Castles and graveyards

Dear Coco
Now that everyone has gone to bed, except Beth who seems to stay up all night, I will endeavour to continue our letter ...

 On Saturday we visited Corfe Castle - which is close to Yoah Cottage - and managed to find a parking spot in the village close to the castle which you can see up on the hill.

There were great high jinks going on there with lots of people dressed in old fashioned clothes and carrying pikes, showing visitors how soldiers hundreds of years ago would have defended the castle against attack. 

They then set about firing muskets and causing the audience to scream - and some kids to cry - but I couldn't help thinking of how Dougal would have hated it! 

 We wandered around this ruined castle and read some interesting stuff about how dogs were used as hot water bottles not so very long ago. Sounds like a good idea to me! Not sure if the Alph would approve though.

 When we came back down, a whole lot of children had been given pikes and were marching round with the soldiers. 

We then went to Lullworth Cove which is famous for its fossils and is a World Heritage Site, and walked out to the cliffs which are crumbling into the sea a bit. They seem to have special loos for dogs here!

We walked to the cliffs in the wind and rain, and dropped into the rather tatty little visitor centre where most of the 500 000 tourists who visit this famous place seemed to have squashed into as well! So we got out fast and on our way back to the car, we found a bucket tree.

We drove back to the little town of Upwey, almost in Dorchester, where Mom's grandfather was born and spent his childhood. The churchyard had a few familiar names and we wondered how many of them must be related to us.

And we found a little green man high up one of the pillars inside the church.

We then went in search of a pub for dinner and found one just around the block. You can see our little Hyundai in the middle of this photo.

 On Sunday we said a sad farewell to Rosemary and Furse of Yoah Cottage,

 and their camera-shy cat Thomas,

 and set off down to the Chesil (which is a beach) past some picturesque sheep

 and some lovely views over Dorset.

 On the beach there is no sea sand - only pebbles. It is all part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

Mom on the pebbly beach at Chesil -which is very near to Lyme Regis where the famous Mary Anning and her dog Tray used to hunt for fossils for fossil collectors in Victorian times.

On our way to our next destination - Cornwall - we stopped at a stately home that Mom wanted to see again - called Cotehele. It is just over the Tamar River - where Cornwall starts. This is a painting of a the start of a hunt in the courtyard of the house which involves a whole lot of baying shouting hounds and horses with people in fancy clothes on them that chase after one little fox. It has been banned now as most English people object to it but I am sure the dogs had fun chasing that fox!.

Before we went through the house we had a tasty "Cornish clotted cream tea" with scones and Earl Grey tea in the National Trust tea-room there. What fun!

It was quite a long drive to the next B&B - a large Victorian house overlooking the sea at Veryan. This is the vew from our large and elegant bedroom. 

But more about Cornwall tomorrow - its late and I am tired. I hear that you managed to get your nose bitten by one of the neighbour's dogs. Really Coco! I hope it is healing up well. The Alph tells me that you also grabbed poor Laddie's lead and shook it like you used to do to Dougal, but poor Laddie was rather shaken around too. But I am glad that you are feeling happier again Coco, and I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday. 

lots of love from the Food Lady (and Jethro - the Schroeder's black labradorable sends woofs and licks)

Down to Dorset

Dear Coco
We have now arrived at Sunderland where Beth and Norbert, Marie-Anne and Vincent live, and they have an Internet connection, so I will be able to update you on our travels so far.

 We had a last morning walk around Sissinghurst, then had to turn our back on it and drive off to our next B&B in Dorset.

Our first stop was a tea room in Chawton where we were mobbed by wasps all wanting to share our scones and cream and jam.

Then we walked across the road to Jane Austen's house where we spent a happy hour or two

exploring the lovely little garden 

and also inside where Jane Austen (who didn't really mention dogs in here novels so I don't think I have told you about her) spent her last few years. The museum has some nice descriptions of life in those days - like how Jane Austen would have looked writing her novels 

 at this very table. 

 And also a beautiful quilt made by Jane, her sister and her mother. 

The late summer garden was very pretty 

and I had to tell Mom not to dead-head the flowers as she sometimes just does automatically ...

 We then made for our next B&B, Yoah Cottage in West Knighton, just outside Dorchester, where Mom has been twice before - and loved. It is owned by Rose and Furse and is really gorgeous. 

There were sweet peas everywhere, and lovely paintings and ceramics around. 

 My bedroom - with a happy Dorset sheep on the window sill -

 and our cosy sitting room. Note the green man over the fire place looking suspiciously like Furse.

And a Green Man near the front door!

Now we need to go shopping at Sainsburys with Beth, then fetch Marie-Anne from school, so I must sign off for now and will continue later. I hope that you are not being too hassled by your pesky new brother. One more week and I will be home. 

love from the FL x x 

Dear Coco

To continue with our Kentish and Sussex adventures, Mom and I went into Sissinghurst garden through this tower and spent a very warm afternoon exploring the house and gardens

from the wonderful white garden

to the garden outside the bedroom section of the old house that was filled with colourful flowers to help the Sackville-West/Nicholson family wake up in the mornings. I think we should look into this idea ...

We saw some rather large and posh cats in the garden too, and I thought that you would have liked to chase them. 

A little Sissinghurst "green man" over one of the front doors. England is full of these rather creepy little carvings of men with greenery all around the and coming out of their faces. 

Back at our lovely B&B just next door to Sissinghurst Gardens. 

At breakfast we noticed that their son also played rugby for the Cranbrook Rugby Club which was where Philip played when he was doing his gap year in Kent in 2005.

Our next explore was Batemans - the home of Rudyard Kipling who wrote our favourite book Thy Servant a dog.

Here is Rudyard Kipling with one of his Scotties at the gates of Batemans,

 and another Scot (he called them Aberdeen Terriers) with Kipling - both looking a bit old and scruffy!

Mom and I had a lovely walk around the gardens and down to the mill, thinking of the fairies and magic of Puck of Pooks Hill and we came across the Pet Cemetery - one of the graves well might be that of the Scottie who inspired the stories of Boots and Slippers. 

 Looking back at Batemans house full of thoughts about you and Dougal and wishing you were here to come for some English shookies with us. Mom wishes she could have the spaniels here too.

Mom and I then had lunch in the Batemans House tearoom and sampled some of the garden produce,

 and then walked back to the car through some more of the lovely gardens of Batemans.

  We continued down to Lewes to see Virginia Woolfe's house, Monks House

and found some information about another book all about a spaniel. This is Pinka, the original of Flush, a cocker spaniel in the book about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's spaniel. Interesting too to see it was given to her by Vita of Sissinghurst fame.

So Coco, time for bed now. It was lovely to see you on Skype, looking po-faced and Scottiesh. I hear you are being nice to the Lad, and only snarl and sneeze occasionally now. Missing you all VERY much, 

love from the Food Lady

Dear Coco

I was sorry to have to say goodbye to you and Laddie, and I wish I could explain to you that I am just going on a short holiday with Omie Domes and coming back quite soon but I know that three weeks must seem like an age to you.

It was lovely to see Philip just before I left and for him to meet Laddie. I hear that he and Kerryn are coming back to live in Cape Town later on this year which is just fantastic.

Anyway, after we left you and the spaniels,  

 Mom and I had a drinkle at the airport with Simon and the Alf,  

 then we flew off to the frozen north which wasn't at all frozen but mighty hot. We queued for an hour or more in the airport with the rest of the northern hemisphere who all seemed to be congregating in Heathrow for some reason (including half the Afghanistan army) then we queued for another hour and a bit to get our hired car – a little Hyundai i10. We set the GPS/Sat Nav device for Sissinghurst, our first port of call, and set off into the traffic. All went well until I the Sat Nav ran out of battery charge and we found ourselves traipsing up and down the motorways of southern England trying to get off and down to Kent. We eventually saw a gap and ended up in Sevenoaks and ducked into a stately home for a breather, some lunch and a quick read of the Sat Nav instructions and how to charge it up. The stately home was called Knowle and it had lots of speckled deer and elderly ladies roaming about. This was where Vita Sackville West, who created the gardens of Sissinghurst, was born and she only bought Sissinghurst because she had to give Knole away to a boy cousin when her father died because it could only be inherited by a man.

 Anyway, we then set the charged up SatNav for Igtham Mote which is another stately home that Mom wanted to see again. This one has a huge dog kennel in the courtyard which is the only A-listed kennel in England. I thought it looked a bit large for you and Laddie.

 There were lots of paintings of dogs, 

  drawings of hounds hunting foxes,

 ceramic figurines of dogs,

  and cushions with scotties on them in the shop. As you can see, I was thinking about you and Laddie a lot!

 It was still really hot the next day when Mom and I explored Sissinghurst, which is Mom's favourite place in all the world. This is a large barn which has lots of cooing doves that coo really differently to our doves.

 Inside the barn was a board with some interesting things that had been spotted on the estate ...

 The plants here are quite different too - like this thistle - that I thought you would appreciate being a scot, (actually, its an artichoke - not a thistle at all!)

and this is the Sissinghurst vege garden being admired by Mom.

My first glimpse of the Sissighurst tower. 

 And this is Woody, who belongs to the gardener at the Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse B&B.

We had a really lovely lunch with Pete Rimmington at the nearly pub called the Three Chimneys, and then we went back to explore Sissinghurst some more. But I will tell you more about that in my next letter as it is late now and I need to go to sleep. I hope that Laddie is not too naughty. Give my love to the Alph and Simon,

lots of love to you and the Lad, from the Food Lady and Omie Domes xxx