edwinstowe and sherwood forrest

And today I went to Edwinstowe and sherwood forest.

And where do you want to go asked frannie - l had looked on the map coming home yesterday and noted that sherwood forest seemed reasonably close - so i said sherwood forest - easy done said frannie - is about 30 mins aways and we could also go and visit the village of edwinstowe where tony spent a couple of years billeted as a 7 yo during the war.

I think that edwinstowe may have changed a little since the early 1940s but we found a nice pub and had steak pies for lindsey and the builder and lamb mince pie for frannie - not bad they were.




We then headed off to sherwood forest to investigate robin hood and his merry men. The weather improved and there were lots of people and dogs wandering around the forest. It was green and lush - unlike the aussie victorian bush at present even tho it is the middle of winter.




The major oak

We found the major oak in the middle of the forest and then wandered back to the car. we stopped off at a castle on the way home but it had shut early as it was saturday - as you do in the middle of the tourist season - may try and head back there in our last week

Tonight frannie is doing lamb chops and home fresh veggie- we have red wine for ian to reward him for driving the offsprouts to a games theme park - even tho he seems to have thrashed them in the bowling - he attributes this to moderate red wine consumption at lunch and old age.

nothing planned so far for tomorrow - a day of rest will be good.

county durham

Okay and where were we when last spoke- oh yes about to start day 3 of feasting.

The cousins all arrived in dribs and drabs. We had lots to eat and drink.Frannie had yet again turned on good weather and we were able to stay in the garden. we had masses of roast meat and home grown veg and gravy, a huge rice pudding and 3 large frogs in the pond - one being made with vegetarian jelly! I am not sure how 22 adults all claim not to have eaten the 40 odd freddo frogs when not a one remained by the end of the day and i am sure that pennys 2 small children werent the culprits!!





click on the photo tony and you can see everyone easily! see if you can identify all of them


After the festivities we cleaned and polished and tidied the house as we were off to county durham the next day for the week.

We loaded ourselves into the two cars oscar and the vixen with our loyal gps machines jenny and katie and set off for derwent grange farm out of consett county durham - and dont the gpses make life easy for driving!

We arrived late afternoon and were soon established in the renovated cow shed. It amply accommodated the 8 of us with room for a few small children as well. The farm used to do dairy cows and now did sheep and guests. It still has roaming chooks with a couple of cocks which like to wake up early and make sure that everyone else is up early as well!



frannie jim ian and i woke early the next morning and went out exploring- we headed off to bishops auckland where i had found an hours walk for us - and we discovered a roman bath house and fort - what fun bernard and sleepy hippo went with us to do the exploring.

the fort was cute but up a hill - why do they persist in putting interesting things up the top of hills in the uk??




We wandered around the hills and fields of bishops auckland - getting totally lost in the process until eventually some locals directed us in the right direction and then frannie decided that her iphones gps would also help locate us!

nice cold chocolates coffees and teacakes in a courtyard cafe and then we headed back to the farm to find the younger ones to launch an expedition to durham and the cathedral and castle.

Durham cathedral has a tower , a 325 step tower, the builder ian gareth and i decided to climb said tower - all 325 steps of it.It waas a sunny day when we set off but by the time we reached the top - it was raining - how did that happen??



we came back down the 325 steps to find tabitha had found a castle tour which was about to start so we headed over to the castle.

It is now used as a university hall of residence - not a bad place to live!



The parking meters were about to expire so we bundled ourselves back into the 2 cars and headed back to the farm for tea.

The next day Wednesday i think, we launched an expedition to hadrians wall - first we went to housestead fort and wandered up yet another very steep hill to look at the roman ruins with lots of other brave brits.

We had packed a picnic and so then went to explore vindolanda which had a museum as well and better ruins - if ruins can be better.



Once we had decided we had found enough roman soldiers we once again put ourselves back into the cars and headed back to the farmhouse to organise ourselves for a local pub meal.

It was newly taken over and the 8 of us wandering in caused a bit of a stir in the kitchen who werent yet used to feeding larger groups. the food however wasnt bad.

the Thursday morning ian jim frannie and i left the young ones in bed while we went for a walk - Stanhope this time - we discovered a 250million year fossil tree in the local churchyard - well thats not true we didnt discover it - it had been discovered in a quarry locally and moved piece by piece to the churchyard.



We went for our walk and walked along the stanhope burn where bernard and eventually frank lyon went bungy jumping - i am sure that this will be blogged on bernards blog when he recovers from the shock - he did twitter it and seemed quite excited by it all.



We organised lunch and headed back to the farmhouse. Frannie jim and I continued our walking program, at St Johns Chapel that afternoon while ian stayed back at the farm to organise lamb shanks for tea.



We got up early friday morning to pack and tidy and headed off to Richmond to explore ,however the traffic jam at the outskirts was shocking so we abandoned that and went to ripon to look at the cathedral. We missed the cathedral as the cafe meal although good tasting took ages and ages to appear and the builder got forgotten so it took even longer.

the M1 and the A1 both decided to delay our journey with long queues of traffic so we didnt finally get home til late in the afternoon.

We had a wonderful week. Ian and the kids are going to a games park today near leeds - as you do and so jim frannie and i will play locally and perhaps go and explore sherwood forest.

having a wonderful time - will talk soon

the wedding

And on Friday we all went to a wedding.

up bright and early dressed and ready to go picnic to pack - frannie up earlier to produce ian and austin headed off in a taxi to the nettle pub to pick up the bright red e type jag which he had organised for jim and frannie to get to the wedding in





We organised ourselves to leave just before midday to head to bakewell ian myself austin tabitha and gareth got into our car and freyja jim and frannie piled into the jag

some where along the line my travel phone abandoned me a nice local picked it up and hopefully i will get it back tonight after his weekend away - fingers crossed

the bakewell traffic was busy as usual and we finally found a park and also jims family who had travelled from down south

frannie was starting to panic as she had lost us and was calling the travel phone and was getting no answer but freyja was dispatched to locate us and we all eventually found the registry office paul and carol were also waiting for us





the ceremony was short and lovely evie - jims 2 yo g daughter fell off a chair and so slightly delayed the start with her crying but all was good for the actual event

hopefully once we have worked out the new video camera we will put the video onto facebook -

we picnicked in the park for the reception it was a wonderfully sunny day after a week of drizzle we were very lucky




after a few hours of partying we went home to organise ourselves for a night out at the local pub - the 3 horse shoes

a lovely meal was had and unlike a week ago when ian jim frannie and i went -the weather was lovely and the views were fantastic

eventually we all fell into bed

we woke yesterday to organise for the friends garden party - about 30 were coming the weather once again behaved itself

we had sandwiches - vegemite fairy bread cheese cress - yes people do eat cress sandwhiches chocalate and also cherry cake - homemade by frannie and lots to drink

people came and people went but gill and her husband peter came they stayed for the evening barbque once again we went to bed late and full

we wake today in anticapation of the family roast lunch another 30 or so coming - i am doing my rice pudding and hopefully a frog in the pond - large version

the weather is behaving itself as we intend to eat in the garden

hopefully will get lots of photos of the extended family

up and ready off we go for day 3 of feasting!!

cornwall

Moving Freyja wasnt as simple as it seemed. the person moving out of her share house had failed to do so and then person moving out of her room into the moving out persons room , consequently also didnt move so freyja couldnt move into her room - all very complicated but the upshot was that frannie and i found ourselves heading to sheffield to move freyja when we didnt have to. We did have to find austin to bring him back to tupton and go to waitrose so we continued our journey.

Frannie did a nice roast lamb and i managed a rice pudding for tea.

Monday morning saw ian and i packed again for our trip down to cornwall. Frannie had lent us the vixon and insurance was paid up - the weather was reasonable and so we headed off down a variety of motorways.


The weather deteriorated as we travelled south and by the time we arrived at Bodmin where we were staying with and ex work collegue of ians we were in mist. We travelled across the bodmin moors in mist- could imagine being a smuggler.



We had a nice meal with the Littles and then they drove us around bodmin showing us the old gaol and assylum. Scary places.

Off we set the next morning. we found headed to port isaac to look at where doc martin is filmed and then headed to tintagel to go king arthur hunting. english seaside seems to be set on very steep hills! tintagel was again in mist and we got a little damp but it made the adventure even more appealing.


port isaac


Tintagel

We rewarded our walking and climbing with cornish icecream and headed off to padstow to investigate rick steins fish and chips which we had been recommended. Padstow is also on the side of steep hill which took away the guilt of very nice fish and chips.
We found ourselves a padstow camel.

we had booked accommodation at the fowey - pronounced foe hotel. Stewart greeted us and led us into the hotel. Limited parking is available and we had missed out but stewart on hearing we had come all the way from oz found us a spot - otherwise you have to park in the local pay and display.


fowey hotel


more wandering and more food and a good night was had.

off to the lost gardens of heligan the next morning and cornwall also found some sunshine. the gardens were wonderful and we spent a little more time than we had anticipated. we left late and headed back to new tupton via the motorways once again. an accident on the m5 delayed us and so jenny the sat nav took us exploring while we tried to find an alternative route home.



Yesterday was a pottering day organizing food for the wedding feast and saturday party.
the sat nav makes life so much easier to navigate foreign parts. Ian and i explored chesterfield and ian found himself a wedding shirt. but no freddo frogs for the frog in the ponds for the saturday party could be found. fancy living in a country with no chocolate frogs.i cooked shepherds pie for tea - and we awaited the arrival of tabitha and gareth from cambridge. Their bus decided to break down so we didnt eat til about 9pm - we were all very hungry. freyja and austin had arrived at a slightly more civilized hour earlier in the evening.

well today is why we are all here. the wedding. it is drizzling at present but the forcast is slightly better for the time of the wedding.

will put in photos later when i have downloaded them

good luck frannie and jim

0ff on our trip

We left melbourne after being picked up by an Etihad organised limo - got to the airport in plenty of time. wandered up to the qantas lounge and had a drink and supper before boarding.

The flight to abu dhabi was 14 hours long - uneventful - the food was excellent and i managed to get some sleep - this was very unusual for me as i dont usually sleep on planes at all - business class does help.

got into abu dhabi about 30 mins early. had a shower and found ourselves a video camera to buy so that we can record the wedding. oh and some duty free vodka and gin for frannie and jim.

Landed at manchester - also about 30 mins early after another 7 hour uneventful flight.
I love manchester airport - customs relaxed and no having to get your bags checked for food stuffs and wood - out of the airport in about 30 mins.

caught up with fiona -ias niece and gave her her wedding shoes and diamond that we had been asked to bring over and then found our next limo.

headed through the peak district and arrived at new tupton slightly before frannie and jim - found the well hidden key and let ourselves in to be greeted my marlo.

yesterday was spend wandering around the shops of chesterfield getting supplies and then we went to the nettle for lunch - wonderful chips!




frannie had a work collegue around for tea last night we dined on a slow cooked sausage casserole with freshly picked broad beans and pea new potatoes and carrots - all wonderfully sweet have been blacked banned from the allotment - i eat too many of the broad beans and peas when picking them

we had a meal at the three horseshoes to check out the wedding night feast venue - misty and haunting but nice food



off exploring today - just pottering then helping freyja move tomorrow to a shared house

then off to cornwall for a couple of days on monday - hopefully the weather will improve a little although it managed not to rain yesterday until the evening - has been a very wet summer so far apparently

off to NZ with stella and tony

ok its not a good way to start with stella getting a cellulitis of her right ankle only 2 days prior to travelling to NZ , just over her scar from her previous fracture 3 years ago - where she still has a pin in place , ok antibiotics organised

27/02/09

we get up relatively early for most of us ( tony not included) and head off to the airport
we stock up with additional antibiotics for stella if the current ones arent working
off we fly to Christchurch
first minor problem is encountered when Lindsey leaves the duty free wine at customs and we dont discover this until after we have left customs
had to retrieve them from a special window
apparently set up for such events
this is most a unHyde like activity

We pick up the car and head down to Akaroa about 90 mins on the coast, a lovely french english village - the english arrived 2 days before the french and set up their flag - but they only knew about it because the french had told them thats where they were going and they got caught in a storm which the brits managed to avoid!
we had booked into a B and B - garthowen http://www.garthowen.co.nz
it was a good indication of the level of accommodation that we had managed to book the previous weekend.

 

we headed off to tea at Ma Maison - akaroa salmon , pork hocks and steak with a good amount of nice NZ booze

28/02/09

we had a full cooked breakfast the next day before heading off to the small shopping centre where stella discovers the only camels we found on the trip - they were duly purchased
we headed off on a boat trip for the arvo - to look at hector dolphins and seals.
the weather managed to behave during the trip but deteriorated later after we had had dinner - the worse storm in two years - ian and i slept through it!
As usual we had booked the accommodation at the last minute - mainly through our reliable wotif but hadnt realized that there 3 weddings the weekend we had chosen to visit this small hamlet of akaroa - garthowen only had one room available on the second night so they put up ian and me in their spare room - not usually rented out and it was well and truely sound proofed with no window and at the bottom and the back of the house - hence the reason for us not hearing the storm

01/03/09


 

The weather improved the next morning and we set off looking for the summit road - the views were wonderful - see picassa album but we almost lost tony in the wind
back to chrishchurch airport
this occasioned the next minor hiccup - ian had taken the garthowen bedroom key - so he put it in a post bag and posted it back
boarding the plane was interesting - invercargill is obviously considered a low risk destination , and for the second time in my life i boarded with no security check once on board they told us they would in due course do the safefy check and then proceeded to inform us that they may need to cancel the flight due to safety concerns regarding the wind - however the propellers started to turn - yes it was a smaller plane but not a baby plane and we proceded to go to the runway - but no safety procedures were went through - so we were flying off to invercargill into a high risk flight with no safety check !!!
the flight seemed to go over the sea rather than the usual inland route as per the airline book and it was very smooth
stella was met by a wheel chair and we went off to locate the car - a toyota diesel prado this time - fitted us in well with all our luggage although stella and tony managed to travel with only one case between them - ian and i could never do that!
invercargill decided to show us that it could rain in NZ
tea was at the local seafood restaurant - probably the only average meal we had for the entire trip

02/03/09

the next morning we set off for bluff - oyster season started yesterday and bluff is where they land from the boats - well we couldnt miss that could we
the seas were too rough for the boats to go out that day , so we feasted for morning tea on day old oysters - wonderful
today we lost trust in our GPs - a depressed melancholic woman we were heading back to invercargill from bluff when she detoured us onto a dirt road - only to put us back onto our main road after about 10 mins - with me abusing her and telling her that she was stupid - probably didnt help her depression but reminiscent of jim telling katie off in the uk
once back at invercargill we started off for te anau where we were staying that night
we chose the southern scenic route http://www.southernscenicroute.co.nz/default.asp

the rain managed to settle as we drove along and we pulled in at tuatapere - the sausage capital of the world for lunch at the pub - i chose the sausage pie
we stopped off at the borland nature walk for a wander leaving stella in the car looking after her ankle
te anau continued to supply us with sunshine and we pottered around the small souvenir shops

 

tea was at the hotel restaurant - venison for me on this occasion

03/03/09

We had booked an overnight cruise on the milford sound this evening but it was cancelled on short notice so we changed to the 3 hour cruise instead with a bbq lunch- was the right move milford has sunshine for 9 days per year and we got one of them
http://www.redboats.co.nz/milford-sound-cruises/869/Discover+Milford+Sound.aspx

the views were once again spectacular we were bathed in sunshine and managed to get stella onto the top deck so that she could enjoy all the views

 

we returned to te anau stopping along the way to look at views etc
dinner that night was from the local chinese food shop - not bad especially the sweat and sour fish

04/03/09

the next morning we set off for queenstown both ian and i like queenstown it has yet again wonderful views and a Mediterranean food market which ians drools over
we were temporarily diverted by the kingston flyer steam train before heading to queenstown it self
Tonys friend barry had recommended the road to glenorchy so we set off - found the pub for lunch - peas pie pud for tony and me

 

we will go back for walking another time too much to do and not enough time - met one couple who had spent 8 weeks in NZ and still hadnt had enough time to do all that they wanted to do

lovely steak for tea cooked by ian and use was also made of the washing machine and dryer

05/03/09

off to the lake for a steam boat trip for the morning - TSS Earnslaw http://www.realjourneys.co.nz/Main/TSSEarnslaw_WP/

 

once again the good weather god was smiling down upon us - managed to get stella outside again to enjoy the views
tony and i managed to enjoy a beer as well

lunch at one of the wharf restaurants sitting out in the sun

arrowtown was on the agenda for the afternoon an icecream for stella and me coffees for tony and ian
akaroa salmon cooked by ian for tea

06/03/09

today was our longest trip - heading off to the glaciers via haast and today it showed us that it could rain in new zealand we saw water falls galore coming down from the mountains coming down next to the road and spraying over the road wonderful

 

we stopped at haast pub for lunch we had previously stayed there for the night - when we went with the kids and had a reasonable meal
we were advised that there may be a wait - we were prepared for that but not for the bus of 40 people who arrived about 15 mins later and then were served prior to us about an hour later we complained the next couple complained but little was done
finally stellas ploughmans arrived sans cheese- whats this i asked - a ploughmans i was told wheres the cheese i asked - "shit" was the response and the plate was removed to later come back with quite nice cheeses tony and i had another pie pud - not quite as nice as the glenorchy ones but not bad and ian had a wonderful seafood chowder

the torrential rain continued almost til we reached the fox glacier
we were able to drive up the road this time - last year it had been washed out with over 400mm of rain in one day!

glenfern view villas for the night and tea in a local cafe - served by an argentinian
traveller

07/03/09

thought we were in for rain again to day as we headed off to hokitika but it held off most of the day
the scenery changed to more farming rather than spectacular mountains

 

we went on a baby paddle boat at hokitika and found white herons for tony
Rimu lodge was tonights accommodation

http://www.rimulodge.co.nz/

came with the family dog - deesha liked to sit on peoples knees in the evening - to make them feel at home stella was especially favoured
tea at a restaurant overlooking the sea - seafood platters for ian and i - wonderful
ian decided to try and drive off with the key again - but was stopped by the owner who realised what he was trying to do - key was duely handed over

08/03/09

our last full day - we headed back to christchurch for the night through arthurs pass
stopped to watch the tranzscenic train - it hooted us as it went passed to say hello
stopped to look at waterfalls - were welcomed by 2 kea birds - one sitting on the car roof quite reluctant to get off even when we tried to drive off

 

the sunshine welcomed us on the other side of arthurs pass and we drove down to christchurch able to let stella and tony enjoy the views

we checked into huntley house wonderful accommodation to complete our trip - found on wotif again so about 60% of its usual price



ian did himself really well with the accommodation
we lunched in a cafe next to the avon river in the centre of christchurch and then went to explore the catherdral and shops
dinner was back at huntley house - steak with cheese to follow again washed down by NZ wines

09/03/09

up at 4am to get to the airport by 5am - stella had a wheel chair provided and full attention from the pacific blue airline staff couldnt fault them
a smooth flight back to melbourne where christian met us

think we all had a wonderful time

next time frannie and jim can come i think- ian and i want to go back again to explore some more

Stella turned 75 on Monday so we all invited ourselves down for last sunday - lunch
Ian and i headed down on the saturday to help prepare the food
We detoured via david jones food hall to pick up some crumbed veal cutlets for tea and stopped off at the mornington shops to pick up supplies
Sunday morning - the whole family arrived including krumm who doesnt like to miss out on sundays at mt martha

 

We had the usual feast of salads meats a slow cooked veg cassarole and then lindseys rice pudding and belinda did a wonderful lemon pie
We ate drank and made merry
Think Stella wasnt too exhausted to celebrate her birthday again the next day

 

 

 

Ian and I had fish and chips for tea the local shop down stairs from the flat now produces more than acceptable chips
And I was brave and ran up the person with an ad in the local shop for another car spot in the building basement - and hired it so no longer do ian and i have to fight over who parks in the street we will now start fighting over the car parks as the second one is under the building opposite but still much more convenient than on the street and having to remember to move it before the clearway restrictions start