Fiery Picnic at Henley on Thames

Another beautiful sunny day and so a picnic on the river was the perfect day trip.  We decided to explore Henley on Thames as it was rumoured to be very beautiful and famous for it’s annual regatta.

Henley is a very quaint old village whose life revolves around the river, picnics, barbeques and boating. 

It seemed that everyone had the same idea as us and so we picked a spot in the shade and geared ourselves up for a peaceful afternoon of doing nothing.

  

Not long into our picnic, we heard a boom and although Colin commented that it sounded like a gas explosion, we didn’t see any major panic anywhere and continued with our lazy day.  Not long after though, I was watching the opposite shore and wondering if someone was having a bbq just behind their boat as there was a plume of smoke becoming visible.  Very quickly though, we were watching aghast as the boat caught fire and quickly burnt to a shell!

Watch the video!  Quite hectic!

xx

Well, after all that excitement, we continued with our lazy picnic – and so did this chap :)

Not far up stream, there is a lock and since it is a really busy stretch of river, the boaters all jam in to wait for the gates to open.

All in all, an exciting day at the river.  Henley is definitely a place we will be coming back to!

Squeezah’s 6th Birthday

The integrated 4th dimension has done it again, and brought about another birthday for our Saz.

The day of her birthday kicked off with a treasure hunt for pressies!

Happily, we are a little more settled and connected than we were when Amber’s birthday was top of the bill. The timing was just rude for poor little Amma – we’d been here 2 weeks before her birthday came up and still didn’t know our way around, or anyone who might want to come around.

Since then we have established via various bumpings and befriendings that the neighbourhood is a veritable nest of friends, some literally 2 doors down. This has been great for the girls, who now get invited and can extend invites more widely than they have since we left ZA. For Hayley and I, getting to remember which parents belong to which children has been a test.

As it happens there are a few, really nice little party venues within a 5 minute drive. Of the recommendations, one called “The Mad House” had me sold just on its name.

And so it came to pass, on the appointed day – behold the door was opened unto them, and they all went in to the Mad House and there was much rejoicing, noise, merry making, cake and gnoshing of teeth about the feast.

To make things even more festive, a friend of Amber’s was having her party on the same day, at the same venue and their table was the one right next to ours. The Mad House has a huge common play area where a whole band of kids can go moggy, and then there are reserved tables which are nothing more than refuelling stations for the kids and a location point for the parents.

At a given time, the staff get all the kids from a particular party together, herd them and their parents into a private function room, and then lay on the eats. The contrast is uncomfortable to begin with, taking kids from hyper activity and then suddenly filling their mouths with goodies produces an eerie silence.

Sarah, got a mass of gifts from her friends to add to the mass from the family she bundled through in a treasure hunt in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The birthday cake was wrapped up into party bags and no sooner than we left the front door of the Mad House, our girls wanted to eat their cake.    

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SQUEEZAH!

(Even More Belated) New Posts

Ok, so never again believe me when I say a year’s blogging is done and that I will start the next lot “tomorrow”!

I just completed the blog for Last Year’s birthday trip to Norway, only 11 months late ;)…

Birthday North of the Arctic – 25 June 2008

Christmas, New Year, and Conclusion – 4 Jan 2009

Charles Bridge Under Early Morning Snow – 2 Feb 2009

How to move 3 suitcases and 2 years – 14 Feb 2009

Oosthuizens’ Visit – 22 Feb 2009

Beautiful Girls – 28 Feb 2009

Amber’s 7th Birthday – 6 Mar 2009

A Home with a Garden – 15 Mar 2009

Disco Girls – 21 Mar 2009

Sunday stroll along the Thames – 29 Mar 2009

Long Week-end trip to Aunty Judith and Uncle Peter – 3 May 2009

Long Week-end trip to Aunty Judith & Uncle Peter

Aunty Judith was the girls’ warm welcome to Reading as she was their Mother, Grandmother, and Aunty all rolled into one during the first week whilst Colin was on his big Trek to Prague.

The girls formed a really special bond with her and have been eager to see her again.

Judith lives in Ferndown, near Bournemouth, which is only about 90 minutes from where we are and so we planned a trip to visit them over the bank holiday.

Saturday was a glorious day.  We left in the morning and drove to the beach of Bournemouth where the whole of South England had descended for the day.  Now, beach culture in England is something very different to that back home.  You will rarely see anyone actually in a bathing suite, and nobody actually swimming.  Mostly you will see people in jeans and shoes soaking up the “warmth” of the sand and sun.  Being a holiday week-end, it was flooded with school kids all trying to be cool.  It was a really sunny afternoon and there were many roasted English lilly-whites that were rapidly turning into lilly-pinks.

 

The girls braved the waves and the water eagerly while Colin and I sat on the shore enjoying observing the scene.

Sunday we planned some outings to Milton Abbas and to Cerne Abbas in the nearby surrounds.  Milton Abbas dates back to the 18th century and has an interesting history:

“Created in 1780, the current village of Milton Abbas has a history which has led some to consider it to be the first planned town or village in England. When Lord Milton (later to become earl of Dorchester) built his new mansion in 1771 beside Milton Abbey, he found that the local town of Middleton was obscuring his view (and the sounds and smells were offending his sensibilities). Lord Milton’s solution was to demolish the town, rebuild it on the other side of the hill, and give it a new name: Milton Abbas. Once the town had been removed, a lake was created on the site. All but one of the townsfolk moved to the new village and when the last resident refused to leave, the sluice gates were opened anyway to create the lake.

Designed by Sir William Chambers, the new village was composed of a street of thatched cottages with large lawns at the front and horse chestnut trees in between (these were removed in 1953). Today the cottages retain their original charm and character and the street looks much as Chambers intended.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Abbas

We decided to visit the Abbey, which is about a kilometre from the town and a short walk past pastures and along little lanes:

Approach to the Abbey:

The Abbey is now a private school and so it is kept amidst immaculate grounds with cricket fields and lawn courts.

We did the walk through the Abbey and then turned to walk up the hill to Catherine Chapel, which is overlooking the Abbey at the end of some very romantic looking grass steps.  Unfortunately, we got to the steps only to find an iron gate across the path and a sign discouraging entry and use of the steps :(

 

We took a detour, and then another short-cut and found ourselves popping out onto the same grass steps only half-way up.  There was only 1 thing to do and that was to climb up the stairs fast before anyone noticed (given that they overlooked the entrance to the school and the cricket field where a practice was underway, not being noticed was not really an option).

Colin' didn’t really feel the same sense of urgency as Judith and I as we scrambled up and out of sight – he came sauntering up much later after casually photographing Sazzie in every position, from every possible angle on the stairs – well, he did get some really stunning shots…

Path up to the chapel:

Afterwards, we had lunch in the town and enjoyed a light snack in the sunshine:

The next attraction is the “rude giant” on the hill :)

“The origins of the Giant are a mix of fact and speculation. Some believe that he represents the Roman god, Hercules, and is over 1500 years old. However, there is no known historical record before 1694 and it has been argued the Giant is more recent and a caricature of any one of a number of possible historical figures. Whatever the truth, he is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of The National Trust.” www.dorsetforyou.com

 

We parked the car at a strategic viewpoint, but then Colin & I couldn’t resist walking up the opposite hill to get a better angle.

We hiked up into the public paths into the farmers fields and were just setting up camp to do some serious photo shooting when I turned around and noticed we had an gathering, curious audience. 

At least they were friendly, but it started getting a big much when they wanted to lick Colin’s tripod and he had to keep wiping it down with his last tissue.  Trying to balance a camera on the precariously unstable hill with bovines licking everything in reach was starting to get a bit overwhelming. Shooing a fly or ten is one thing, shooing a cow is quite another. At least flies don’t want their horns scratched.

We managed to create a bit of distance long enough to trust the camera to stand on it’s own long enough to take a pic.  Colin just noticed the strategic positioning of the camera ;)

We stopped for afternoon tea at the Giant Inn in town and left just after an action kicked off and the locals were in the midst of bid-wars over a 10p teapot.

Monday we bade farewell and made the trip back home.