Sticky Toffee Pudding

Sticky Toffee Pudding is Sean's favorite dessert.  While we were in the Watendlath we discovered that originated from the Lake District.  In reading a local magazine that was left in the cottage I found a place that made sticky toffee puddings!  So, we piled into the car on a bright, sunny, cool morning and headed out!

On our way our, we stopped by the side of the road to take this picture by the tarn.  Keswick is to the left, you just can't see it as it out of the picture.

When we were done we headed to a stone circle that was close.  

As you can see, the scenery was beautiful.  As we were leaving the stone circle we heard jets.  We looked up and saw two of them flying around the fells to the right of this picture.  I talked to a local potter about it and she said that they are always out on clear days.  She also told me that if you are hiking on the fells it can be quite disconcerting to look down and see the jets below you!

After a bit of driving we arrived in the village where the bakery was located.  We parked and headed up to the small cafe for some lunch.

Here is a little river that ran though the village, very pretty and green!

While walking trough the village we saw this, horse in your backyard anyone?

After lunch and grabbing our some more of the Cartmel sticky toffee pudding to take with us, we headed back to the cottage.  It was a gorgeous afternoon, so we headed out for a hike.

We headed over a few of the smaller fells and found this lovely valley.

Here we are walking back, see the sheep on the trail!  They are the rare Herdwick breed.

Walking back to Watendlath.

My husband is standing on the packhorse bridge taking the picture.

We headed back for some dinner and to pack, the next morning we were leaving for Scotland.

Keswick in the Rain

Ok, Keswick is actually pronounced kez-ick with the accent on the first syllable.  I know, you have to be asking why do they have the stupid 'w' in the word then.  Who knows?  The Queen's English is not easy for the American visitor is all that I can tell you.  Thankfully the British are polite and tolerant or American mispronunciations....

So, on our second day, it was rainy and windy.  We woke up and had a little breakfast and decided to head to Keswick to do a little shopping.  In particular we were on a mission to find sheepskin.  We have a 'minor' addiction in our home.

Unfortunately, we did not find any sheepskin in our wanderings.  We did find a candy shop (we always find those) and I had an interesting conversation with the shop keeper.  He was asking about why we were there and where we were headed.  I gladly chatted with him while the rest of my family wandered the shop looking at the many jars trying to decide what they wanted.  He had a very distinctive accent that I had to listen very hard to to understand what he was saying.  It was very comical to me when he was telling me that as we went north into Scotland, that the accent would get harder to understand.  I did not want to tell him that I was struggling to understand him that way that it was.  Even funnier was Sean could barely understand him at all!

Shopping in Keswick proved to be very dog friendly.  Here were three dogs owned by different owners.  They are looking up toward to where their owners are, eating in a cafe!  They are so cute and so well behaved.  Chip will never achieve this kind of good behavior, ever.

I did find some very lovely hand crocheted fingerless gloves made from hand spun local wool.  I was very happy!  After a good long wander, we found a pub to eat in as we were all looking forward to having some soup and a cheese toasty (they call them cheese toasties in England not grilled cheese).  Now, I am a cheese toastie girl.

Eating at the pub. Waiting for our soup and cheese toasties!

When we were done we headed to Barrow Rock, it was a huge rock that broke off a fell/mountain.

Looking at the fells through the rain.

The huge rock!

Mark climbing the stairs to the top of the rock.  Note the special color effects that Sean used!

Holding up the rock.  It landed in a very unusual way, on the point of the stone.

Walking back in the rain.  Again note the special color effects!

We ended the night back at the cottage, eating a dinner of warmed lentil soup that I picked up in a little store in Keswick.  

Watendlath

Watendlath.  Don't even ask me how to pronounce it.  I tried over and over again, and I managed to get it wrong every time.

So, Sean took a week off, it was the last week before school started.  So, after some deliberation, we headed to the Lake District and then on to Edinburgh, Scotland.

We left Monday morning and we drove north to the Lake District.  It started out sunny and then as we traveled north we found some rain.  As we wound into Cumbria the terrain, the tarns and the fells are beautiful.  We arrived in Keswick and our cottage was very close in Watendlath.  We were lucky because the rain tapered off and stopped when we arrived at our cottage.

Our cottage was named Fold Head Farm.  It was inhabitated by Sir Hugh Walpole used the home as the home for his fictional character Judith Paris in a series of books that he wrote.  The cottage has a slate sign with her name on it.  After a through look though the cottage, we also discovered that Prince Charles had visited Watendlath during the '90's.

Watendlath has been inhabited since at least the 14th century.  It was owned by an abby and the sheep were tended by the local farmer.  The abby dissolved and the farmers continued to tend their sheep.  During the 16th century the small valley reached it's peak residents when 16 families lived there.  The small hamlet was eventually owned by Queen Victoria's daughter Louise.  She gifted the land to the National Trust in memory if her brother King Edward VII.  It is currently rented out to the farmer by the National Trust.  Herdwick sheep are kept by the farmer and owned by the trust.  The Herdwick sheep are a rare breed of sheep.

Here you can see the tarn aka lake.  

Walking up the path.

We found Lodore Falls, a famous set of falls that has been visited since the Victorian era.  

Note that Chip now has wellies on as well.  His are made of MUD!

We were on a little crest.  We took a little rest and this is looking back the way that we came.

This was looking into the valley.  

This is a stone packhorse bridge.  You can see the tarn to the right.

The countryside in the Lake District is so beautiful!  We only visited a few days.  I can see the pull of wanting to go back again and again to see the beautiful terrain and to hike.  Hiking in the Lakes District is a true British past time.  There are books devoted to the picturesque walks.  There is also a monthly magazine that features a different hike in every issue along with pictures of things to see. 

 

Pink or Red?

Taking a break from our UK adventures for a moment.... please bear with me dear readers!

So, this whole thing started for me when those Facebook notes were circling around a few years ago.  You know, fill out the questions and then tag people on them that might want to see them?

One of the questions was pink or red?  I was stumped.  Yeah, you must be thinking, what?  Why would a question like that bother you?  At the time I wrote both and time rolled on.  

I noticed that other friends had a preference and I wondered what the heck was wrong with me.  Why didn't I have a preference?  So, I started to pay attention to the question of pink or red?  At the time I was decorating my house.  I had just repainted and I was buying accessories to go into the space.  I realized that I did like to accent our home with red.  At the same time I had been totally drawn to pink clothes and I seemed to have an explosion in the color pink.  Then I really looked at my wardrobe and realized that I did not own a lot of red at all.  Hmmmm.... so I apparently liked to decorate in reds and wear pinks.  Interesting and it really seemed that my answer as both was pretty spot on.

Then I moved to the UK, had lots of crazy things happen... and still over time I have pondered this question.  Why?  Why does this question bother me so much?  It was when my mother in law was here during her last visit that I finally figured it out.  

When I was little, I was a girly-girl.  I loved all things pink and I loved to wear dresses.  My poor mom was horrified.  She is not a girly-girl.  She hated dresses as a little girl.  She never wanted to wear them, her mom MADE her and she hated it.  So, these things filtered down onto me.  Which has nothing to do with pink, yet.

I was about 6 and I needed a winter coat so, my mother sent my grandmother out to take me shopping for one.  I found the most beautiful PINK puffy coat.  I LOVED it.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  I bet that you might have a guess where this is going?  My mom detested it.  Hated it.  I was a devastated.   

As many of you know my parents were divorced when I was little.  A family of 3 that became a family of two.  Just me and my mom against the world.  So, I had spent some of the time dealing with that by pairing us together, I was pink (my favorite color) and my mom was blue.  I did it with our favorite candies, and anything else that I could.  So, when she hated my coat.  I tried to be a pink hater.... not always very successfully either ;)  But that messed up my pink and blue color thing, because my mom disliked pink so much, and her favorite color was blue.  I changed my favorite color to blue too.  

So, fast forward to now.  It has made me realize that I want my children to choose their own style and get the things that they want.  I took my oldest son shoe shopping and he loved a pair of denim high tops.  I was surprised.  It was not what I would have picked out for him and then I said too much and he decided that he did not want to get them anymore.  He knows about the pink coat story and I reminded him to not make this a "pink coat".  I want him to find his own style.

I realized that what happened years ago had made me try and be a pink hater. I don't want my actions or words to inadvertently affect my children as my mother's had inadvertently affected me.  I have been letting go of hating pink unconsciously the last few years and it has been exploding around me.  I think that having only boys, has intensified my need for pink.  I have watched my wardrobe, which was mostly made up of neutrals explode with PINK (purples, too).  Now that I know why I have been reluctant to buy pinks, I have let it go and embraced it.  What can I say?  I love PINK!  

I will say that not all pinks appeal to me (Pepto Bismol).  I will NEVER get a pink car and there is such a thing as too much pink.  I would love to have a beautiful RED Volkswagon Beetle or a cute Red BMW or even a little red Audi TT!   Hey, a girl can dream, right?  :)

The Rhythms of Life

In Indiana, I was used to the daily and seasonal rhythms of life.  The changes in the weather and the subtle changes in smells as the season slowly changed.  The rhythms in Indiana were not always exactly the same, but things were close enough that it was easy to mark the time of year by certain activities, weather and food (especially when the fairs started).

While living in the UK, I have been adapting to a slightly different rhythm.

We arrived to an unusually warm fall or Indian Summer in the UK.  The farmers were busy planting their winter crops of oil seed rape and winter barley.  The weather stayed mild as we went into the winter that included some snow.  The kids were thrilled.  My husband and I were excited because there was no big swing in temperatures and the cold was not as bitter as we have in Indiana.

It is green here, really green here because of the amount of rainfall that the UK receives.  So, when we found ourself in Spring, the added colors of the flowers were really welcome.  The roses are gorgeous! In the UK, they grow rhododendrons and rose bushes to be 16ft or taller!   Wow!   The fields that had been green all winter now surprised as the oil seed rape burst into a wonderful, bright yellow.

The seasons have been blended this year.  Summer has had an on and off relationship with us this year.  I seem to still be waiting for it to really be summer.  Instead we seem to have hot spells peppered with cool downs and cloudy days.  I have been told that it has been a cool summer even by UK standards.

In July, we found some of the fields turned a lovely shade of purple with the Heather that they contained.  Now, we are in August and the winter barley has deepened into a golden yellow and is now being harvested.

It does not smell like fall yet, and the leaves are still on the trees.  But fall is coming.....

Ending things with a 'bang" at the Eiffel Tower

Well, if you haven't gotten it yet.  Drama and excitement finds us.  So, this is the story about our visit to the Eiffel Tower when we 'almost' got blown up!  You know, you always have to make it sound worse then it really happened (the fish was <------------------> BIG).  What is the fun of telling it like it really happened?

So, I saved the Eiffel Tower for our last night in Paris.  We woke up Sunday and it was cool but still a bit sunny.  We started by heading out of our hotel and found the local market.  We wandered down around and found a lovely little lady selling pastries.  My second son was sent to order  4 Pain au Chocolates, he had trouble remembering the French word 4.  Luckily the little lady that he ordered from was very gracious and lovely.  She told him what the number was and then handed him 4 other little pastries, perhaps for his efforts.  It was really cute and she was tickled that he tried.  

I had heard from my husband's aunt to try the roasted chickens with lovely potatoes that were cooked in the drippings.  I had not thought that we were going to be able to eat one as our schedule seemed to keep us out late.  While we were at the market we found a vender that was roasting lots and lots of chickens with the lovely potatoes.  It was close to lunch time.  After smelling the lovely smell and seeing the line at the vender and hearing the recommendation, we decided that we found lunch!  We grabbed a chicken and potatoes and took it back to our hotel for a feast!  Sorry, no pictures the boys literally stripped it to the bone!

We then headed into Paris.  Since it was the first Sunday of the month we could get into the museums for free!  We headed to L'orangerie.  Our visit did not go with out incident.  It was here for the first time I was asked to surrender my backpack.  In other museums I was able to wear it on my front or carry it like a bag.  Not here!  I totally balked though, as I was carrying it around because it had our passports, train tickets, etc.  The girl that I was talking to told me in 'that was not her problem' in her French accent and I found it quite rude!  If her co-worker had not been trying to hand me a bag to put my things in I would have told her off!  Instead I told her in a very sarcastic tone, 'wonderful'.  It was then that the two girls carried on a conversation in French that basically meant they always get the rude one.  Gee, thanks, I am the rude one?  Yes, I really want to leave my passports in a bag that they were forcing me to check now!  It turned out that I had been shopping earlier and I did have a little shopping bag to put the passports and tickets in, I transferred things over and we were on out way.  Guess what I saw minutes after we left the desk?  A woman with her backpack facing forward.  SERIOUSLY?!?!?!  I was peeved, but I was also determined not to let it run my visit!

 L'organerie is a small museum, but they have Monet's big paintings of the Lily Pads.  They are beautiful!   Would I go back again?  Certainly.  Did I complain about the rude behavior of the staff and then seeing the backpack, absolutely.  I sent them an email when I got home.  I very pointedly said that perhaps the staff member was not trying to be rude when she told me that 'it was not her problem' but those words are not very polite ones to say to an American/Brit.  

While we were there it started to rain.  We decided to head back to the Louvre as my youngest two had started to collect the museum coins.  They wanted one from the Louvre.  We did not find them, instead we found wooden swords made in France!  One had the flur-de-lis in blue for France and the other had one in red for the UK.  They also had the coolest shields as well.  Initially I told them no because I did not want to carry it around with me for the rest of the day.  We then headed to find a restroom.  While I was in line, my youngest was so mad about me saying no about the sword that he punched my second oldest son in the stomach, repeatedly.  It sounds awful, I know, but my youngest has such a temper that we all kind of laugh at him when he goes off.  Not the best thing to do I admit.  Even worse?  I caved and bought my youngest two the swords (after a proper apology was issued).  The best thing?  My youngest carried the swords around Paris for the rest of the day with no complaints, he was even cheerful about it!  

The rain seemed to have let up and after some down time getting Starbucks and some sweets, we headed out to the Eiffel Tower. 

Here we are walking up to the tower.  It was lightly raining.  We got to the base and checked out the line.  It was a longer line then I had hoped for.  As we were standing there the police and security forces started to arrive.  They closed of 1/3 of the base all the way to the river and the bridge.  My oldest son started to get a little freaked out.  I told him to relax, that we were in France and they have an excellent police force and army.  

So, while that was all happening, I decided that it might be a good time to heard back to the hotel and change into warmer clothing.  It was going to be a chilly evening.  So, the base and everything was still closed off and we started to head toward the nearest metro station.  We crossed the road and it was then that we discovered that the bridge was closed as well.  We paused to wait for a few minutes and then we heard a small explosion.  So, we figured that they found a package or abandoned bag and took it to a secure place and blew it up.  

Here is a picture of the Army guys.

We finally crossed the bridge.  Note that my youngest is holding the swords.  I did not hear one compliant!

So, we changed our clothes and made it back to the tower.  We were stood in line for a ridiculous amount of time.  I tried to book online, but they had sold the allotment of online tickets already.  So, we were stuck in line waiting at the base.  My oldest only wanted to go up to the first level, but as it turned out, trips were only to the second level and the summit.  So, he ended up waiting for us at the bottom.

I am on the second level looking up as it sparkled.  Every time it sparkled, there was a collective gasp.  

Here are the 4 of us at the top.  We were at the top at midnight and we saw it sparkle again before it shut down.  It was chilly but such a beautiful way to see the city!

After we finally descended the tower we headed off to the metro station and found ourselves with two problems.  The first was our three day passes had expired while we were at the summit of the tower.  The second was that trains were not running anymore!  So, we left and started walking.  We needed to find a taxi.  The kids were all tired and I knew that I had a potentially bad situation on my hands.  So, sounded as positive as I could and we started walking to find a taxi.  Finally after almost an hour we found one.  She got us to our hotel and I gave her every single Euro that I had left and I was still short....  

We always have an adventure!

Back to Paris

Ok, I had to break from our Paris trip to tell you all about the Olympics.  The power of the internet and one girls' blog.... Wow!

So, we started Saturday out with a a visit to the Museo d'Orsay (M'O).

Once we got to the M'O, we proceeded inside.  Just a quick tip, when you reach the M'O don't que in the first line security line you see, walk to the other side of the courtyard to the other security line and you will get though so much faster!

This is one of the last two pictures that I was allowed to take.  I was aware that pictures of the art were not allowed, but I was very surprised that I was not even allowed to take pictures of the inside of the museum.  Of course being the good American that I am I followed the rules.  I wish that I could say the same for some of the others around me. I was so tempted to be a tattle-tale that it was not funny!  But I did remember that I AM suppose to be a role model for my kids, so I did ignore it and I moved on...

This clock is a located in the Impressionist floor.  The clock over looks the Seine.  I was able to take these pictures, surprisingly!  No, those people were not my kids....

My boys were lying on this cool shaped couch!

We went on though the Impressionist floor.  I am a very big Impressionist fan.  It was fantastic to see famous paintings and artists that I have studied and admired!  Liam was also thrilled as he was able to see pointillism and the artists that he had just studied last term.

We had lunch at the M'O.  I had the kids order what they wanted for lunch in French.  It was very sweet when the waiter showed patience and even some delight at my 9 year old's attempt.

After we finished with the M'O, we headed out to find Notre Dame.

The line to get in was long, but we persevered and went in...  I had to promise the kids crepes with Nutella as soon as we were through. We also found a free toilet <gasp> and

We finished our day with a bit of window shopping on the Champs-Ellysee and an iced beverage at Starbucks.  Last summer we were hooked on the Tazo Passion Tea with Lemonade.  We were hoping to have it in Paris, but, alas, while it was good, it was not the same!  Sometimes, I do miss the States, sometimes.... even though I don't usually want to admit it!