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| Kingsmere Meadow- home for the first week. |
We began our journey three miles outside of the cathedral city of Winchester, in the hamlet of Shawford. Along an old towpath of the Itchen River sits a beautiful home belonging to my mum's friend Catherine and her husband David. For the first week this is where we adjusted to the new time zone and cooler weather. It turns there is a 10 degree difference in longitude between England and Oregon.
Each day Dave and I found ourselves out and about the countryside, whether it was around Shawford, Winchester or out a bit further, the wide open areas, the hills and fields and all the new critters we saw were all around us. AND with all this fresh air came fresh mud. So one of the first things purchased was a pair of wellies (rubber boots) to trapse through the puddles and blend in with the locals. The history in these parts is like nothing we have back in the States, Dave is continually touching stones and mortar, knocking on a post or pillar and finding flint in places never imagined. We are constantly going back in time to the Norman invasion, William the Conquorer, and King John. While in Winchester we used our National Trust membership to visit one of the oldest grain mills in England, AND it is still producing and selling flour.
At one time Winchester was the capital of England, before London took that position and it is here that Kings ruled and a castle was built and a moat dug. Not much remains of the castle, but what does we climbed under, spied from the top and walked through. The Great Hall is one building from the castle that is still intact and inside the stone walls hold the round table, with King Arthur's face and all the names of the Knights, on the wall over the place the King would hold his court. The table was actually designed during a much later period and it is believed that a young Henry VIII had the painting of Arthur done in his image. It is here that the mini series Wolf Hall was filmed, and at several other locations around Winchester, some of which we visited. Now I want to watch the series all over again and see where I have been.
As a trip up north to the Lake District was not going to work out a trip just east of us to Jane Austen country did, and on beautiful clear Saturday we took a drive to Chawton, where Jane lived with her mother and sister. It is in the Chawton cottage that she wrote most of her novels, including Emma (which the museum was celebrating 200 years in publication). In 1817 Jane died in Winchester, at a house which is now a private residence, it is here that her sister brought her to see a specialist. Sitting in the public space across the way eating an apple and watching the simple yellow house of brick and plaster I wonder what other stories might have been written if she had not gotten I'll and died while still in her 40s. Seeing the tiny table she sat at and wrote her novels is inspiring. It is said that where ever she was in the house, if she became inspired or thought of a line or a piece of dialogue she would run to her writing table and jot it down before she forgot. After we left the house and were on the way home Dave informed us that he had touched the table where the authoress had sat and composed. He said he touched history! Nobody could say otherwise.
I must take a moment and say that blogging in England was a wonderful idea, however I am finding that the Internet is quite hit and miss at friends and family. So the amount of online journaling I had imagined has not come about. However this will not become a deterrent and I will continue to send news, just not so often. Skyies are clear today and the weather will be at its warmest so it's time to get up and going and see What the day brings.
