Our beautiful Old English Sheepdog, Oscar, went to the beauty parlor today.  He is all fluffy and white again.  He so loves being bathed and comes away in the happiest of moods and jumps around like a puppy, when he's actually a retiree (10 years is old for such a big dog). 

While I was waiting I went to a coffee shop and ordered a coffee and a toasted sandwich.  After half an hour I was starting to get scratchy, but had nothing better to do so didn't create a fuss.  Eventually the coffee came, but no sandwich - it would just be a few minutes I was assured.  When it did come it was white, but a bit crusty on top.  What part of toasted didn't she understand.  Politely asked for it to be toasted some more, which she did (seemed to take forever) only to find when I bit into it that it was not the filling I ordered.  That's when I lost it.  Gave them the coffee (which tasted odd, I think the jug had soy milk in it before mine) and the sandwich and a piece of my mind.  Got my revenge, put it on facebook.  The coffee chain is Gloria Jeans - give them a wide berth.

Autumn notes

Its has been ages since I've blogged.  Maybe I don't realise that the things I do might be interesting to others.

A couple of great things have happened via Facebook this year.  A friend of my husband, who went to school with him and returned to the UK with his family when they were still young, found him on Facebook.  Intermittently over the years we have caught up, once on a trip he and his wife made to Australia and another time when we were in the UK for just a couple of days.  Bill and Stewart share a passion for cars, racing in particular (classic racing that is) and our visit coincided with the Goodwood Revival Meeting of that year (1999 I think).  If you have a petrol head hubby I suggest you google this meeting, it is held each year in September.  Because it is all about classic racing the people turn up in costume of the 30's - 50's and all the stalls etc in the race track are themed as well.  It is a fantastic experience.

I also reconnected with a school friend this year and now because of Facebook we are able to continue our friendship.  She has been having a particularly difficult time recently, health wise, and I so admire her determination and willingness to share her experiences in the hope of helping others to cope.

We have a resident koala in our yard.  He comes and goes throughout the year, but every now and then he appears in a tree near us.  Here he is asleep high up in the tree.

Sightseeing Day

I've just walked for hours and hours.  My hotel is near Hyde Park and the V and A and I walked all the way down to the Thames and Big Ben.  Saw lots of interesting stuff on the way including a local farmers market in Chelsea (don't know where the farmers come from around there, but what the heck, it said buy local on the sign)  Here are some of the lovely streets I walked down and some things I saw.  Including this Old English Sheepdog outside the Saachi Gallery, just quietly waiting for his owners who were inside.

London

Yesterday was a day in Paris, over on Eurostar at 6am, back by 9pm.  Amazing how much you can see in a day, even the Mona Lisa.   So here are some of the pictures I took in Paris.

 

 

All the buildings in the city have these lovely wrought iron balconies, so many designs and all so pretty.  Have lots of photos.

 

 

 

Venus di Milo at the Louvre and the wide tree lined boulevards.

 

 

 

 

Patisserie, mmmmmmm!!!!!

 





Silsley

The little church in Silsley reminded me of the church in the Vicar of Dibley, half expected Dawn French to walk in the door.  All its stained glass had been done by Morris and Co.  Full of the rich colours common to all we've seen of their work so far, especially the deep reds.  I didn't photograph them as I felt I wouldn't be able to do them justice, so bought a booklet about them.  Here are some other photos from the church and churchyard.

Bibury and Tetbury

Today was very relaxed with a couple of visits, the villages of Bibury and Tetbury.  Very picturesqe towns.  Here in the Cotwolds even new homes have to be built from the local limestone and be in the correct style.  So often the only way to tell how old a building is is to check out how clean or dirty the stone work is.

 

 

These are some of the lovely cottages in Bibury and the river through the trout farm.

 

 

 

 

The village of Tetbury, a lovely market town where we had lunch

 

 



TWO TRIPS TO LONDON

Over the past few days we've gone to London twice, once to see Kelmscott House, and the V and A.  Then yesterday to Red House and Oxford on the way back.  Here are some of the pictures

Full day of Morris

Today it was Kelmscott Manor, Morris's grave, the Cotswolds Millers and to finish we went to Broadway Tower, a folly built on the top of a hill, that Morris liked to come to for holidays.  The hotel staff got there before us and we had champs and canapes in the Morris Room, second level, of course.

Wifi is an issue in the hotel and for some of us, including me, the three foot thick walls mean we can't get it in our room.  So I have to wait until I can use the facilities in the public areas of this hotel.

This is an absolutely 5 star tour.  The food is amazing, especially as I had a cheaper tour to compare it to.  We get treated to some wonderful tours, all private (public excluded while we are there).  The group is made up of some quilters, some embroiderers and some academics.  There is something for all of us.  Michele of course is being her usual delightful self.

Yesterday was the Birmingham Museum, and Cathedral, which included evensong, so lovely.  Here are two of the stained glass windows designed by Edward Burn Jones, a friend of Morris and made at Morris and Co.

 

Today we visited Kelmscott Manor, best house tour so far.  You can almost feel Morris and his family in the house.  Unfortunately photography inside not allowed.

 



Day One

 

 

In order, Burford Village, Bourden House grounds and furniture from the Gorden Russell museum (furniture makers in the art deco era)



Cooking Class

Today was my bread baking class.  It was held at a food cooperative, community based venture.  The baker was called  Tom Baker, I kid you not and no he was not Dr Who.  There were 8 of us, including one man, and it was full on all day.  We made a round loaf, wholemeal rolls, a fougasse, ciabatta rolls and brioche dough.  As well as pizzas for our lunch.

I found out some new tricks and one of the reasons that my bread is not always so good.  Well worth it.  Had a lot of laughs and one lady kindly drove me back to my hotel afterwards, which was very nice of her.

Here are some pics of the day. 

Birmingham

Went to the city centre to buy my train ticket to get to the start of Michele Hill's William Morris tour.  It is a truly busy place, so many people, why aren't they at work?  I got lost wandering around the streets and in the end just grabbed a cab back to the hotel. 

Today I am off to the Loaf Cookery School to learn a bit more about breadmaking.  Should be fun.  Will report back later

House of Waterford

 

 

I was told before leaving home that Waterford Crystal had closed, well let me tell you, it hasn't.  The bulk of the mass produced stuff is now done in the Czech Republic, but trophies and the more specialised range is still made in Ireland.  The glass blower preparing a vase to go into the mould.

 

 

 

Of course there is  a retail experience at all these places we visited, and Waterford was no exception.  I took this picture just for Michael, I know he would love the chandeliers and the table setting.



Cliffs of Moher

 

 

The Cliffs of Moher are a must see tourist attration in Ireland, but our Great Ocean Road is way more spectacular.  But the sign for the Samaritans tickled me.  They must have a problem with jumpers.

 

 

This bridge is designed to resemble the Irish Harp.  In a city overflowing with old, old buildings Dubliners seem to be overly proud of this piece of modern architecture.  Get the feeling they are happy to have something modern in such an old city.

 

these photos were taken at the Irish National Stud.  The grounds are like a large botanic garden, just beautiful

 

 

This sign directs you to the beer garden for the local pub in a town called Cashel.  The cheap plastic table and chair in the background are it.

 

 

Dublin

Back to the beginning, as I've now worked the photo thing out.  These are the doors on the houses in the Georgian quarter of Dublin.  These were originally the homes of the wealthy British, now mostly commercial premises.  All the doors are different colours.

Sunday, 16th, we took the scenic drive around the ring of Kerry.  this is the most beautiful scenery we have seen so far.

They have a weed problem in their national park which is threatening to strangle the natural vegetation. Rhododendrons.  They are thick all through the woods.  And all along the side of the roads the hedgerows are full of fuschias.  the dampness and the peaty soils are perfect for both and thwy grow onto 10-15 ft schrubs.  Hydrangeas also grow to large shrubs here.

It's Monday morning here and we are off to Waterford.

Day two of our trip found us in Ennis.  The hotel was a family one.  I half expected Basil Fawlty to step out of the office.  There were rules about everything, the hairdryer was in the drawer, screwed to the bottom so you couldn't steal it with the power cord going out through the rear of the drawer. Bizarre.

This is the only place that I've ever had to line up for breakfast like a school kid.  we all got a lot of laughs about that place.  Oh and all the rooms had single beds.  What a hoot.

One of our stops was a farm visit, which was surprisingly interesting.  After the obligatory sheep shearing demonstration (he did say sorry for boring the aussies) they served the most fantastic scones I've ever eaten in the original thatched cottage, peat fire and all.  The funniest was that another single Australian lady on the trip is retired from a sheep station in the Flinders Ranges, so she and the farmer had a chat about wool microns etc.  He had 80 acres and 100 sheep, she had 50,000 acres and 3,000 sheep.

I have been very busy and lacking wifi access so no blogging for a few days.

There are some things on this trip that I thought might have been a bit uninteresting, but have reaaly enjoyed everything.

First day we went to the Irish National Stud which is like a botanic garden, so green and beautifully landscaped. the guide was an excitable 20 something, who obviously just adored what he did and was very interesting.  And there in the paddock was Vintage Crop, our 1993 Melb Cup winner, enjoying his retirement.

First day of the Ireland Tour.

I'm just having a morning coffee before we go down to start our tour.  met the other participants last night.  A couple of other ladies pn their pwn like myself, a couple of Aussie couples and the rest appear to be Americans.

Yesterday I walked around the Georgian quarter of the city, Trinity College etc.  There is a shoppong mall nearby and one of the buskers was an Irish music band.  Got a video of them playing.  I have more luck uploading pics etc to facebook, so you might see it there.