier.
We were there for feeding time, and children are allowed to help. Cora enjoyed feeding the swans, but she didn't like them coming near her. She amused the crowd behind the fence by moving her bucket of food every time a swan approached it.

Thanks, JT, for the suggestion on a great day out! We'll have to head back out in May when the babies hatch.

On the farm

We made a trip to the farm to visit Uncle Pete, Auntie Doreen, Great Gran, and Stacey's cousins Mandy and Karen and their spouses.

Karen and Martin have two children, 5-year-old Ben, and 10-month-old Chloe. It was fun to meet Chloe and introduce Violet to her and the rest of the family. Karen and I compared child-raising stories - I know if we lived in England, we'd probably get together often with our children.

Cora and Ben got along very well, playing the whole time.

We took a look at Doreen's chickens - she has over two dozen, so they collect a lot of eggs.

In the evening, Mandy's husband Wes came over in his big, new, shiny blue tractor. Such huge wheels! They are quite amazing, really, and the two bigger kids loved getting to climb inside.

Pete and Doreen have an impressive vegetable garden and orchard, and their centuries-old farmhouse is full of character.

JT, Jim and Wells

One of my favorite parts of our travels to England is getting to hang out with my best friend JT, or Jenny, depending on who's talking to her.

We met in journalism at Pepperdine and like to joke that she's the reason Stace and I are together. She met her husband Jim, a friend of Stace's, when he came over to America on vacation in 2000. Jim returned in February 2001 with his friend Stacey - the rest is history.

Jim and JT had us over for dinner one night, where they got to know Violet and we got caught up on each others' lives.

A week later, JT and I spent a day together with Violet in Wells, a really adorable, ancient, tiny city with a cathedral and assorted other gorgeous ancient buildings, one of which is surrounded by a moat.

We lucked out that this happened to be one of the two gorgeous, sunny days on our trip. We had lunch on a pub patio - I had realized I had been in England 10 days and hadn't had any beer (ale) yet!

Then we enjoyed the sun and walked around the beautiful old buildings. The houses I'm standing near are from the 1300s, and are still private residences.

Sorry for the delay...

We're home!

I still have several posts to write up about our trip, but getting back into the swing of things with two little ones is taking up all my energy! (Unpacking, lots of laundry, refilling the fridge, jet lag, getting the girls back on Pacific time, mothering, cooking, cleaning...)

More to come, when I can!

Child's play, English style

We met up with Duncan and Lindsey at the Martock Rec, or recreation ground - or Park, in American English.

Their children are now 9, 4 and 2, and Cora really enjoyed her time with them. We also ran into Stace's friend Lorraine and her 9-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

The top photo shows Stace and Dunc with the kids, and the second shows Connor showing off his cricket skills. Dean and Cora are the wicket keepers behind.

Then, Cora getting a ride on Dean's back. Those two got along very well - and he's 6 years older than her. Kind of like me and Stace. Hmmmm.

Then, a shot of the girls on the big, long slide. Charlie, the 2-year-old, was scared at first, but then discovered that she loved it!

And next we have Chelsea and Cora playing on the swinging thingy.

Cora was so excited to see Chelsea, who is nearly exactly one year older than her. They speak on the phone sometimes, and all morning Cora was getting ready for their visit. On our way to the Rec, Cora told us that she was so happy, she was about to cry.

The last two photos show the girls infiltrating the boys' football game.

Stace, Dunc and Connor ran themselves ragged - or, truthfully, Connor ran the men ragged. They were both very sore after - I think the mid (late? naaaahhh) 30s thing is really hitting them.

They used to play twice a week competitively, and now, not really at all.

Later, Dean and his friend showed up, so it was the three youngsters against the two men.

Fun times!

Swanage

Over the weekend we spent a day with Dean, Jen and Euan and drove down to Swanage, a pretty coastal village.

On the way we passed the ruins of Corfe Castle. See that threatening sky?

Its threats proved real - we had to hide under blankets while we ate our picnic lunch in the carpark playground.

Thankfully the rain stopped, and we walked down to Swanage. It is really sweet, and worth the visit.





One advantage of having a tiny baby is the need to sit every few hours for feedings - lots of good coffee breaks!

Here you see the brothers with their babies...




























Then a group shot near the harbor.












And, Euan is already like his dad, a big fan of cars.


He drove us back to Corfe, and then Dean took over from there.

More from West Bay and Lyme

The top photo is the West Bay coastline, part of the ancient Jurassic Coast of England.

Lots of people were out with crab lines along with pier.

At the long-stay parking lot, a great playground designed by local teenagers gave Cora a great place to burn off some energy.

I was really impressed with it! I wish our playgrounds had such fun equipment.






















We then went down the road to Lyme Regis, a beautiful village I've visited often on my trips. In this particular photo, Stace and Cora are under a shell fossil that Stace's Pop installed into the building at the owner's request. His Pop was a builder by trade.

Just Beachy

Ahhhh, the British seaside in August...

Sun, swimsuits and sand...

Crowds and crabs...

Along with windy, wet weather...

and makeshift shelters...

I've learned that a beach trip in England means packing bathing suits, towels, snacks and sunscreen, along with coats, umbrellas, rainboots and a carafe of hot chocolate/coffee/tea. With the changeable weather, all of the above might be in use on the same day!