We're back! Anne and I got back to Canada on Friday after a wonderful week in England. The photos are here.

We started out on the 20th by picking up our rental car, a lovely little Peugeot, and driving to my grandmother's place in Cuckfield. There, we settled into the tower room in the house at the top of the hill, before walking down to Gran's to meet my parents who had just driven up from Chandler's Ford. Sadly my father had come down with some sort of stomach flu (Mum had had it a few days before) so he quarantined himself upstairs for practically our whole stay to avoid giving it to Gran, who's quite frail.

On the 21st, my cousin Olga came down from London for lunch. She's been working in England for the past few months, but moved back to New York on the 22nd, which worked out well for us. Mum cooked up a Christmas feast, with turkey, potatoes, brussle sprouts, etc., and it was really, really good. My Dad's cousin John Murray ("Jumrie") Leslie also joined us, and after lunch, Olga, Jumrie, Anne and I went for a nice amble through the village and stopped in at the local church, where some cherubic children were rehearsing their Nativity play under their parents' guidance. We nipped into the local pub for a quick pint on the way back.

The 22nd my Grandfather came down with the stomach flu, so my Mum changed her plans and drove back to Chandler's Ford to help him out. Anne and I had a quiet day with Gran, played some Scrabble, and went for a short hike north through the outskirts of Cuckfield. As with most of southern England there are excellent public right of way hiking paths through many of the nearby fields, but with all the rain that had been falling recently there was an awful lot of mud. We trudged back to the tower and changed into less muddy clothes before dinner.

On the 23rd we drove down to Chandler's Ford, stopping in Arundel to have lunch. Arundel's a lovely town with a cathedral and a very impressive castle, sadly closed to visitors for the winter. We pressed on and got to Chandler's Ford, where we stopped in briefly to drop off our things and pick up my mother to head up to Winchester for the carol service at Winchester Cathedral. We arrived early enough to get great seats, and the service was magical. I've been lucky enough to attend every year for the last few years, and it's become an important part of Christmas for me.

The next day we left Chandler's Ford to drive up to my Uncle's in Gloucestershire. The original plan had been for us to take Grandpa, but as he hadn't fully recovered from the flu he stayed behind with Mum. This saved us from a logistical nightmare of fitting him and his luggage into our little car on top of Anne's and mine. We drove up past Stonehenge, which was unexpectedly (and rather severely) closed, with three guards to prevent us from using the car park. Undeterred, we parked in a lane a bit further along and walked back to take photos from over the fence. Afterwards we pressed on towards Salisbury, stopping briefly at the much less impressive Woodhenge (which has concrete stubs to mark where the wood used to be).

Just past Salisbury, we stopped at Figheldean to have lunch with Anne Dutton and her children (Owen & Sybilla) -- Andrew Sedman, her husband, unfortunately had to work so couldn't join us for lunch. Anne served us a lovely soup and a great selection of cheeses. Owen was very excited to have us there, and Sybilla, initially very shy, soon opened up and showed off a charming smile.

Onwards we pressed, stopping at Avebury to see our final Henge of the day, a very impressive one that goes almost all the way round the village. Then we completed our drive to Burleigh and arrived at my Uncle and Aunt's just in time for a light dinner.

Christmas morning we went to church in Michinhampton, then opened presents back at the Howe. I got a number of lovely books, including a great anthology of humour from the New Yorker from Anne. The two of us received a pair of cookbooks from Olga and her family, which we will have to figure out how to share between us. Kate gave me a beautiful little tea set in a wicker basket. As we were opening presents, my Mum and my Grandpa drove up, and were able to stay for lunch and the afternoon before setting off back to Chandler's Ford. Kate called, and Anne called her parents.

In the evening I went with James and John to the Michinhampton tennis courts (floodlit) for a few games of two on one. James wiped the floor with us.

On Boxing Day, Anne and I drove down to Bath. We'd hoped to see the famous Roman Baths (after which the city is named) but they were closed. Instead, we looked through the magnificent cathedral and did some Boxing Day sales shopping before wandering back through the town's lovely Georgian streets to the car.

Finally on the 27th we said goodbye to my Uncle's family and got on the road to Heathrow. We had a pleasant trip home, with no rush, and have now basically got ourselves back onto Canadian time.

This afternoon we're off to Anne's parents' in Georgetown for a couple of days. We'll be back in Toronto for New Year's at Bruce and Steph's.

I hope you had as wonderful a Christmas as we did, and wish you all the best for 2003! And thank you for visiting my web site.
posted by Tom at 11:11 AM | link |