Chatsworth is one of the many castle/manors/houses in the UK and has been my favorite this far. The grounds are amazing and the sheep roam freely. There is a book written about one of the many people who have lived here called Bess of Hardwick, if anyone wants to read it. The family there now is the Cavendish family.
The Duke 1790-1858 who made the most out of his life in the house was the 6th Duke. He was a confirmed bachelor and therefore spent all his money and time on the various homes his family owned. A rock garden which you will be able to see pictures of, a wall conservatory, Egyptian statues, and numerous other things that will be pictured in the slide show. He was able to accomplish some amazing things for the period he lived in.
Sorry about the time in between posts!! We have been very busy and had a visitor for two weeks.
Monday, 9 June 2008
Friday, 16 May 2008
Paris Entry
Hi All,
Mat took us to Paris for Mother's Day and it was great! We stayed in a nice area called Saint-Michel with a view down on to the street and cafe. It was perfect for people watching!
On our first day there we trained in to the city, found our hotel, and then hunted down some food. We accidentally ended up eating at a cafe we had eaten at five years ago and got nostalgic (on our trip five years ago Mat had proposed in France). We then went to the Arc De Triumph and the Champs es Lycees (not sure how to spell that). We window shopped and walked around. We went in to a store and were mistaken for Germans by the sales people, perhaps our French had a German accent.
The next two days were spent at the Louvre and it was amazing! We could hardly believe the colors that artists were able to create back then. We saw the Mona Lisa and Lily slept through that part. She'll have to see it another day. The huge paintings were breath taking, not to mention the Louvre itself. We had arrived early were able to walk through "The Heart of the Diamond" (courtyard) almost entirely by ourselves. The size of the palace was just...words can't describe it. It really made us want to learn French history.
Look at our pics and see some of what we saw or took pictures of. Our love to all and enjoy your great weather!!!
Love,
Taylor, Mat and Lily
Mat took us to Paris for Mother's Day and it was great! We stayed in a nice area called Saint-Michel with a view down on to the street and cafe. It was perfect for people watching!
On our first day there we trained in to the city, found our hotel, and then hunted down some food. We accidentally ended up eating at a cafe we had eaten at five years ago and got nostalgic (on our trip five years ago Mat had proposed in France). We then went to the Arc De Triumph and the Champs es Lycees (not sure how to spell that). We window shopped and walked around. We went in to a store and were mistaken for Germans by the sales people, perhaps our French had a German accent.
The next two days were spent at the Louvre and it was amazing! We could hardly believe the colors that artists were able to create back then. We saw the Mona Lisa and Lily slept through that part. She'll have to see it another day. The huge paintings were breath taking, not to mention the Louvre itself. We had arrived early were able to walk through "The Heart of the Diamond" (courtyard) almost entirely by ourselves. The size of the palace was just...words can't describe it. It really made us want to learn French history.
Look at our pics and see some of what we saw or took pictures of. Our love to all and enjoy your great weather!!!
Love,
Taylor, Mat and Lily
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Mother's Day in Paris
No time to leave an entry now, but thought you might like to see the pictures of our Mother's Day in Paris.
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Weekend in Nottingham
Hi Everyone,
Sorry it's taken us so long to write. Work has gotten incredibly busy and I hardly have time to check my email there anymore. Unfortunately, we still don't have the Internet at home yet. However, we do have a home phone! Yeah!!!! You can call us anytime between 7:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. our time (which is 11:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m. your time) at 00 44 147 6879353. If that doesn't work, try dialing 00 44 0147 6879353.
We were able to make an appointment to have broadband set up for the house though so these will get much more frequent soon. If all goes well we should have Internet on May 12th.
Now, down to our daily lives... Last weekend was Lily's 1st Birthday, Yeah! The slide show running to the left are some pictures from the big day. Be sure to click on the slide show and then blow up some of the pictures. Taylor took a walk with Lily around the village while I decorated the house for her birthday. When they came back in the house Lily was totally amazed at the decorations. Check out the look on her face as she points around the room. She had a really great time. Taylor made her an organic, all natural cake from scratch (with no sugar, just orange juice and maple syrup) and it was great. Lily really loved it, as you can see.
Our neighbors have a 5 year old daughter, Harriet, and she and Lily just love each other. I think this is in part because Harriet has a Nintendo DS game called something like Babyz and Lily reminds her of the baby in her game. In any event, they get along really well. Partly through Lily's present opening Harriet stopped by with a hand drawn birthday card for Lily. It was awesome. An English accent on a kid is just unbelievably adorable and it was one for the ages to hear her wishing Lily a happy birthday. Imagine Oliver asking, "Please sir, can I have some more?" But instead imagine a 5 year old girl wishing your daughter a happy birthday in the same voice... priceless!
That same weekend we also took a drive to Nottingham. The weekend prior we had bought a big road atlas book and we were so proud about saving the company money and not buying a GPS like all the other ex-pats have done. However, our 1 hour drive to Buxton turned out to take 3 hours and involve an astounding number of wrong turns and roundabout exits.
Last weekend we embarked for Nottingham, thinking how much wiser we were for having made so many mistakes the previous weekend, sure we'd make the half hour trip with no difficulty. We had our Atlas, directions printed off Maps.live, etc and we were prepped! 4 1/2 hours later we were so flustered and upset we realized that we weren't helping anyone by not having a GPS. If you've ever read the Bill Bryson book, Notes From a Small Island, recall the first 6 pages in which driving and directions in England are discussed at length and you'll understand. If you haven't read it, or if it's been a while, grab this book again. It's hilarious! Just read the first 6 pages even, it's classic.
We've already been to York this weekend ( a two hour drive that, thanks to the GPS took us two hours) and walked around the downtown. It was really beautiful. We haven't been to Westminster yet but we did go to the Minster in York and it was astounding! We've been to Sacre Cour and to Notre Dame in Paris and I have to say, as much as we think Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, York Minster put any other cathedral I've seen to shame. Check out our Picasa photo's if you'd like and see some of our pics. The shopping/outdoor market section of the city lies within the medieval walls of the old castle and it was really neat to see the shops that were hundreds of years old.
Today I think we're going to go to Chatsworth (http://www.chatsworth.org/) and Ikea so she can get a rocking chair for getting Lily back to sleep in the middle of the night. Oh yeah, huge news... Lily is in the Crib by herself every night. She's been doing it for a full week now. We're so excited. She still wakes up at least once per night but with some holding/rocking/singing she falls back asleep before too long.
Tomorrow, the castle 4 miles down a country road from us, Belvoir (http://www.belvoircastle.com/), where the Duke and Duchess of Rutland live, will be hosting a jousting tournament. I think we're going to check that out and then go use our newly purchased bbq and enjoy a nice dinner outside in the evening before returning from our three day weekend. Did I mention this was a bank holiday over here?
Anyway, we'll have more pictures and news soon.
Love,
Mat, Taylor, and 1 year old Lily
Sorry it's taken us so long to write. Work has gotten incredibly busy and I hardly have time to check my email there anymore. Unfortunately, we still don't have the Internet at home yet. However, we do have a home phone! Yeah!!!! You can call us anytime between 7:00 a.m. and 7 p.m. our time (which is 11:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m. your time) at 00 44 147 6879353. If that doesn't work, try dialing 00 44 0147 6879353.
We were able to make an appointment to have broadband set up for the house though so these will get much more frequent soon. If all goes well we should have Internet on May 12th.
Now, down to our daily lives... Last weekend was Lily's 1st Birthday, Yeah! The slide show running to the left are some pictures from the big day. Be sure to click on the slide show and then blow up some of the pictures. Taylor took a walk with Lily around the village while I decorated the house for her birthday. When they came back in the house Lily was totally amazed at the decorations. Check out the look on her face as she points around the room. She had a really great time. Taylor made her an organic, all natural cake from scratch (with no sugar, just orange juice and maple syrup) and it was great. Lily really loved it, as you can see.
Our neighbors have a 5 year old daughter, Harriet, and she and Lily just love each other. I think this is in part because Harriet has a Nintendo DS game called something like Babyz and Lily reminds her of the baby in her game. In any event, they get along really well. Partly through Lily's present opening Harriet stopped by with a hand drawn birthday card for Lily. It was awesome. An English accent on a kid is just unbelievably adorable and it was one for the ages to hear her wishing Lily a happy birthday. Imagine Oliver asking, "Please sir, can I have some more?" But instead imagine a 5 year old girl wishing your daughter a happy birthday in the same voice... priceless!
That same weekend we also took a drive to Nottingham. The weekend prior we had bought a big road atlas book and we were so proud about saving the company money and not buying a GPS like all the other ex-pats have done. However, our 1 hour drive to Buxton turned out to take 3 hours and involve an astounding number of wrong turns and roundabout exits.
Last weekend we embarked for Nottingham, thinking how much wiser we were for having made so many mistakes the previous weekend, sure we'd make the half hour trip with no difficulty. We had our Atlas, directions printed off Maps.live, etc and we were prepped! 4 1/2 hours later we were so flustered and upset we realized that we weren't helping anyone by not having a GPS. If you've ever read the Bill Bryson book, Notes From a Small Island, recall the first 6 pages in which driving and directions in England are discussed at length and you'll understand. If you haven't read it, or if it's been a while, grab this book again. It's hilarious! Just read the first 6 pages even, it's classic.
We've already been to York this weekend ( a two hour drive that, thanks to the GPS took us two hours) and walked around the downtown. It was really beautiful. We haven't been to Westminster yet but we did go to the Minster in York and it was astounding! We've been to Sacre Cour and to Notre Dame in Paris and I have to say, as much as we think Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, York Minster put any other cathedral I've seen to shame. Check out our Picasa photo's if you'd like and see some of our pics. The shopping/outdoor market section of the city lies within the medieval walls of the old castle and it was really neat to see the shops that were hundreds of years old.
Today I think we're going to go to Chatsworth (http://www.chatsworth.org/) and Ikea so she can get a rocking chair for getting Lily back to sleep in the middle of the night. Oh yeah, huge news... Lily is in the Crib by herself every night. She's been doing it for a full week now. We're so excited. She still wakes up at least once per night but with some holding/rocking/singing she falls back asleep before too long.
Tomorrow, the castle 4 miles down a country road from us, Belvoir (http://www.belvoircastle.com/), where the Duke and Duchess of Rutland live, will be hosting a jousting tournament. I think we're going to check that out and then go use our newly purchased bbq and enjoy a nice dinner outside in the evening before returning from our three day weekend. Did I mention this was a bank holiday over here?
Anyway, we'll have more pictures and news soon.
Love,
Mat, Taylor, and 1 year old Lily
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Walk around the village
We also wanted to put out a quick post to let you know what we're up to so it's not all nuts and bolts.
We've now fully furnished and mostly cleaned up the house so we took a little time yesterday after dinner to take a short walk around the village. Monday and Tuesday were actually really beautiful days with a lot of sun and with temperatures getting into the low 60's. I actually walked around the village in a tee shirt and flip flops. We took a quick walk up to the old church, drawn by a referee's whistle and intermitent shouting. Now that we finally have a minute to stop and breathe and relax we were really struck by what a beautiful little village we really live in. The streets are very narrow and some of the buildings must be at least more than a hundred years old. it was amazing to see the sun on the green rolling pastures dotted by sheep and criss-crossed by hedges or rock walls, to hear the song birds, and to stroll by two story brick buildings that loomed over the slim sidewalks on the narrow country lane.
We discovered a football pitch behind the church and we took a few minutes to watch an organized match between what we assumed were two local school teams. It was a really nice evening.
Of course, Lily fell asleep on the walk so we went back to the house and Taylor brought her up to her bedroom and laid down with her to get her fully asleep at the house again while I washed dishes (our dish washer still isn't working) for an hour and then folded laundry before passing out exhausted at the incredibly late hour of 9:00 p.m.
Taylor would want me to report that earlier during the day she and Lily rode the bus into Grantham and met me at work around 3:30. I took 15 minutes to walk a block down the street from the office into Grantham to the locally owned baby/toy shop to see what we might find for Lily's birthday.
We bought a crock-pot (slow cooker to the English) this weekend as well and when we got home Taylor had made a really incredible Thai Green Chicken Curry recipe that we found in an english cookbook. It wasn't anything like her specialty curry but it was very very good. The recipe actually called for sherry so you should have seen me when I waylaid a clerk in the Morrison's grocery store the other day and asked which sherry would be best for cooking. She didn't quite no what to do with me.
We've now fully furnished and mostly cleaned up the house so we took a little time yesterday after dinner to take a short walk around the village. Monday and Tuesday were actually really beautiful days with a lot of sun and with temperatures getting into the low 60's. I actually walked around the village in a tee shirt and flip flops. We took a quick walk up to the old church, drawn by a referee's whistle and intermitent shouting. Now that we finally have a minute to stop and breathe and relax we were really struck by what a beautiful little village we really live in. The streets are very narrow and some of the buildings must be at least more than a hundred years old. it was amazing to see the sun on the green rolling pastures dotted by sheep and criss-crossed by hedges or rock walls, to hear the song birds, and to stroll by two story brick buildings that loomed over the slim sidewalks on the narrow country lane.
We discovered a football pitch behind the church and we took a few minutes to watch an organized match between what we assumed were two local school teams. It was a really nice evening.
Of course, Lily fell asleep on the walk so we went back to the house and Taylor brought her up to her bedroom and laid down with her to get her fully asleep at the house again while I washed dishes (our dish washer still isn't working) for an hour and then folded laundry before passing out exhausted at the incredibly late hour of 9:00 p.m.
Taylor would want me to report that earlier during the day she and Lily rode the bus into Grantham and met me at work around 3:30. I took 15 minutes to walk a block down the street from the office into Grantham to the locally owned baby/toy shop to see what we might find for Lily's birthday.
We bought a crock-pot (slow cooker to the English) this weekend as well and when we got home Taylor had made a really incredible Thai Green Chicken Curry recipe that we found in an english cookbook. It wasn't anything like her specialty curry but it was very very good. The recipe actually called for sherry so you should have seen me when I waylaid a clerk in the Morrison's grocery store the other day and asked which sherry would be best for cooking. She didn't quite no what to do with me.
TAYLOR HAS A CELL!
Hi everyone,
Taylor has a cell phone and would LOVE to hear from you! One quick note, I was off by an hour yesterday when I said when it was safe to call. Lily has been waking up at 6:30 a.m. our time so feel free to call us by 7:00 a.m. our time, that would be 11:00 p.m. at night your time. Lily is definitely asleep by 7:00 p.m. these days so please try not to call later then 11:00 a.m. in the morning your time.
Taylor's cell number is: 07530167505. To dial that number fromt the States you need to dial 011 44 07530167505. Call her today, she's waiting!
If you have any questions about what time in England it is I'll email out a conversion table I created earlier.
Taylor has a cell phone and would LOVE to hear from you! One quick note, I was off by an hour yesterday when I said when it was safe to call. Lily has been waking up at 6:30 a.m. our time so feel free to call us by 7:00 a.m. our time, that would be 11:00 p.m. at night your time. Lily is definitely asleep by 7:00 p.m. these days so please try not to call later then 11:00 a.m. in the morning your time.
Taylor's cell number is: 07530167505. To dial that number fromt the States you need to dial 011 44 07530167505. Call her today, she's waiting!
If you have any questions about what time in England it is I'll email out a conversion table I created earlier.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Taylor has a cell phone but...
Hi Everyone,
Great news, Taylor has a cell phone... or mobile (mohb-aisle) in the Queen's English. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out the phone number yet. We just bought and now we're headed home for the evening to read the instruction book. I'll post Taylor's number here tomorrow and you can start calling her then. We wanted to be sure and have a phone so people could wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday.
Because we were only able to get a pay as you go phone she won't be able to make calls to the states on the mobile (for that we'll have to wait until the land line gets installed on May 1st) but she can get calls on her mobile from all of you. If you'd like to call her or Lily you can start doing that tomorrow after I post the number.
Keep in mind we are 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Lily generally wakes up around 7ish to 8ish and goes to bed at 7 p.m. That means that safe hours to call us from the Pacific Time Zone are 11 p.m. to noon.
More coming soon!
Great news, Taylor has a cell phone... or mobile (mohb-aisle) in the Queen's English. Unfortunately, we haven't figured out the phone number yet. We just bought and now we're headed home for the evening to read the instruction book. I'll post Taylor's number here tomorrow and you can start calling her then. We wanted to be sure and have a phone so people could wish Lily a happy birthday this Sunday.
Because we were only able to get a pay as you go phone she won't be able to make calls to the states on the mobile (for that we'll have to wait until the land line gets installed on May 1st) but she can get calls on her mobile from all of you. If you'd like to call her or Lily you can start doing that tomorrow after I post the number.
Keep in mind we are 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time. Lily generally wakes up around 7ish to 8ish and goes to bed at 7 p.m. That means that safe hours to call us from the Pacific Time Zone are 11 p.m. to noon.
More coming soon!
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