Visiting the Vyne

Yesterday the family and I went to visit The Vyne, or as I like to call it Chute Manor. Once I was there I wondered why it had taken so long to make the trip to see it. Not only is it only an hour or so from where I live but it quite beautiful. Generations of Chute members adorned the walls in which we were surprised to find family resemblances. Randy happily pointed out ones that he thought looked like various brothers and even dad was traced in the face of some of the distinguished gentlemen. It was humbling to walk the halls where so many Chutes had walked before and I couldn't help feeling very connected to my family both distantly related and much more closely related. Another thing that made we wonder at why I had waited so long to visit was the practical celebrity I felt while there. They wanted you to sign a book that in this case dated back to 1994 where every Chute who had toured the place had written their names and where they are from. It was kind of amazing to flip through the pages and see just how many had been there over the years. Employees wanted to shake your hands and talk to you about the whole line but in particular the most recent occupant who only died in 1953, and some of the older volunteers actually had known him. As beautiful as the house itself was I have to admit that it was the grounds that made me sad that it was no longer in the Chute Family. They informed us though that the roof required repairs and they were currently raising funds to do them, they anticipate it will cost 2.3 million pounds to complete the work. Nearly double that to get an estimate in Canadian dollars and I decided I was more than happy to not be responsible for that! Still I imagine I'll find lots of reasons to tour the ancestral property.     

When Visitors Come

Recently we were lucky enough to have my husbands brother and his wife cross the pond for a nice long visit. Naturally it was amazing to see them, be able to talk about all things Canada, and to be able to show them around this country we now call home. I admit I was anxious to have the opportunity to take them to all the places that I have fallen in love with and show off my now superior knowledge of all things British. I discovered very quickly that I had more fun watching them experience England than in showing it though. At every new turn, viewpoint, and maddeningly narrow road I was focused on the two of them. I was thrilled by the widening eyes and sounds of awe and sometimes terror. It brought to mind my own first time in all the places we visited and the amazing overwhelming emotion the whole first few months here were filled with. I was so happy for them to have someone to show them around and explain what things meant leaving them totally free to just enjoy. As we wandered the streets of Oxford, walked the path at Stonehenge, toured Bath and explored London I almost exclusively only saw them. I love these places, Bath and London especially but I wanted to see the same looks of passion in them far more than I wanted to see the sights for myself again. Creepy? Maybe. Truthful? You bet! As the end of their trip drew nearer I found that I was as disappointed to have it end as they were and am now crave the chance to do it all over again. I can only hope that I will get to have such an experience with more guests. Hint Hint.


While they were here my husband took us up to North Wales where he is required to travel for work often. He had mentioned several times that he thought I would love it and wished I could be there to see it so it was the perfect excuse to take our visitors there. I think that much of this continent is beautiful, very few place don't offer something that I have taken to but I have to say Northern Wales is breathtaking.

Despite the slightly cooler temperatures we enjoyed in this area we spent little time indoors choosing instead to see all that we could in the 48 hours we would be there. Our first stop was at Conwy castle and magically the clouds parted and the rain stopped and we got the best weather of the trip during the few hours we wandered the ramparts. Possibly one of the best preserved castles we've been to it was easy to waste a day touring it. I wished that the towers walls were just a touch higher as I was left more than once with the feeling that one could easily fall off of them. Most places would at least put rails up to stop the over eager from leaning to far but not this place, which stopped me from exploring the highest points of the castle as much as my traveling companions. Still very beautiful.

The city of Conwy is actually encircled by the wall of the castle and from what we could tell you could actually walk it's entirety. Had time permitted I would have love to do that as I believe you could have seen the most wonderful views of the city and the ocean stretching out from its shore line. I have to be satisfied with a must more contracted hike along it from the parking lot to the castle entrance

We were actually staying in Llandudno and headed to our hotel there to freshen up for dinner. A small side note: I have become accustomed to hotels, especially busy sea side hotels being kept to a certain standard. For example I assume that they will be very clean and well maintained. Since coming to this country I have lowered these expectations considerably but even considering this I was disappointed. So although I cannot recommend The Bay Tree hotel, in which our toilet literally exploded just before we left, I can whole heartedly recommend Llandudno. A pier full of activities and shops, a long paved ocean side walk way, and Alice in Wonderland themed carvings throughout the city are only a few of the things worth taking in.

Besides the sights that it has to offer there are some amazing places for food in the area. If you find yourself in this neck of the woods I highly recommend Jaya, an Indian restaurant owned by a husband and wife. Make a reservation and be prepared to pay a little more but it will be worth it I promise. I would also tell you to check out the Welsh Food Market, it had amazing cheese and baked goods, it is only about 20 minuted from Llandudno and is a great way to support the local economy.

Thank you for visiting Jay and Cathy. It was wonderful to see you, and to watch you seeing, and getting to discover new places with you. It has been a unique pleasure to get to enjoy someone else's first time in England. I hope you are left with a new found passion for it and an understanding as to why we all love it so much here. 
     

Canda Day in England

I admit that is with somewhat mixed feelings that I celebrate Canada's birthday when I am so far away from it and the people I would normally celebrate with. This is my second Canada day here in England and the first one that I had the inclination to do anything. Having arrived only a few short weeks before last years, everything was far to foreign and overwhelming to feel festive enough to commemorate the country where I would feel comfortable and familiar. A year can do a lot to change ones perspective though. Now nothing here feels strange, the craziness that this country can sometimes produce is my new normal. We have stopped being asked daily where we are from or how long we are visiting for. Id like to think this means I have developed a posh British accent but it probably has more to do with us becoming familiar faces in the area and the loss of the stunned questioning look we wore everywhere for the first several months. In spite of being settled and happy here however I still feel Canadian so it is marginally annoying not to have large events to join in order to show this off. In fact my Canada days are now not very different than any other day here. My husband goes off to work, the kids have to attend school and I am left with a long list of tasks that need to be accomplished at home. Sadly there are no parades to watch, no group breakfasts to eat, and no firework shows to enjoy. In spite of this I couldn't help feeling an immense amount of Canadian pride and felt we needed to do at least something to mark this day as different than all my other days.

For me this meant spending the whole morning in the kitchen preparing picnic food, which come to think of it may be exactly how it would have gone if I was in Canada! Once we all arrived home after our various obligations we headed out to the park to show off our Canada flag hats. These lovely hats were bought for us by my sister as a farewell gift just before we left, given with the promise that we show them off every year we are not in our home country.

My sweet kiddies tend to be a little resistant to this idea, so worried about the stares that they have the ability to draw. They needn't have been all that concerned though as, unlike any park at home on Canada Day, we easily found a large section of shaded grass all to ourselves to enjoy our meal on. In fact there were so few people around that the courage level to wear the hats grew exponentially and before long they were running around as zombies in them.

 

Unclear what this says about Canada Day to them we did draw the attention of several passer bys that found the whole thing largely entertaining. Some even offering to snap a photo of the whole family behaving this way, which we politely declined. I like to think though that we made them remember their Canadian counterparts more actively and showed that despite loving this country we still proudly hold Canada in our hearts.

Easter in Cornwall

We spent this last weekend touring around the area of England called Cornwall. I have to admit I completely fell in love with it's beautiful sparkling blue water, rocky coastlines, beach communities and dreamlike foliage. I know I say this a lot, but it took my breath away. I captured this adoration with an excessive amount of photos but will try to give you only a taste and hopefully convince all of you as well.

We started our weekend with a trip to Tintagel Castle. Tintagel is linked to the King Author legend and has the cave where Merlin is said to have dwelt during his time with the king. For this holiday weekend the castle was hosting a treasure hunt for the kids. The were to find the clues that would lead them to Author's crown, once they located it they were rewarded with a large edible gold coin. This of course meant they we walked up, down and all around the grounds on the hunt for the elusive crown. I can't say for sure if the legend of this famous king and his wizard side kick are true, but I can tell you there is something magical about the place.

This is the coastline just below what is left of the castle and if you look closely at the last one you can see the entrance to Merlin's home.

We climbed a similar but longer and less well built set of stairs to get to this side of the grounds and be able to take these pictures. It was quite a workout but the view alone made it worthwhile.

Just to the side of Merlin's cave was a pretty waterfall that we eventually braved even more scary stairs to get down and take a closer look at.

As you might imagine by the time we had toured the whole place we were more then ready to make the hour drive to our hotel and call it a night.

Saturday was another amazing, bright, sunny day and we were awfully glad as I had booked the family a surf lesson for the morning. I am sorry to say that despite the fun we had during our two hours in the water there is no photographic evidence. Unfortunately there was no safe place to keep a camera and none of us willing to play camera man.

This is the view from the sitting area right outside our hotel lobby and that top one shows the beach from which we surfed. What you can't see is the steep never ending set of stairs that you had to descend with the surf board on your head to get to the sand below. It really wasn't so bad on the way down but after two hours paddling through the waves the climb back nearly did us all in. Except of course Reese, our instructor who not only did it with ease, he did it with both my kids boards over head keeping a steady stream of conversation going over the panting of the rest of us.

Not wanting to overexert ourselves we used the afternoon to drive across Cornwall and visit Minack Theater. Basically built by three people, the theater is carved into a hillside and during the spring and summer is host to dozens of live performances on it's stone stage.

I imagine that it would be something amazing to watch a live show of Hamlet, or A Midsummer Night's Dream with that view as the backdrop. There was indication that in some of the shows actors actually preform on the rock outcropping just in front of the stage.

I can't decide if it would be more fun to be running around the stone platform or be a spectator sitting on the grass and mason seats enjoying the splendor the theater has to offer. Both would be memorable I would think.

The restaurant we chose for dinner was very nearly there anyway, so we decide to check out Land's End as well while we were in the area.

I can't honestly say why this particular spot on the island I call home gets the distinction of being where the land ends, there are many many such areas I believe. None the less they have built this fun little shopping, tourist spot right at the very tip of this coast of England and it is fun to walk around and imagine sailors of old docking on her shore.

Cornwall has some pretty famous beaches along her long shore line and I had planned to spend Sunday driving to each one and spending time sauntering over the sand of each one. Sadly the weather did not cooperate. We woke up to pouring rain and it only got worse from there. We still took a long drive to each of them hoping that by the time we reached the next one the weather would have lightened up with no luck. I am choosing to see this as reason to return to explore Cornwall again another time and am just grateful for the two brilliant days we did get. I did brave the rain for a few minutes to take some pictures of the beach at St. Ives though.

Those tiny black dots in the water are in fact very tough surfers. You can't see it but they are not only wearing wet suits,  they are also wearing gloves, boots and in most cases hoods. A testament to me that it was likely too cold to be surfing.

Monday we delayed heading home so that we could visit the Eden Project.

The bio domes are home to two distinct climate conditions and as you walk around inside it's a bit like traveling to some exotic destination. The first dome is the rainforest and it breaks it up and shows you plants from several different countries that are home to such rainforests.

It includes some simple dwellings that you might come across in the various regions of the rainforest. This weekend they were also running a game of sorts to teach the kids all about chocolate. We got to meet some interesting characters who traded information and sometimes insults for the precious cocoa beans we were provided with as we entered the building.

Between the two domes was a large walkway with gift shops and a large cafe where we enjoyed a light lunch before we went into the Mediterranean enclosure. This dome was much cooler in temperature but equally beautiful to look at.

 I was left with a mad desire to visit Greece or some such country as I suspect that this was a pretty inadequate substitute. Other than our drive home taking nearly twice the length it should have thanks to the M5 car park the trip was completely lovely and I am dying to go back.