Jonny's Farnham

We took a trip down to Farnham one fine day when Nana & Pop were visiting.

Farnham is known for a number of things - it the location of an ancient castle owned by the Bishops of Winchester, it's the surname of John Farnham (aka The Voice), and it's the hometown of Jonny Wilkinson (aka The Boot), the much-loved English rugby No. 10 (5/8th).
Much-loved by most - poms revere him in a somewhat disturbing way, Jo wants to put a poster of him on the bedroom wall, whilst Keezee would love him more if he had broken his foot before the RWC quarter finals.
We're happy to report there's no huge posters or statues of the man noticeable around town. But happily, there are plenty of nice old buildings and parks.


St. Jonny's...oops I mean... Andrew's Church in Farnham is very historic (12th century we're told), yet has been renovated internally in a very contemporary style. There's even a playroom to put the kids whilst praying - you could call it a prayroom [boom-kattish].



Keezee & Caiti out front of St. Andrews.


Pop, Nana & Jo in Castle St., Farnham. Believe it or not, this is the street which leads to the Castle.


Tudor buildings and stuff.


Scenes from outside The Nelson Arms. Nice pub.

A-Dash-Through-The-Cotswolds

How about some pics of our visit to The Cotswolds with Nana & Pop? It was not so much a visit as a drive-through on our way back from our weekend in Gloucester. The Cotswolds is a fairly large area in central England renowned for both its abundance of stone architecture and plethora of dashes in the names of towns and villages.

Why Gloucester I heard someone whisper? Its the nearest place to Cardiff with a vacant room on any given weekend when the Wobblies play the Welsh. Keezee and Pop ducked down to Cardiff on the Saturday to catch the game. Hopefully I can track down our RWC Cardiff pics from Pop's collection (he had the camera) because it was great fun, but that's all for another post.


First stop: Stow-on-the-Wold


It was a chilly day. Too chilly to smile in the shade.


The girls enjoyed the shopping at Stow-..., but what's with the matching shades?


Keezee makes a statement - Sassi indeed in his hoodie.


Next up: The amusingly named hamlet of Lower Slaughter.


The stream at Lower Slaughter runs down from nearby Upper Slaughter (I'm guessing).


Some Lower Slaughter architecture. Photo taken from our new car.


Aforementioned new car parked besides the stream in Lower Slaughter - check out the sardines!


And finally: the ridiculously pretty town of Bourton-on-the-Water


Lucy-by-the-Water


Tourists-over-the-water


Spot the difference! Leave a comment with your answer. A free postcard written by Lucy for the winner.

But seriously, it's a beautiful place. We hope you enjoy the pics.

Eton (and Windsor ) again

Looking back again at our previous blog entries, you may recall the disasterous camera-less visit to Windsor. We vowed to return again better prepared, and when the time was ripe, we charged the camera battery for a full week. We wanted to be sure we could capture all of the action for you, our loyal readers.

We begin our re-visit on the banks of the River Thames:



You may also recall the Chariots of Fire courtyard. Here it is again in case you missed it:


Of course, what's a visit to Windsor without dropping by Windsor Castle?


It's a little known fact that Windsor has the cheapest and best ice creams in England. Its due to a royal decree we're told...


Here's a building which looks remarkably like one of Keezee's old engineering drawings:


The place is full of tourists:


But at last.... we finally met Her Majesty:

Canal Capers (or, An Adventurous Day on the Wey River Navigations)

You may remember this map of the Wey River Navigations from one of the infamous Long Boat blogs posted a while back (Keezee was going through a bit of a long boat phase at that stage - he says he's over it now). Anyway, if you check out the map closely you will notice some canal walks marked. We decided that Walk 3 might be a nice way to spend an hour or so before lunch at The Anchor.

Well for the first hour it was indeed a nice way to spend the morning - walking along the canal, enjoying the country air and checking out the remains of the Newark Priory. It was the two hours afterwards that weren't so much fun - especially when the marked trail finished abruptly at the end of a church graveyard. No problem - a quick walk over some graves, down a busy single lane road with no footpath, across a golf course, through someone's garden, then over a wonky bridge soon saw us back at the canal path. We missed lunch unfortunately (by several hours), and a few choice words were spoken, but hey, that's life when you're an adventurer.


The girls pretending they own the mansion you can see in the background. It has its own long boat dock and all.


This is an historic building on the canal in which a mildly famous historical figure lived at one time (details unfortunately forgotten).


Another shot for the mantlepiece - that's the Newark Priory in the background.


St Edwards Church, Pyrford. (1:40 hrs into the walk).
This church was built in 1140 AD.


The nice lady who volunteers here tells us that Queen Elizabeth visited here - Elizabeth I that is. We worked out that even at that time it would have been a very old building.

RHS Wisley Gardens

We're on a roll - three blog posts in one day is a new record - beating the old mark by two!

Next up are some nice shots of our visit to RHS Wisley Gardens. RHS stands for Royal Horticultural Society and is Britain's largest gardening charity. Being a keen gardener, and being 5 minutes from our place, Jo joined up at the first opportunity, so she can go as often as she likes.

NB: Notable absentees from these shots are Lucy (at school) and Keezee (at work). Its not all sunshine and flowers for some of us.



Its a spectacular house at the entrance to the gardens, but not enough to keep some people awake!


Although the tudor house was looks hundreds of years old, it was actually built in 1914 - a new build really.


The girls enjoying the sun.


Gardens, as promised.


Look who's awake!

Oh My Godalming !!

A couple of pics of our visit to Godalming (pronounced God-al-ming). Its a pretty enough town, but the main attraction (for certain members of our family) is the trendy shopping on the High St.


Smile if you love shopping


The churchyard


Nice stained glass window (no points for guessing where this was taken)

Caitlin's 2nd Birthday

Caitlin's 2nd Birthday party was a relatively low key event, but it didn't stop us from getting right into it, as you will be able to tell from these shots.....



The table


The birthday girl


The cake


Eating the cake


Enjoying the cake


All cleaned up


A few after-dinner bubbles - kids style