Virginia Water - not a bad spot for a walk and a pint

You will of course recall the day when it snowed here a few weeks back. Well, we had planned to meet up with some of Lucy's school friends (and their parents) that afternoon for lunch at a pub in Viginia Water, followed by a bit of a walk around the lake from which the town takes it's name (ie. Virginia Water).

As it turned out, the morning snow didn't impact our plans at all - in fact the pub was much more fun, as there was plenty of snow out front for the kids to play, and a nice burning log fire inside to warm up (and dry out the kids) beside. By the time we had finished lunch the snow had all melted and so we headed off to the lake to walk off the Sunday Roasts.

Virginia Water is actually a rather large man-made lake and it's about a 4 mile loop to walk right round. By the time you've covered about 2 miles, you are quite exposed to the wind off the open water and a fair way from your car; so it's really not a good time to start snowing again. To be honest, we haven't really felt the cold too much over winter, because we're usually dressed for the conditions, and when we do venture out it's usually about a 5 metre walk to the nearest heated area (ie. shop). It's a different story though when the wind is whipping across the water, you're trying to keep an eye on six kids riding scooters, threatening to veer off into the water at any second, and when the nearest building is still half a mile away. But when that nearest building turns out to be another welcoming pub, you then forget about the cold pretty quickly. Actually our visit to The Wheatsheaf went a long way to improving Keezee's opinion of warm beer.


Ah, yes... the Rose & Crown.
"Real Ales" - mmmmmmm
"Good Food" - mmmmmmm


Here it is...




Caiti, Lucy and Chanel (Lucy's friend from school) loved playing in the snow (in case you hadn't guessed)


Keezee freezing his bits off at Virginia Water


The girls didn't mind too much


The happy couple by the very romantic waterfall at Virginia Water


The slightly less romantic totem pole at Virginia Water


The flowers were nice.....


..... and the trees and stuff


House on the lake.... nice


Lucy got her hair cut shortly after this photo was taken.

Daffodils at Winkworth

Around March all of the countryside seems to explode with daffodils. They are absolutely everywhere - besides roads and train lines, in the fields, outside our front door and in the gardens, of course. It was quite a sight, but it seems no sooner have they all bloomed, they are gone again, ready to be replaced by bluebells, which have just started to spring up around the place.

So here's a few daffodil photos from our Good Friday visit to Winkworth Arboretum, which is another National Trust property nearby. It was a bit of a cold and windy day, as you will see, so we didn't think the photos were much chop, but as these are the only daffodil photos we had, we had to share.


Daffodils


Daffodils behind rugged up children


Daffodils behind rugged up Mrs.


Lake behind all of the above


Despite the protective fence, Caitlin almost fell (read ran) into the lake on several occasions


Aunty Tracey knows the name of that the nice flowering tree in the background, but I've forgotten. Please leave a comment if you know.


Still no leaves on the trees by this stage of the year, but Lucy doesn't mind.


This is the lake at Winkworth


I call this photo "Lucy sitting on a rope fence in front of a deer made out of twigs" - it may need some work.


Some daffodils for the road.

Shops and Cathedrals

Here's a few quick pics from the day we headed down to the coast to visit the outlet shops at Portsmouth - Easter Monday it was in fact. Portsmouth is known (amongst other things) as the home of Nelson's ship, The HMS Victory, which led the Battle of Trafalgar and is still a commissioned naval ship that visitors can climb aboard. No time for that though, with outlet shops right next door. As it turned out, we found the shops to be a little to overcrowded and overpriced, so we didn't stay too long.

We decided to take the long way home via Chichester, which is an old town settled by the Romans originally. The shops in Chichester were much less crowded and better value as it turned out. What's more it was much nicer roaming the cobbled streets, at least after the hailstorm passed. The girls made a few choice purchases and even Keezee got in on the act buying a tea strainer - a much needed item in these parts.

Chichester has its own cathedral which is quite impressive. In one section the floor is glass and you can look down onto the 2000 y.o Roman mosaic pavement below, over which the 900 y.o cathedral was built - the planning laws were not as strict in those days. For the record, it is also the resting place of St Richard.




Portsmouth street art reflects the maritime heritage of the town - and don't the kids love it.



Outside Chichester Cathedral - Keezee calls this photo "The Two Saint Richards"



We're not sure if St Richard the former (Bishop of Chichester 1245-1256) also bought his tea strainers at Steamer Trading



Inside the cathedral - we're never sure if it's poor etiquette to take photos inside church, so we sneak one in just as we're on our way.

Windsor Castle

OK.. you'll probably recall that we have visited Windsor several times before - such as here, here and here..... so you may be wondering why we're taking you back again. Well, whilst it's true we've visited the town a few times before, we hadn't ever taken the opportunity to actually go inside the castle. What's more, this is the first time we've been there whilst the the Queen was home as well. Unfortunately, Prince Philip was not home on the day, as he was in hospital (or 'hostibal', as Lucy calls it) with a nasty chest infection that has been doing the rounds recently. Keezee has also picked up the bug and has a nasty cough to prove it - poor darling!

The castle is well worth the visit. The lavishness of the state rooms is quite breathtaking - now we understand we're our taxes go. It can be hard to take it all in - especially with a 2yo trying to knock over every priceless antique in sight - so it's nice that the tickets are valid for re-entry for a whole year. We will be back (and you have been warned).



Here's the castle tower. The flag on top is the Queen's flag, which means she's home.


You get given these audio devices (which we called 'dongers') to guide you as go along. They are very informative, but a bit anti-social as everyone looks like they are on the phone.


Auntie Trace is multi-skilled. She can listen to her donger and take photos at the same time.


A pleasant donger-free moment


This area is called the quadrangle - lowly tourists aren't allowed in, and that's a guard you can see against the far wall to make sure we stay out. You can however can take photographs through the steel bars.


The quadrangle looks much more impressive from this angle. The Queen's doorbell is in the right-hand corner over there.


Anyway, back to the dongers... Caiti actually managed to get connected through to someone in the castle, and had a nice ol' chat.


More castle views


Lucy shows off her photography skills yet again... that's the Quadrangle again, behind Keezee and his donger. We're not sure who the guy is on the horse in statue there... maybe Frankie Dettori!


Lucy didn't want to get too close the guard... he looked mean....


..... turns out he's just another one of those poor blighters who has to stand there and ignore the insufferable tourists looking for yet another photo opportunity!



We finished off with a stroll across the river to Eton, where we discovered that there's more than just one school in town. Keezee would just like to point out that it wasn't his idea to take this photo.

Guess what? Snow! (again)

I know we're running the risk of creating another controversy similar to the infamous long boat blogs, but we have had some more snow, and we really want to share the photos, cause it dumped down this time.

Whilst, some think its a bit weird to have this much snow in April, the kids didn't care (all three of them) and got straight to the task of making a snowman. Lucy christened him 'Frosty'- clever name, don't you think? Caiti then proceeded to eat his carrot nose - she's on a health kick you see.




The general scene... told you there was lots of snow!



Making Frosty... we used a carrot for a nose, a vine for a mouth and daffodils for eyes.



and introducing.... Frosty.


Jo took a while to go through her wardrobe but she eventually found her red ski jacket.



These photos further prove the amount of snow. The Met Office (i.e. weather bureau) say it will continue all morning, with a top temp of 3°C. It was 18° on Thursday and we were commenting on the flowers on the trees and how summer is just around the corner.... oops.

Postcard from Paris

Well, the girls had a great weekend in Paris, by all accounts (except the bank account). They haven't given too much away, but as they say, what goes on tour, stays on tour - except for the photos....




Just a couple of the 400+ photos they took of this Paris landmark.





Three more of the la Tour Eiffel.... 395 to go.



Arc de Triomphe


Not sure where this is... possibly Le Musée National de Grandes Tortues D'or.



Jo didn't buy any fish at the markets, but she did get a new hat....



... which she didn't take off for days. She even wore it to church - Sacre Bleu!


In case you were wondering, Keezee stayed at home to look after the girls, and should be checking out of the institution soon.