July 31
Today we drove out to a place called Cheddar Gorge - apparently this is where cheddar cheese was invented. The gorge itself is a rather spectacular geographical area. I really don’t know about our GPS - it takes us on the weirdest roads sometimes. This is clearly a major area with major roads leading to it, but we managed to find ourselves on a lane that was about 2” wider than the car for a good part of the morning. Not the best test of our nerves, although we sure are a lot better at those roads than we used to be. We found the gorge road, and made our way down into the village where there were numerous “attractions” to tempt us, which we mostly decided to avoid. The town looked like it was just one main road, but as we drove around, we discovered it was actually quite large once we got off the main tourist drive. We had breakfast, then carried on to a town called Weston Super Mare. Turns out it’s one of those British beach resorts. Massive beach with ferris wheels, donkey rides, pinball arcades etc. Not really our scene, so when the rain started pouring down we decided to head back to Bath and look after some chores like laundry before going to the farm for dinner.
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| The Super Fair at Weston Super Mare |
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| The Pier at Weston Super Mare |
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| Huge beach |
Ah, our wonderful GPS did it to us again. We set the postal code of the farm and let “our girlfriend” guide us in. Well, we must have covered 5 miles of the hilliest, windingest, narrowest, hairpin-turningest miles of England that exist. We took about 40 minutes longer to get there than we had intended, so we were a bit late for the proper English Tea that Heather and Kathryn had prepared for us. Real homemade scones with clotted cream, homemade jam and tea - scrumpdillyicious!
We then went for a walk around the farm fields so we could work up an appetite for the dinner Kathryn was preparing. The farm is dairy and beef, so there are lots of cows. We went into a field, and very soon we had a large herd of cows following us - I think they thought we might be very interesting. It was weird, and I would have been a bit unnerved, but James, Heather and Kathryn weren’t bothered by it, so neither was I! The farm is beautiful. Big fields on two facing hills, a lovely lake (called Shackell’s lake!), and a stream running through it all. All three of them clearly love the place, and it was a real treat to get to see it.
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| The farm from the kitchen window - gorgeous! |
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| The table is set for tea - homemade scones made by Kathryn and Heather, along with real "clotted cream" and homemade jam. Mmmmmmmmmm! |
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| Delicious! |
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| I've finally had clotted cream. And I declare it delicious. Especially with scones and jam! And tea and good company :-) |
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| The view from the patio. I would sit here all the time and not get any work done if I lived here. So pretty! |
We then went for a walk around the farm fields so we could work up an appetite for the dinner Kathryn was preparing. The farm is dairy and beef, so there are lots of cows. We went into a field, and very soon we had a large herd of cows following us - I think they thought we might be very interesting. It was weird, and I would have been a bit unnerved, but James, Heather and Kathryn weren’t bothered by it, so neither was I! The farm is beautiful. Big fields on two facing hills, a lovely lake (called Shackell’s lake!), and a stream running through it all. All three of them clearly love the place, and it was a real treat to get to see it.
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| The cows started gathering in a big line to check us out - so funny! |
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| The little dog is named "Shacks" |
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| You'd think they had a line they were standing on. Two minutes ago they were all over the field eating grass. |
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| Now they are right behind us as we head down the hill. I think they figure we're newbies and will let them out the gate or something! |
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| Making our escape over the fence! |
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| At Shackell's Lake |
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| People can fish here - just follow the rules. |
The family home is quite old, and has very thick walls - typical of so many places we’ve seen here. It’s a big, spacious and comfortable place to spend time. My cousin (several times removed) Robert (Kathryn’s husband) came in from the fields and we all sat down and had some great conversation and a spectacular home-cooked meal. It’s been awhile since we’ve eaten anything that didn’t come from a jar!
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| Limbo under the electric fence |
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| Seriously large cow pie. I didn't manage to avoid all of them . . . |
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| Old farm buildings now used for storage. |
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| James |
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| Heading home for dinner |
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| The Shackells of Tadwick - Robert, James, Heather and Kathryn. A beautiful, welcoming family. |
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| Not much left of that dinner. Kathryn is a very good cook! |
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| A little ice cream with the homemade apple pie. Wish we were staying around here longer! |
After dinner, we went next door to visit my other cousin (several times removed) Richard, his wife Tina and their son Andrew. Andrew had prepared several copies of old family photos for me as a gift - such a very nice thing for him to do. We had a visit getting to know them, and then it was time to move along. Wish we could have spent more time getting to know all these people - they are all spectacular! Hope they come to Vancouver for a visit sometime soon.
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| The other side of the house - Richard, Andrew and Tina. |
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| Kathryn, Richard, Andrew, Tina |
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