Blenheim Palace and more

This week was wet, really wet. We had rain pretty much everyday and more than once got caught outside in a thunderstorm. In my defense it is cloudy here often and doesn't rain so I haven't completely prepared for the times that clouds turn to rain or in the cases this week thunderstorms. We do now own a couple of umbrellas but they aren't always grabbed when leaving the house as they should be. The point is this week found us indoors more than I would have liked and to fill the time I baked, a lot. Which teaches me something interesting about myself, the winter months here are going to be very hard on my waistline because I am told it rains here all the time. So apparently when I am getting out for exercise less I compensate by filling the house full of home baked goods, yup, no problem.

I also made some chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon scones and I made the buns twice, so really a lot of baking for one week. As I mentioned last week I have planned some activities for the kids and I to do over summer holiday and as last week was treat heavy this week I tried some crafts with them. 

One day we came up with a bored bag, so they listed activities to do alone or as a family, some that cost money and some that require a bit of extra planning, wrote them on Popsicle sticks and put them in a bag. Now whenever they don't have an idea to keep them entertained they reach into the bag and do the activity written there. A couple of the days my daughter was away at camp and my son and I were on our own. One day we played with Lego, setting it up in various situations and I would take a picture and later we put them into powerpoint and then wrote a story to go with the photos. We also did some shirt design and you will see that my son took the job a little more seriously than I did.

We have about an hour away from us in the city of Woodstock a place called Blenheim Palace that right now has a deal on that if you buy a days admission you can upgrade to a year long pass. Last Saturday we went there before we hit Oxford and purchased our passes. As it is a fairly easy distance from us we returned this Saturday to do more exploring.

You can tour the palace itself, picnic on the massive grounds, visit any of its many manicured gardens, spend money in the shops and restaurants, or take a run at a hedge maze. They also host a number of large special events through the year, some seasonal like the ones held at Halloween or Christmas and some that show off the history of the area. The one that drew us there this weekend was an all out, Knight's tale feeling, jousting competition. They had rowdy squires, a loud mouth King, and fully decked knights ready to dazzle us with their medieval skills.  We got to witness sword fights as well as several events done from the back of a horse. It was during this demonstration that I was caught for the second time this week unprepared for what our announcer called a fine English summer. Fortunately the rain didn't last long enough to drive us away from the exhibition or the park so we were able to see the winner crowned and ramble around the grounds.

The grounds offer miles and miles of walking trails that if followed will lead to a rose garden, a lake side stroll, a waterfall, and many other outdoor wonders. You can also catch a little train to an area that they call the pleasure gardens, which seems to mean children's area. This is where you find the hedge maze, butterfly house and adventure playground. The train runs every half hour and is painfully slow. Since it only takes about fifteen minutes to walk from the palace to the pleasure gardens, we decided to make the hike rather than wait the extra time to hop on the train. 

  

As one of the more costly places that we have paid to visit, I am awfully glad that it allows us a year to explore the place as we still haven't set foot in the building or tried any of the cafes. I am also interested in the Halloween entertainment, Dickens Christmas and seeing more of the massive grounds and this would certainly been less attainable without it being free for us to continue to go.