Month: November 2016

Happy Christmas!

The first day of Advent on Sunday marked the beginning of my favorite time of the year!  As we don’t have a permanent house to decorate or a place to put up a tree, the kids and I made some white, paper trees that can move easily, wherever we go. 🙂  In addition, we have two lightweight Christmas stockings (from our friends in Finland) that add to our traveling decor! 🙂

As we didn’t have any specific plans for Sunday, we decided to visit Waddesdon Manor, which isn’t too far from Wendover (where we are now) and we’d read that it has some special Christmas events, including the manor recreated in gingerbread!

Here’s a photo from their web site of the manor and grounds:

Although the tickets for both the house and garden tour were sold out online, we thought we’d see if we could get tickets onsite (they release 300 at the opening time each day).  We figured if we couldn’t get into the house, we’d enjoy the gardens and other activities.

When we stepped up to get the tickets, the woman told us that they’d sold the 300 tickets in 15 minutes!!  In addition, the online house tour tickets sold out 3 to 4 weeks ago!  Pulling into the parking areas, we realized it was quite a popular destination as it was packed! Although there were shuttle buses to take us up to the house, we opted for the 15-minute walk. Now pause here for just a second.  We were already on the grounds of the house…but it was going to take us 15 minutes to actually get to the house because of the amount of land owned by the house!!  And what beautiful land it is!  Rolling hills, big trees, just amazing!  As we got up the hill, there was a fairy-tale French Renaissance château perched on top.  It is absolutely beautiful!!

It was built for Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild and was completed in 1883.  He used it as a summer house away from London.  To read more about it because there’s just too much to say, you can visit the web site at: https://waddesdon.org.uk/  It’s worth a look as there’s lots and lots of information, pictures, history, etc.

We walked through the Christmas Fair going on along the pathways to the front of the house. Lots of fun things to purchase for food and fun, but we kept moving. 🙂

Once we got to the front of the house, we realized we were right by the wine cellar, so we decided to have a look, as it was part of the garden pass.  

The cellar is a beautiful, sparsely furnished area with a short movie playing about Rothschild wines with various pictures of the Royals among others at a special tasting for the 40th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.  One bottle on display was signed by Thomas Jefferson that apparently he’d ordered but never received in America due to the French Revolution.  There are three huge cellars full of wine — one has bottles from 1870 – 2007, another has bottles from 1868 – 2008, and the third has more present-day vintages. We were trying to figure out who will ever get to drink the one from 1868?  If they’ve already been preserved that long, what are they waiting for and how will they taste??  

Next stop, the Woodland playground.  This was definitely a selling point about going to the Manor in the first place. 🙂  The playground and the giant gingerbread house!  The playground is fabulous!!  It was a dream playground for G and L set in the middle of the “forest” on the grounds with a zip line, a giant slide, a spider swing, etc., and all connected via wooden stairs that continue to lead you right down to the stables.

Here are G and L doing the zipline!

 

At the stables, Mike, G, and L got us hot chocolates and coffee, while I stood in line for the Gingerbread house, which was amazing!  It was a two-meter long replica that used more than 30kg of butter and sugar, 240 eggs and 216 kg of icing and took 500 hours to make!  The level of detail and patience required to pull off something like that is hard to imagine but so fun to see!!  It included the most detailed replicas of Waddesdon’s famous rooms including paintings, furniture, and treasured objects of art.    

While standing in line to see the gingerbread house, I started talking to an older couple, who couldn’t have been any nicer.  They bought their tickets to see the actual house in August!  No wonder there weren’t any tickets left for us today!  After viewing the gingerbread house, we talked for a few minutes longer and then they wished us well on all of our travels, wished us a Happy Christmas, and wondered where we’d be.  When we said we weren’t sure, the woman said, “Well, I’ll be thinking of you.”  Lovely!

We worked our way back up toward the house, with a stop at the playground, of course, and then to the Power house, where there was a short film playing about artist Bruce Munro’s holiday light installation.  When I was reading about the manor, I saw his name and thought it sounded familiar…the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is what popped into my head. So I googled it and his name and voila!  He has an installation there as well…right now!  It opened November 12.  Go see it!  I’m sure it’s beautiful!  The one at Waddesdon Manor was!

Anyway, before seeing his light installation, we walked back to the front of the house, where beginning at dusk and every 15 minutes, they light up the house and trees surrounding it with various colored lights set to music.  It’s really beautiful!

We watched one of the sets and then walked over to another garden — the aviary glade — where Munro and his team “planted” 9,000 stems topped by frosted-glass spheres.  We thought they looked like tulips with no leaves. 🙂  It’s just fields of “flowers” (the installation is actually called Field of Light) as far as you can see, especially when it’s dark!

And finally, there was a parade of Midland Bernese Carters Dogs.  They pull their carts (thus “carters”) all decorated with lights and tinsel for Christmas. 🙂  

As we headed back to our car via the path of lights, I thought it was a beautiful way to spend the first Sunday of Advent.

Wendover Woods

While looking at what sorts of things were in Wendover, I was excited to see that it has a sewing shop (The Plainstitch Shop/Workroom)!  G and I finally got a chance to check it out yesterday morning.  It’s a darling little shop in the upstairs of one of the buildings. To access it, you need to ring and they come down and let you in and lead you up to it.

It’s essentially the size of two bedrooms.  One side has a nice area for doing classes and the other side has a small, but lovely selection of fabrics and notions.

 

There was a class going on while we were there; they were making a cute little vintage purse.  Unfortunately there’s not another one offered while we’re here, but fortunately, we could buy a kit and instructions…

Wait, what does this have to do with Wendover Woods, you might be asking. 🙂  Well, nothing other than that G and I stopped there while Mike and L ran to grab a map, so we could find the woods! 🙂

Unfortunately, the location map wasn’t available, but we had a general idea of where we needed to go, so we headed to the woods!  We found a trail near the woods and soon after some runners heading up a trail into the woods, so we followed them. 🙂  We found out later that the runners were part of the Centurian running race that was going on in the woods.  It was a 50-mile foot race consisting of 5 10-mile loops!!!  The hill we walked up to get to the middle of the woods was steep and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to run it once, let alone 5 times!!  Impressive!!

Anyway, we followed one of the paths to an area called Go Ape, which just appears out of nowhere and is a great treetop obstacle course, but you have to be older than 10 and a certain height — two requirements that L didn’t meet — so we kept going.  Along the way, there were signs to invite kids to read about nature and do a little nature activity.  This one was weaving with nature.  There were a bunch of ropes and kids/people come by and add something to it.  G added a leaf, and L added a bit of moss.

A little further down the path, we came to the Cafe in the Woods (a great little spot for a quick bite and a beverage) and a terrific children’s playground!!  G and L LOVED it! And we had fun watching them have so much fun.  I particularly loved the rustic harp!!

Kids in the woods, out in nature…what can be better?  It’s like their imaginations and energy just explode!  They had a great time (at least an hour) playing on all the stuff, doing obstacle courses, and putting together a fort, for which they were beginning to make plans for how and where they could sleep in it, what platforms they were going to construct, etc.

 

We had to inform them, sadly, that they weren’t actually going to be able to sleep/live in it, or we would have been there for several more hours bringing it to their approved standards! 🙂 Even if we could have stayed for another 3 hours, I don’t think it would have been long enough, but as the sun kept sinking lower into the horizon, we decided it would be a good idea to head back rather than walk through the woods in the dark!

For fun, we ended our super, wonderful, not bad, very good day by eating popcorn and watching “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” 🙂

A day in the life of Roald Dahl

Traditionally, Mike would work, and we’d go to the 8th floor of Dayton’s/Marshall Field’s/Macy’s for the holiday display, which for the last 8 years has been “A Day in the Life of an Elf.”  Since we couldn’t go this year, and Mike wasn’t working, we opted to go to the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre and spent the day finding out more about the life of this author and his many beloved children’s books (e.g., James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda).

We took a 6-minute train ride from Wendover to Great Missendon…and it had nothing to do with ME (Jody) not being a fan of driving on roads not compatible for two cars and parked cars and people having to cross the middle lanes regularly to get anywhere…nope, nothing to do with that…it was just fun to be able to take a 6-minute train ride. 🙂

Anyway, it was a short walk down High Street to the museum.  It was WONDERFUL!  We all thoroughly enjoyed it!  It is so well done and provides so much information in such a fun way that you could walk through multiple times and learn something new each time about him or the stories or about writing in general!  There’s just oodles of information!  The web site perfectly describes it as “three fun and fact-packed galleries, and over 40 hands-on activities.”

Choosing a book to read…

Reading a little of “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

Playing at the stop motion movie making station.

Sitting in a replica of Roald’s chair and using a tray-type table like he did to fill out the activity sheet.

Working on activity sheets right below the “How to Make a Book” info signs.

Making a word rubbing after coming up with a unique, specially imagined word.

Set design from “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” movie shows Mr. Fox using a chair and tray table like Roald Dahl used.

Name these characters…two versions of Slash from GnR?  Willy Wonka’s hat?  Mr. Twit’s hair?  There isn’t a right answer here. 🙂

 

In addition, there’s a small cafe onsite (Café Twit), where we enjoyed a little lunch.  G and L particularly enjoyed their beverages — a Swishwiffler and a Whizzpopper!

 

Before we conclude this post…here are a couple of fun facts and a favorite quote to share with you:

Fun fact #1:  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory started out with 15 naughty children because he had so much fun coming up with naughty children characters. 🙂

Fun fact #2:  Roald Dahl was 6’5 3/4″ tall!

Fun fact #3:  The 1984 movie “Gremlins” is said to be loosely based on the characters in Roald Dahl’s story The Gremlins, which appeared in an American general interest magazine (under a pen name) in 1942!

Favorite quote:  “If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face…like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.”

Oh, and one more thing.  If you’re a Roald Dahl fan (or want to know more about him or his writing), check out the museum web site.  It’s not quite the same as being at the museum, but it’s got lots and lots of information and fun stuff on it: http://www.roalddahl.com/museum

Happy Thanksgiving

As you know, Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated over here. 🙂  It’s just a normal day…kids in school…people at work…regular-size meals provided…so we made our own special day. 🙂

We started out at the market…

…and then went for a lovely walk through part of the Chiltern Hills following footpath signs through fields and woods (with trees ready for winter) and cow pastures, etc.,for more than 2 hours!

  

Afterward, we decided a snack was in order, so we stopped at a chocolaterie in Wendover called Rumsey’s.  We had planned on hot chocolate and coffees, but opted for fruit and chocolate fondue instead! 🙂

We roamed around town for a bit, and then we headed back to get our Thanksgiving dinner heated up. 🙂  Despite not being able to enjoy the traditional fixings and gourmet feasts provided by Papa (and other family members), it ended up being tastier than we’d expected! (And L even made special plum and spaghetti turkey favors, as those were the supplies we had on hand!)

To all of our family and friends, we think of you often and wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving!