May and June in England

Springtime in England.  The lush rolling hillsides are covered in every shade of green you can imagine and colorful wildflowers are everywhere.  This is how I've always pictured England to be and now I can verify that it's true - that is exactly what it looks like here in Spring.

Ellie and Leah are still in school which is strange.  They won't be done until July 10.  

I've been missing their company at home the past few weeks.  I think it's because they are usually by my side for all of June.  We go berry picking in June, and we head to the park now and then to pass away a lazy afternoon.   We sit out on the front porch eating lunch together everyday and watching the bees and butterflies flitting around the flowers we've planted together.  We'll watch the cherry tomato that's planted out front closely as the plump little circles get larger and larger and then one day, one of them will come running into the house to show the first ripe fruit to me before they plop it into their mouth.  

But not this year.  This year is different because they are still in school and we are living in England.  We are still doing homework and getting up early each day.  We are still packing lunches and making sure the swimming suit and towel are clean and packed every Thursday for PE.  I'm enjoying it here in England, but at the same time, I'm missing our usual lazy days of June back in Indiana.  

I can't complain too much though because it's places like this (see photo above) where we get to spend our weekends.  The pictures I’m sharing today are from a place in the Peak District in Derbyshire called Chatsworth.  Chatsworth is a beautiful estate home surrounded by acres upon acres of beautiful gardens and land.  Saturday was a gorgeous day here in England so we packed a picnic and headed to Chatsworth to spend a wonderful day wandering the gardens.   

 

Do you see a new face in the crowd?  That's Taylor, my niece from Minnesota.  Isn't she cute?

She's staying with us for awhile and we LOVE having her here.  It's like the girls suddenly have a big sister and they are eating it up.  I enjoy having her company around the house during the day as well.  And of course we are all having fun showing her life here in merry old England, an amazing experience for an 18 soon to be 19 year old to have. 

Taylor arrived here with my sister Jodi a couple weeks back.  They visited Paris for a week and then flew here to England to stay with us.  Jodi has returned to her normal life back in Minnesota now while Taylor stayed on with us.  One of the very best things about this experience is that is also offers the chance for my family to come and visit Europe.  Would they have done this on their own otherwise - maybe.  But it certainly helps to have someone you know already there to nudge you along.  The week Jodi was here flew by quickly, but we all so enjoyed her company and getting the chance to show her some of England.  

 

We had our first visitors from the US back in May - my sister Sheryl and her husband Bob.  That's why I missed the May in England post, but that’s okay because May and June here in England have been very similar.  The weather is nice – not too cool (most days anyway) and not to hot.  We’ve been enjoying the lack of spring storms here, well the severe ones anyway.  I wouldn’t mind to hear some good old roof shaking claps of thunder now and again, but looks like we’ll have to wait another year until we get back to Indiana for that. 

We had a wonderful visit with Sheryl and Bob.  It was so good to have familiar faces here with us after 8 months and we enjoyed showing them around where we live.  They stayed with us for several days, and then ventured off to London on their own for a couple of days.  We all joined up again at the airport in London and flew off to Norway for a week.  I’ll be sharing the Norway pictures soon.

And that is about it - May and June in England.  Flowers, green, family, and trips.  That about sums it up.  I leave you today with a few more pictures from Chatsworth because it is B E A U T I F U L there.

A champagne bar truck that was parked by the lawn awaiting the crowd that would be attending an outdoor concert at Chatsworth that evening.  Is this adorable or what!!!  I want to take it home and park it in my driveway.

There was a maze.  From the outside, it didn't look that big, or that hard.  

Then we entered it... and got lost.  

Seriously, we walked around and around and around for a long time (it was probably about 10 minutes, but it sure felt longer than that).  

Triumphant at last!  And a good thing too because we weren't leaving that darn maze until we solved it.

There's Ellie.  A benefit of having your older cousin staying with you - really cute hair braiding!  

And there she is again, on her bum.  She and Leah have been going cartwheel crazy lately and the humongous lawn at Chatsworth beckoned them.  

And there is Leah.  She wants to do her own hair - little miss independent!

She's also an aspiring rock climber.  Let's step back from the edge now Leah.

And the rest of the photos are just Chatsworth. Hope you enjoy!