Baslow, Derby (near Chatsworth House)
Sunday, 28/7

As you can see, we're back in England.  We had a great time in Scotland, mostly staying with Mary and Mike in their fantastic new home outside Comrie.  Our time with them is characterised by fantastic meals with plenty of wine, conversations until well past midnight, long morning sleep-ins and days filled with walks in the local area, trips further afield and a few jobs around their property.

On one trip to Aberfeldy, Mike took us to the eastern end of Loch Tay, where an enthusiastic group of underwater archeologists has re-created a crannog, an ancient iron-age settlement built out in the loch on piles about 2,500 years ago . They discovered the underwater remains of many such buildings in the surrounding area (and there are many others further afield).  We visited their reconstruction and were fascinated by the fire-making and other skills they have reconstructed and now demonstrate. 

When Mike and Mary left for Ireland for a short break and a Bruce Springsteen concert, we headed the few miles back to Stirling.  We visited the Castle there in '08 and again in '10 but on both of these occasions we were unable to enter the royal apartments, which were undergoing some serious refurbishment.  Now they are finished and we had a good look, enjoying and being interested in what they had done.  The tapestries which have been recreated by copying the remains of the original ones are now hanging in the royal apartments for which they were initially made.

After Stirling we came a little further to Edinburgh.  The caravan park there is about three miles from the city centre, with a good bus service.  Our one day in Edinburgh allowed us visits to a few favourites, like Wellington's Coffee, The Dome (which is fabulous, ask us about it!) and the Portrait Gallery.  This gallery is a similar story to the royal apartments at Stirling -- we loved it in 2008 and were disappointed to find it closed (for a very long time) in 2010.  But it is open again and better than ever.  We were fortunate that they even had a visiting exhibition of Man Ray portraits, which we enjoyed even though some of Rob's favourites weren't included.  Here's one of the big light, open spaces in the beautiful gallery..

After Edinburgh, we called in for a brief visit to Frank, who we met in Applecross in 2010.  He has a beautiful and well-known woodland garden, Humbie Dean, a short drive south from Edinburgh and we were amazed at what he has achieved in a short time.  A beautiful garden with a magnificent house as well.

And today was another lucky day for us.  We'd stayed near Scotch Corner last night, but were aware that we were close to Richmond, a medieval market town (actually an English version of a French bastide, we were told today).  So we detoured by a couple of miles for coffee and a brief look.  And then stayed most of the day.  The town is beautiful and really interesting.  The coffee was good. English Heritage was doing re-enactments and generally having a great deal of fun in the grounds of the castle.  And there was a really good photographic exhibition (Best Shots, maybe you could google it) at The Station.  In fact we were mighty impressed at how Richmond has used its former railway station, creating two cinemas, an exhibition space, a cafe, and more.  And it's being well used!

All this time in Richmond has meant a quicker trip south, but we finally arrived and tomorrow we plan to tour (hopefully) the house and gardens of Chatsworth House.

Best wishes to all.

Judy and Rob

Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland
Monday, 22/7

It's not a huge country, but the drive north from near Colchester to Scotland still takes a long time, especially when you're trundling along the freeway at about 80 kph.  But it is so worth it!

We had only a couple of  brief glimpses of Stirling Castle as we came by, but we're very keen to visit it again.  On our two previous visits we've been fascinated to watch progress on the restoration of the Royal Apartments and the tapestries that are being reproduced to hang in them.  According to the timeline we were given on our last visit, the apartments should be open by now, so we don't want to miss seeing them.

We're staying in the beautiful and comfortable home of our friends Mary and Mike, just on the edge of Comrie.  They bought it a couple of years ago and have worked miracles, bringing back to life a house that has been unoccupied for over twenty years.  As well as tours of the property and house, delicious meals and talk late into the night to catch up on news and to hear plans for the future, we have enjoyed visiting several gardens, open as part of Comrie Fortnight and we've pooled our knowledge at the Sunday evening quiz night in the village -- great fun!

And we've just been watching Hamish from the front window.  Hamish is a red squirrel, an endangered species in the UK, as they are being gradually pushed out by the introduced grey squirrels.  Here's Hamish helping himself to peanuts from the hanging feeder...

We mentioned the woodpeckers on the grass at 'the land'; they were Green Woodpeckers.  Now, here in Mike and Mary's garden are Great Spotted Woodpeckers (a juvenile pictured below from a bit of a distance) along with Blue Tits and Great Tits (pictured further below from a closer position), pheasants, and many others that we are just beginning to learn about.

 Regards to all from Judy and Rob

The Land
Wednesday, 17/7

It is over a week since we've written and that is because we've been so busy!

After Oxford, we meandered about that area for a while.  At one point we visited Little Rissington, where Judy's father had been photographed outside a flying school in 1975.  We could find no trace of the airfield there, but at nearby Upper Rissington there is a huge housing development that we think must be on the old airfield.  The streets in the development have names including Sopwith Rd, Bleriot Rd, Hawker Square, Bristol Rd (OK, that could have been the road to Bristol, but we don't think so), Avro Rd, DeHavilland Road, and Vickers Rd.

We spent some time with David and Lucy, our friends from Hadstock, near Cambridge in their beautiful thatched house which has been lovingly and expertly restored.  As well as hours of talking together, we were taken to an outdoor screening of Casablanca in the grounds of a huge (no, really huge!) estate nearby.  After such a hot day it was a welcome relief to have such a clear sky and to actually wrap up in a blanket for the film.  We spent virtually a whole day in Cambridge again, revisiting the Fitz, one of our favourite galleries.  On Saturday morning, market day, David and Lucy showed us around nearby Saffron Walden before we headed off for the short trip to Boxted.

We're still at "The Land", near Boxted, but will leave here tomorrow.  Our friends Gordon and Patricia have looked after us wonderfully.  Saturday night was the night of their annual barbecue, an amazing event with nearly sixty people, a stage with entertainment, games (including a shooting gallery), fireworks and such a friendly crowd. 

Yesterday we took the train to London.  We traveled in with Gordon, Patricia and their daughter Naomi.  Then went our separate ways.  Imagine our surprise then, in a city the size of London, to run into them again by chance in Westminster that evening.  Speaking of Westminster, here we are at Downing Street.  No sign of Jim Hacker though.  (Photo courtesy of the policeman at the door).

We really do love London.  Spent hours in the Courtauld Gallery and more hours in the National Gallery  tracking down a short list of particular paintings we were keen to see, before enjoying the galleries' other offerings.

Today we were taken to Lavenham, another very quaint medieval village nearby.  Very nice pub lunch too!

This morning Judy saw a woodpecker on the grass near the van; and this evening there was a pair of them in the same area - we both got a good look at them as well as a not very good photograph.

So we're off again tomorrow.  Heading North toward Perthshire and more friends (Mary and Mike).

Regards,

Judy and Rob

Oxford
Tuesday, 9 July

It never occurred to us that this would ever happen to us in England, but yesterday when we were traveling on a freeway and we decided to stop for coffee, we  actually looked for a shady (!) spot to park.  In fact it has been quite warm to hot for the last few days.  All the English people we've come across have been so happy, and quite a few have been quite sunburned!  We've been told that if the weather turned back to wintry now, it would already be the best summer here for several years.

And to capitalise on this glorious weather, we've been to some fabulous spots.  Our caravan park at Curnon Downs was between Falmouth and Truro, and right beside a bus stop.  So on Friday we caught the bus into Falmouth, as planned, and then we did the same with Truro on Saturday.  This was a much better strategy than trying to drive in and park.

We used a variation on that same idea yesterday and today (Tuesday) by using the park-and-ride services at Bath and Oxford. 

Between those Cornish towns and here, we visited St Mawes (just opposite Falmouth) and Charlestown, near St Austell.  We also drove across Bodmin Moor and camped one night beside Dartmoor (the evening that Andy Murray won the men's singles at Wimbledon. 

We had been to Charlestown in 2000 and loved it so much we were keen to revisit.  Here's one of the square-riggers in the harbour.

This morning we were going to visit what we thought was a quiet English village, Avebury, where Judy's sister and brother-in-law once lived for a short time.  However it is no quiet village any more!  The whole town is now a hive of tourist activity, and not just because Marion and Doug were there.  There is a circle of standing stones and henge, which partly encircles the village.  The whole village is now part of the English National Trust (free to us with our Australian National Trust membership) and on a beautiful sunny summer's day, it was thronged with visitors.  But very well managed and accessible.

Best wishes to all.

Judy and Rob

Cornwall

Cornwall
Friday morning, 5 July

Our ferry crossing went uneventfully and we arrived in Kent earlier than planned (because we were early at the terminal they put us on an earlier ferry, and also we gained an hour by crossing into a different time zone).

We even remembered to drive on the left, so in our left-hand-drive vehicle the driver travels along near the gutter while the navigator is out in the middle of the road, staring, bewildered, at the oncoming trucks.

We spent a couple of nights in Kent, very close to Sissinghurst Castle, (not a castle at all but the home of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson who created one of England's most famous gardens), then we used motorways to travel to Cornwall.  We stayed a night on Cornwall's north coast at a little place called Polzeith where they were giving surfing lessons in a little bay and yesterday drove to our present caravan park just outside Truro.

Here's part of Sissinghurst, now operated by the National Trust:

Last night (well, evening) we had a great walk down to the sea and a lovely little pub.  Actually the walk grew as it went along because with a few navigational issues now and then it was a little over three hours before we were back in camp (although some of that was in the pub, of course!).

Here's one of the little roads (or lanes?) in Truro.

Today we're going to catch the bus into Falmouth.

R & J