This side of Worcester

Last weekend Fi & I were invited up to her friend Tas's family house outside of Worcester.  We arrived late Saturday evening, in time for dinner but not much else.  Sunday morning, the weather was fairly nice, so we all got up and took a walk around.

As you can see, they have a very, very nice place.  That's a conservatory to the side, which we'd call a sunroom or something like that in the US.  Check out the blue sky, a real rarity this side of the Atlantic!

Their house from the side.  Out back, Tas's parents keep a few different vegetable gardens, as well as a greenhouse and a chicken coop.

Fi loves the chickens.

Tas's mom told us they each lay one egg per day on average.  Hearing about an abundant egg supply made me a little jealous.  Maybe we need to get some chickens.  Tas's mom also has a horse, which she stables up the road from their house.

Since the weather was so pretty, she suggested we all take a walk alongside her while she exercised the horse.

Our walk took us past Hawford Dovecote, a 16th century building for housing doves.  I'd never seen one of these before.

Outside of that, the weekend was pretty tame, so I don't have too many pictures to show for it.  The wildflowers here are starting to bloom, though, so I snapped a few pix of those in Tas's family lawn.  I can't identify them all yet, but I hope to learn in time.  Enjoy!

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.

Last weekend we celebrated Fi's birthday with her family in London.  As I've remarked before, the ladies have a tradition of afternoon tea at fancy hotels.  This time they'd booked at Apsleys, the Lanesborough, in Knightsbridge, which was, as Tania says, very acceptable.  It's really awkward trying to photodocument these experiences without coming off like an obnoxious American tourist.  That being said, here are the few pix I was able to sneak in:

And one of the birthday-girl.  Happy Birthday ;-)

In the Bleak Midwinter

Last Saturday evening a few hours' worth of snow fell on Oxford, blanketing most of the town, which doesn't happen too often here.  Temps have been fairly cold over the past week or two, hovering around freezing, so most of the snow stuck around long enough for Fi & me to take a walk around & see the wintry sights on Sunday.

Our walk took us past the office first, then back through Jericho to the canal. Looking out onto the water from the bridge, you can see the top's frozen over.

The sheet of ice can't have been thicker than an inch, but that was plenty to support the weight of the neighborhood ducks, who were waddling up and down the canal like business as usual.

From there we rambled on to Port Meadow, hoping to get a glimpse of some pristine snow before half of Oxford had trodden all over it.
 

The English do love a good walk, though, so there were footprints everywhere by the time we arrived.

I once heard someone say that all walks in the country end up at the pub, so that's where we headed. 

By then, most of the well-traveled paths had become pretty sloshy, so our feet were all but soaked.  Luckily, we knew of someplace nearby with a fire..

As luck would have it, they also served delicious beer.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday in February.

Creamy, Dreamy Lemon Souffle