week 1, out and about from Calne

Sunday 22^nd May 2016

Well, we made it. Plane ride was very smooth and we got through it in one piece.  Huge queue to get through border control at Gatwick but it kept moving and we got through with no problems. Breezed through customs and our bags were waiting on the conveyor belt and that was it, we were in!

Andy picked us up and after a bit of juggling (and suitcase emptying!) to get everything in the car, we  were away down the M4 towards Bristol and the adventure was underway. We had a meal at the local pub, but tiredness was catching up and Holly fell asleep sitting up at the table, so it was home and to bed by 8pm for all.

Great night’s sleep and an English breakfast cooked for us by Andy set us up for a fresh start. Aaron picked up a hire car and we set off to Calne to arrange details of our first house sit starting tomorrow.  After a few hiccups with our navigator we found our way easily enough.  Sue was enjoying the sun trap out the back when we arrived and gave us the run down on all the details. House is very cosy and I think we will be very comfortable for our 3 week stay.  Huge chimney in the lounge room with a thick wooden lintel,

but it is no match for the massive stone chimney in the cellar.

Monday 23^rd May 2016

We arrived in our house in Calne to find our lovely host has left us a freshly made loaf of brown bread and the remains of a roast chicken, so we settled in to thick cut chicken sandwiches as soon as we had brought in all our bags.

Rufus had been sleeping on the bed and was pleased for the company.  After settling in and sorting out sleeping arrangements we took the car into the town in search of a supermarket for supplies.

The weather remained overcast but dry, so once we had unpacked our shopping we headed out for a walk with Rufus happily in tow.  Just so we had a good t a couple of minutes down the road is Castlefields Park so we had a good explore through it, dodging the muddy puddles in the paths

.  Plenty of people out dog walking along the trail to Chippenham.  Coming back into the park we found the exercise trail, so the kids got in some PE exercises for their school journals.

Back through town which is a very busy thoroughfare after 4pm.  Admired the sculpture of The Head, by Rick Kirby. Aidan was most impressed that it had been unveiled by the Queen herself. Apparently the completed face section represents the past, so presumably the open top and back represents the future. Not sure why the poor thing is in an uncomfortable looking prone position.

Back home for a glass of wine, and our first home cooked meal.

Tuesday 24 May 2016

Kids were up at 5.30am, heard them whispering outside the bedroom door as they snuck downstairs. The early morning light is clearly too much for them.

Came down at 6 and they were quietly having a game of checkers. Rufus declined to get out of bed until 8 o’clock.

After breakfast and some maths games, kids and Aaron took Rufus for a walk into town at about 9.30am.

On their return we loaded ourselves and Rufus into the car and headed towards Melksham to look at a car. Rufus settled happily in the car and enjoyed a snuffle around while Aaron took an Audi for a test run.

Once we were done we drove on towards Westbury to look at the Bratton Camp white horse. On the way we stopped off in Steeple Ashton to admire the church of St Mary the Virgin.

The church was locked but we wandered around the church yard and spent some time learning about roman numerals from the large sundial above the doorway.  On our way out we paused to watch the spectacle of a man on a ladder scraping the moss off his roof with a long pole that appeared to have been designed specifically for the purpose.

Despite some dodgy as always directions from our navigator we found our way quite easily to Bratton camp and parked on the hillside. Though the sun was giving us its best efforts and the sky was a glorious blue, the wind on the hill was very fresh and I was glad of my last minute decision to put in a jacket, which left Holly clear to wear my jumper.

The white horse has been concreted  and is very impressive both from above and a distance.  Rufus enjoyed running in the grass and looking at the sheep as we wandered along the hillside path for a way.

Leaving Bratton camp we made our way down to Westbury and as tummies were rumbling we stopped at an Aldi for some bananas.  As happens is an Aldi we came out with a fair bit more, including some ready-made sandwiches and salad.

Driving a little way down the road we pulled into a side street and ate on the grass verge. We certainly will be keeping an eye out for an Aldi for lunch again as the sandwiches were fresh and tasty.

After topping up on bananas and some tasty little butterfly cakes we continued on towards Devises in search of the Millennium white horse. Kids are feeling the result of their early start and both drifted off to sleep on the way.  Not so well sign posted and not so visible from a near distance, we finally spotted the horse through the trees and found our way to a spot where we could go through a style and walk to it.  This one maintains its chalk base but could do with a bit of weeding. The kids were pretty impressed that they could walk on it and sit on the rocks that mark the eye and nostril.  Beautiful clear views over the valley from up here.

Back to the car and we returned to Devises to have a look at the Caen flight of locks which we had passed on the way in.   We parked at the canal side pub and walked along a little further past a couple of the locks, until we came to one with a boat coming through.  The friendly owner by the name of Gypsy John, straight away enlisted the kids’ help turning the windlass to open the paddles

and then let them push open the lock gates to let him through. We followed him up to the next lock (there are 16 in the flight) and repeated the process while he went ahead to set the gates at the next one. 

For their efforts he offered them a ride up to the next lock and they were all too keen to hop aboard. 

They got a free ride through the next lock where John decided to call it a day and moor for the night outside the pub.

Waving him farewell, we returned to the car and did the 15 minute trip back to Calne where the kids were tasked to work on their journals and I set to making a Bolognese for dinner from the supplies we bought yesterday.

Picked up a new house sit for London, neatly filling the 7 day gap between our current sit and our next in Wales, which means we are now fully booked for accommodation until mid-October. We took a skype call from our new hosts and settled the details, so now we can look forward to a week in London with a couple of cats.

Wednesday 25th May
Yet another early morning. Must figure out how to get the kids to sleep a bit later. Sky is looking pretty grey today, but we get through it with only a few spots of rain, however it is hard to believe summer is only days away when we are donning jeans and winter coats.  Thank goodness we packed what winter clothes we had!

Get through our routine of coffee/tea, breakfast, checking emails to keep on top of the house sitting plans and setting the kids up with some work to do, as well as getting Rufus out for his morning walk.

This morning we are off to Swindon to look at another car. Less than a 30 minute drive and we take a test drive of a Lancer.  Price is a bit more than yesterday's Audi and Aaron is still undecided.  We have a quick look through Swindon, but it doesn't have much to recommend it, so we continue on towards Wroughton in search of some more of the famous white horses.  Just past Wroughton we get waylaid by signs to Barbury Castle, which is also marked in my AA book. A long and pot holed road finally leads us to a well maintained car park, but there is no castle to be seen. A short exploration reveals that the castle is in fact a hill fort, at quite some distance from the car park. With no information to guide us and the coldness of the wind up on the hill, we decide to continue down without visiting the fort.
Not too much further along the road we see signs to the Hackpen white horse and it is immediately visible on the hill in the distance.

This horse is thought to have been cut in about 1838 to commemorate the coronation of Queen Victoria.

It is only quite small so we look from the road and then continue on our way.  The road takes us through Avebury with it's standing stones which we will return to another day, and on towards Calne where we pull over to see the Cherhill horse.

This is the 2nd oldest horse in Wiltshire and was cut in 1780. Also visible on the hill is a stone obelisk, known as the Lansdowne Monumen. There seem to be good walking paths up to the monument, so we shall return with Rufus if time allows another day.

By this time everyone is starving and as we are so close to home, we call in and heat up on sausage rolls for lunch, alongside some more chicken sandwiches with the last of Sue's loaf.

Then it is back in the car for a short drive to Chippenham for a visit to poundland for some pencils and notebooks, as well as some incidental essentials like a box of jaffa cakes.
We also walk across to the station to collect the train tickets that we bought in advance for our upcoming trips to London.  Following the instructions to retrieve the tickets from the machine, it spits out a ticket as expected, but this ticket is followed closely by another, and another and another. Thinking that perhaps it is producing 2 tickets each for the return journey, we are astonished and Holly is in fits of giggles and the machine just continues to issue ticket after ticket after ticket.  In the end, we have 30 individual tickets to account for just 2 return trips to London.

 They took quite some sorting through to work out what was what. Still chuckling, we purchase our family and friends railcard from the ticket office and we can cross another job off the list.  A quick look in an oxfam to check out their book offerings on the way back to the car and then we are back home again.

Aaron has come down with a cold, so we leave him to rest and take Rufus out for a run at the park. Holly completes 30 trips over the log climb, as well as several crosses on the monkey bars and some sit ups on the exercise trail. Rufus enjoys a run, then we leave the park for Sainbury's, passing the hairdressers for Rufus's treat on the way. Pick up some tubs of soup for dinner and return home again.

Thursday 26th May
Woke to blue sky and a sunny day. Aidan was awake but managing to stay quietly in bed and Holly still asleep when I got up at 6.30.
We are starting to get into a bit of a routine in the morning of email checking and some school work.
Aaron whipped up a cooked breakfast to feed the hungry hordes then we took Rufus for his morning constitutional. There were school kids out planting the planter boxes that are set up around town with flower seedlings.

Today we are off to Lacock Abbey which is only about 15 minutes away.

As it is a National Trust property, we settle down for a chat with a lovely lady in the office and set up our membership, giving free entry.

Once we are done we have a look through the exhibition about William Telford who was the most recent owner of the Abbey in the 19th Century.  Telford came up with the idea for the photograph when he was on his honey moon and despaired at his lack of ability to sketch and paint as well as his wife and sisters.




From here we moved on the abbey grounds, with a bottle trail to follow for the kids to win their prize of a sticker. The gardens are lovely, some parts planted, some parts wild. On the way round we come to a rope swing which keep Holly amused for quite a time.

Holly eagerly collects her wine bottle letters, but Aidan has gone into teenager mode and remains quietly unenthusiastic about the whole process.

Once we have completed our circuit of the gardens we walk along the ha-ha  to the Abbey entrance.
You enter through the cloisters which remain largely unaltered from their original state with some quite intricate carvings on the ceilings.

The Abbey has been used for a number of film sets, including some of the Harry Potter movies. Apparently this cauldron is of some significance.

Plenty of good information is provided to bring the stone rooms to life. Also on display is an original dictionary, hand scribed in the 1300's, which is the only monastic manuscript from an English Abbey to have survived the Disolution and to have remained in the building where it was produced.

Origins of the phrase 'red letter day'.

The upstairs rooms have been converted to living accommodation.  

By now tummies are rumbling so we wander into the village which is like stepping back in time (apart from the cars lining the streets.)

We buy lunch from the local bakery and sit on a bench in the sun to eat before spending some time wandering around the village and in the little shops.  Note the amazing topiary in this garden. It doesn't show so well in the photo but the tall figure is actually a finely detailed human figure.

Holly is keen to return to the rope swing so we go back to the Abbey grounds and she spend a happy 1/2 hour of play while Aidan chats to a friendly cat.  

We make our way home via Melksham for a supermarket stop and to pick up some folders in a desperate attempt to organise all the school papers so we can churn through it.
Home again to journal writing, cooking and dog walking.

Friday 27th May
Yay, a sleep in!  Didn't wake up until nearly 7 and Holly managed to sleep until after 8, so hopefully we are settling in to our new time zone.
Maths with Dad for the morning while I caught up on correspondence.

Decided to go to Bradford on Avon today, taking Rufus with us for the day. The day is sunny with some cloud and pleasantly warm, but of course anything could happen in the next few mintues.

Only about a 20 minute run to Bradford-on-Avon and  we made our way though the town to find a car park, which turned out to be reasonably priced.

Conveniently situated toilets right at the entrance to the car park and they are the peculiar ones where you stick your hands in a hole in the wall and wait while first soap, then water, then warm air are all dispensed in turn. A completely hands free system.

We make a quick exploration of the town crossing over town bridge

with it's 17th century lock up, and visited the short shambles where the post box has been painted gold in honour of Ed McKeever

who won gold at the London olympics and trained locally.  We then head along the river to the Tithe barn, where the produce of the local farmers and peasants was stored, before being sold or used by the nuns.

Continuing along the riverside, we enjoy a very pleasant 4km walk, deviating up to the canal where Holly finds some ducks and ducklings to feed.

13 ducklings seems like quite a brood to keep in order.

We reach the aqueduct at Avoncliff where the canal crosses the river and railway line, conveniently in time to watch a narrowboat negotiate the turn and cross over.

There is also a small weir on the river.

Walked back towards the town along the river and found a sandwich bar, then ate in the local park.

Made a quick visit to the small 10th Century Saxon church before taking our sore feet back to the car and wending our way home.