An Autumn Visit to Bodnant Garden

It may be 90 degrees and humid outside today, but it’s September and fall is just around the corner, or autumn as they call it in the UK.  We call it autumn as well, but generally speaking, here in the USA we use the term fall when conversing about this last full season of the year.  During our time in England, I never once heard someone use the term fall.  Apparently, it's a North American English term (I'm serious - there is such a thing as North American English).  In the UK, it’s simply and solely called autumn, just one example of the many, many terminology differences we noticed. 

The reason I bring this up is because I just glanced through the photos from our visit to the beautiful Bodnant Garden in Wales last fall, or autumn if you prefer, which is nestled back in Conwy Valley just a short drive from the charming walled town of Conwy and it’s castle.   

And it is those photos that I will share with you today to wrap up our weekend in Wales.  While the weather feels like fall for much of the year in the UK, which some people may like while others not so much, one of the nice aspects of this cooler and more moderate climate is that flowers seem to last for a really long time.  To be honest, I cannot remember exactly when we visited this Garden but I do know it was sometime late in September or October, not a typical time for us to visit gardens for their flowers in much of the USA because really, you wouldn’t see much besides mums, but in the UK, things are still blooming.   

While the foliage was turning that deep shade of red that is a telltale sign of the changing weather, there were still plenty of flowers on display that seemed to not want to listen to Mother Nature, but instead share a last few days of their splendid color with us before they go to sleep for the long winter.   

My senses seemed a bit confused by the feeling of autumn in the air, the vibrant fall foliage, and colorful summer flowers.  

But I’ll take it.  What a wonderful way to spend a lovely autumn day.

The Bodnant Estate, which included a Georgian mansion and 80 acres of what was just pasture and lawn at one time, was purchased by a man name Henry Davis Pochin in 1874, an industrial chemist born in Leicestershire (the county we lived in while in England) who made his fortune by inventing the process that turns soap from brown to white.  Interesting!  Mr. Pochin began the work of turning this hilly site into the 80 acres of stunning gardens you can meander through today, including terraces, ponds, a waterfall, some record UK Champion Trees and a gorgeous tree-lined valley.   

His legacy has carried across the years as four generations followed in his footsteps to continue to develop this amazing place.  In 1949, the family turned over the care of the garden to the National Trust, but they continued to play an active role in Bodnant Garden.  Today the estate is stilled owned by this same family and the heir, Michael McLaren, serves as the garden manager. 

We had fun at the Garden.  

There was lots to see and do.  If you have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews or any children in your life and you've never considered taking them to a garden because what the heck would a kid find fun about visiting a flower garden, well think again my friend.  

A garden is the perfect place to bring kids.  It's like a giant playground, and you might just be surprised by how interested your children really are in plants and flowers.  

And it never hurts when there happens to be a lovely little spot down on the valley floor to get a cup of hot chocolate and a sweet snack on a chilly autumn day.  

Who wouldn't love this place! 

So please enjoy the rest of our photos.  The autumn sunshine, the cool air and the colorful leaves and flowers made for a great day at Bodnant Garden.  

There is More to Conwy Than Just a Castle

The day we visited the walled Welsh town of Conwy we actually had intended to only stay in the town for a couple of hours.  We thought we would see the castle, walk around for a bit and be on our way.  Little did we know that Conwy has so much more to offer than just it’s castle, which as you know from my previous post is quite spectacular in it’s own right.  So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that by late afternoon, several hours after arriving in Conwy, we were still there.  After touring the castle, we meandered through the small town and made our way down to the waterside.   

If I remember correctly (this was almost a year ago after all), I believe there was an art fair sort of thing going on there.  We passed through the tent and happened upon a raptor display.   

Owls!  Ellie’s favorite.  A few years ago she read this fantasy book series featuring owls called Guardians of Ga’Hoole and she's been fascinated with them ever since.  She was over the moon excited to see some up close and personal. 

We roamed around the town some more searching for a place to have lunch. 

Mmmm – this looks tempting, but I think I will have to pass.  Now, if you are British, please don't be offended.  I mean no disrespect, but one thing I never figured out in all my time in the UK is what the fascination is with mushy peas.  And beans on toast – I don’t get that one either. 

We decided to eat here instead…

The former Bank of Conwy which is now home to a lovely bar serving delicious tapas and a healthy selection of beers, including those of the Belgium variety.  Can you guess why we chose this over the mushy peas place?

We also visited a 14^th century merchants house which sits right in the heart of Conwy called Aberconwy House.  While the bottom floors of this house are made of stone, the top floor, which dates back to the 15^th century, is made of timber, and when you think about that, it truly is amazing that this house has stood for so long.  Wooden structures in a cool, wet environment where they had lots of fires generally do not survive for long periods of time, especially 500 plus years.  Believe it or not, but after withstanding centuries of wear and tear by the environment and people, this gem of a historic house almost got the wrecking ball during the 1900s.  I don’t remember the exact years the guide gave us, but at some point the local folks decided to tear this and some of the other old buildings down to make room for some new ones.  But, an American businessman came along and fell in love with the House, so much so that he wanted to buy it and have it shipped back to the USA.  Crazy, but true!  Well, apparently this got the attention of the locals who started thinking maybe they shouldn’t tear down this amazing display of history.  So, the Conwy people decided to keep it and at some point the National Trust got the site and now they maintain and operate it, opening it to the public for visits and education. 

Even though the house is relatively small compared to basically all the other houses we’ve visited in the UK, it was an incredibly interesting and intriguing place to visit.  The timber framing was like something out of a movie.  Upstairs, the floors and walls and timbers themselves were so terribly uneven and crooked you had to watch every step you took.  The very low and irregular doorways (people were a lot shorter back then due to malnutrition) had doors cut to match their wonky shape and size.  The house is adorned with furniture from the Georgian, Victorian and Jacobean eras to represent the different time periods this house has stood through.  And maybe the best room of all was the kitchen on the main floor with the huge fireplace for baking and cooking and a peculiar, large wooden cage suspended from the ceiling.  I joked with the girls that they better behave because that’s where they use to put naughty children (they didn’t think that was funny), but the National Trust guide kindly explained that the cage was for storing bread and other items out of the reach of rats.  Boy those must have been fun times!

I wish I had more photos to share with you of Aberconwy house, but it was dark and small and hard to photograph inside.  So, I guess you’ll just have to travel to Wales and visit the House in person.  Trust me, the trip to Conwy will be well worth your time and money.

Just around the corner and up the street from Aberconwy House is another fascinating and very kid friendly historic site called Plas Mawr (apparently this means ‘Great Hall’).  Although it has undergone much reconstruction, the underlying architecture is almost unchanged from what it was back in the 16^th century when it was first constructed.  Plas Mawr is recognized as one of the finest townhouses to have survived since the Elizabethan era.  

The girls had a ball in this Elizabethan townhouse (notice the wooden cage hanging above the table in the photo below - a very large bread basket that is similar to what we saw inside Aberconwy House as I mentioned earlier).   

Now, if there is one thing my girls love to do when we visit historic sites or anywhere for that matter, it is to play dress-up, and Plas Mawr did not disappoint.  

I know I am bias as these are my children, but do they not look adorable in these Elizabethan outfits or what!  

Yes, the outfits were a little on the large size (the wool hat falling down over Leah's eyes in the first photo had me in stitches), but these two would have fit in perfectly back in the 16^th century.  

I think there father would have been chasing the boys away with a broom.  

And if there is another thing my girls absolutely love to do when we are visiting historical sites, it is to play in the kitchen.  Gosh, looking at these dress-up and kitchen photos make me wish I was a kids again.

That is all for today and from Conwy, so I leave you with the rest of the photos from Plas Mawr.  If you ever find yourself in Wales (and you really should someday), don't pass Conwy by.  Look beyond the castle because inside the town walls there are some fascinating sites to see.  We’ve visited our share of castles and estate homes in the UK, but these houses from the 15^th and 16^th centuries that were on the small size relatively speaking were truly unique and so very interesting and fun to visit.  Despite the necessary reconstruction work that has taken place here, when you walk through the doors of either Plas Mawr or Aberconwy House, it's as if you've been transported back in time.  

Tornadoes and Castles

Tornadoes you say?  Yes, tornadoes.  Welcome back to Indiana!  And a rather harsh welcome back it has been, at least weatherwise.  We haven’t even been here for a month yet and we’ve already had to deal with two fairly close tornado scares, the kind where there is definitely a tornado on the ground and heading in your general direction so seek shelter soon.  The first episode was a week ago Tuesday, dinner time, Eric was back in the UK for work (yes, already), so just the girls and I were home when my phone suddenly started blaring that unmistakable emergency bleeping that stops you in your tracks and sends you running to the TV to see what the heck is going on.  Tornado warning.  Radar suggests and one has been spotted on the ground about 45 minutes west and is heading straight in our direction.  Lovely!  As we hear the sirens going off, I grab a couple of blankets, put them by the basement door, find the flashlight and put that and my cell phone by the basement door, and all three of us put on shoes because, I don’t know, seems like a bad idea to be barefoot when you are trapped in your basement with your house on top of you.  We put dinner preparations aside, much to Leah’s chagrin because she was hungry, tornado or not.  Unlike normal children who get very frightened during situations like this, Leah gets excited and keeps running outside to the front porch hoping to see the funnel cloud.  Well, as luck would have it, luck for us anyway, said tornado passed about three miles from our house taking out most of the goals and garbage cans on the soccer field we are currently frequenting two or three times a week (they had cancelled soccer practices earlier so don’t worry, no kids were there), toppled over some trees, but thankfully didn’t cause much more damage than that as it was a rather small tornado.  Thank you mother nature!!!

But then came Wednesday of this week, two days ago.  About 2:30 in the afternoon I hear the sirens.   What the heck?  I knew there was a slight risk of storms that day, but no one said anything about tornadoes.  I turn on the TV and sure enough, another tornado, pretty much due west of us and again, heading in our general direction.  Yippee!  Here comes round number two.  But this tornado warning was a little different than the other one the week before because, you see, all the kids were still in school and they won’t release them if there is a tornado warning.  Period. End of story.  Doesn't matter if there is an actual tornado or just a warning based on computer generated meteorological models.  No children are setting foot outside of school until the warning has officially expired. Ellie was to get out of school shortly.  She was planning on staying after for a meeting anyway, but instead of going to the meeting (which eventually was cancelled because of the ensuing events), she had to assume the tornado position on the first floor in the 5^th grade hallway (her locker and main classroom is on the second floor). 

If I tell you in detail how the next three hours played out, this would get to be a really long post and I’m not at all sure you are that interested in this anyway, so to make a long story as short as I possibly can, after the first, second and then third tornado warnings had expired, Ellie finally arrived home from school via the bus about 1 hour and 45 minutes late.  As we walked from the bus stop back to our house with the neighbor kids, everyone buzzing about the fact they had to stay in the tornado position for over an hour, my phone bleeps that annoying but very important ear piercing emergency sound once again.  This was tornado warning number four for the afternoon.  Now, because of the way the buses run in our school district, the elementary students hadn't even been released from school yet, so this new warning meant that all those youngsters once again had to take the tornado position in their classrooms and wait it out.  Did you follow all of that?   

Well, by that time, it was well over an hour past when the elementary kids would normally have been released from school, there was now a fourth tornado warning, and I think you can understand that I and the other parents of elementary kids on our street just wanted them home safely and sound with us.  So one of the other moms jumped in the car and headed to the school to pick them all up. 

You aren’t going to believe this, but when my neighbor arrived at the school, a 5^th and what would turn out to be the final tornado warning of the afternoon was issued.  The school officials made her go into the school and seek shelter in the nurse’s office too!  Finally, about 20 minutes later, she pulls into our driveway with Leah in the back seat.  It was well after 5:00 pm.  Those poor elementary kids had to sit with their foreheads to the floor for over two hours! And those that rode the bus home didn't even get on their buses until 5:30 that day. 

Now, some of you may be thinking this sounds like a bit of overkill.  Are the school districts here being overly cautions keeping kids in school until 5:30?  Well, maybe, but if you saw the video of the Starbucks in Kokomo, Indiana, a mere hours drive north of here, being flattened that very afternoon around the time the kids would have been on the bus home, then no.  The schools did exactly the right thing keeping them inside the buildings where they would be much safer if a tornado had hit than being on the bus or walking home from school (and in case you didn't see the video, it's pretty incredible but all the patrons and staff inside the Starbucks were okay - apparently they had a really well built bathroom/tornado shelter).

Now, what the heck does this all have to do with this blog about living in England?  Well, for the past two years we never once had to worry about tornadoes or storm warnings of any kind actually.  We heard thunder exactly twice over those two years because thunderstorms are just not common at all in the UK, and while we did have a few wind advisories and lots of rain at times, that was the extent of the extreme weather we had to deal with.  But now, back to reality.  We can’t jet off to Prague for the weekend anymore, and we need to watch for tornadoes.  Hmm, can I go back to England now?

I will end all of this kibitzing about the weather with some more photos from the UK that I haven't shared with you yet.  Kind of a sharp transition in topics I realized, but man was it nice not having to deal with this bad weather stuff.   

This is the town of Conwy in Wales.  How have I not shared this amazing and very proudly Welsh gem with you yet?   

We visited Conwy almost a year ago now, back in September 2015, just after the girls had started a new school year in our little English village of Worthington.  We drove to Wales just for the weekend because like I’ve said before, everywhere seems like it’s only two hours away from where we lived.  Actually, Conwy was more like three hours, and that particular Friday night it turned out to be more like four hours.  We left after the girls were done with school and Eric was done with work for the day, but I think everyone else did too and they seemed to all be heading to Wales as well.  I know, a four hour drive really isn’t that long to us Americans, but it is when one of your children gets car sick all over herself in the back seat when you are about 20 miles from the hotel (this seemed to come on quite suddenly and with absolutely no warning), and the paper towels are unreachable in the trunk (or boot as it’s called in the UK), AND there is absolutely no room on the side of the road to pull over because they don't believe in shoulders in the UK.  That was a long 20 miles in slow moving traffic with all the windows down as we encouraged her not to move a muscle until we arrived at the hotel and could extract her from the mess in the back seat.  Fun times, my friends, fun times.  We didn't have tornadoes to deal with, but it wasn't all fun and games while we lived in England.

Well, our trip to Wales improved vastly the next day when we arrived outside the great walls that surround the town of Conwy.  Conwy, you see, is a walled market town, full of cute shops and places to eat, and sitting above the great wall that encircles the medieval town is a mighty castle.   

Conwy Castle, one of the best we visited in all of Europe, dates back to the later 1200s...

 and boy was it fun to explore.  

From the towers that thrust up high above the town, we were afforded one of the most magnificent views we would see in the UK...

the beautiful green hills of the Welsh landscape...

and the Conwy River which flows right past the castle and empties into the Irish Sea.   

Simply stunning!   

So here you go – Conwy Castle in Wales and the great stone wall that still surrounds the town hundreds of years later.  

Looks like Eric took a page from my book.  Photographing the photographer, only I'm not really the photographer in the family.  He is.  But I still like to take what I think are cools photos now and again with my camera phone.  

Like this actual 'photographing the photographer' on top of Conwy Castle.  Can you spot him?

I liked visiting Conwy so much that I went back in June when my friend Anna from Wisconsin came to visit.  She wanted to see a proper castle, and Conwy Castle was the first one that popped into my mind. Not hard to see why, is it.

Look very carefully at this photo.  Can spot the King?

There and Back Again; The Continuation of our Adventure from the Other Side of the Pond

I’m sitting at my desk typing this post with the window open.  It’s warm and a bit muggy. I can hear the pitter-patter of the steady rain as it falls outside.  I want to turn the lights on in the house because the heavy gray clouds hanging low in the sky are making it really dark and gloomy in here.  And I’m not in England anymore.  I am back home, in Indiana.

We’ve officially been back since Friday, July 29.  Sorry for the radio silence but before we left the UK, we were busy, busy, busy, and then we set out on our last European vacation, at least the last one for the foreseeable future because I suspect our travels there are not done.  Since we’ve returned to Indiana, we’ve moved back into our house, worked on restocking (toilet paper, cleaning supplies, spices, you get the drift), Eric has returned to work and bought a new truck to get him there and back again, the girls have returned to school albeit they are now at different school and riding different buses so our morning routine is very long, soccer season has started, we sign up for dance classes tomorrow, and we’ve met some new neighbors as there seems to have been a lot of change on our little street while we were away.  Good changes because they are all very nice and there are lots of new kids.  And that is why I am just now getting back to blogging because believe it or not, we still have a lot from our European adventure to share.  

So, how is being back in the USA?  Well, I’ve discovered there really is a thing called reverse culture shock.  I feel as if I’ve been walking around in a daze for the past few weeks, going about the motions of living, but everything here feels kind of strange and I’m not sure what to make of it all.  For instance, I went to Starbucks this morning.  It’s raining and a mocha was just calling my name.  I drove to the nearest location and the line at the drive thru was long, but I had no desire to get into that line anyway even if it was short.  You see, in England, there are no drive thrus at coffee shops, at least not any we saw.  In fact, they would all think we were down right crazy for getting a cup of coffee in a to go container while sitting in our car.  Where is the pleasure in that?  Coffee, tea or whatever your hot beverage of choice is meant to be drunk sitting down at the coffee shop with your hands wrapped around a proper mug, and that’s how I wanted my mocha this morning.  So I bypassed the drive thru line but after circling the building twice, there wasn’t a single parking spot available.  At least this particular Starbucks’ has that in common with the UK – lack of parking spaces.  So I left and headed to the next nearest Starbucks, and guess what?  The drive thru line was even longer AND there wasn’t a single parking spot available there either.  Ugh!  So I did what just felt like it was completely against my nature after living in Europe for two years and sat in the crazy long drive thru line, watching for a parking spot to open up but whenever one did, another car snatched it up before I could maneuver my way out of the ridiculously long line of cars. 

Now, I’m not trying to say I’m better than everyone else here in the USA so please don’t be insulted if you went through a drive thru this morning because if you want to know how this story ended, I did end up going through the drive thru line myself after all of that, got my coffee to go and am now sitting by myself back at home drinking it out of the fiber or whatever Starbucks makes their to go cups from.  It’s just that I’ve seen this all from a much different perspective now.  I got use to that different perspective, I liked that different perspective, and I miss that different perspective.  I know I will be back through the Starbuck’s drive thru again, but that cup of coffee will not compare to the one I had with the girls at my favorite café Jack’s in a little town called Melbourne just a few miles from where we lived in England where a hot chocolate is served like this...

And it won’t compare to sitting in a cozy tea room located in an old stone building with good friends on a chilly, rainy day and enjoying tea like this.   

So now maybe you can understand a little why I feel this undercurrent of melancholy.  It’s not about being back in the USA, it’s about not being in England anymore.  I miss it, plain and simple.

And that pretty much sums up what the past few weeks have been like for me at least.  The girls on the other hand haven’t seemed to skip a beat.  They are loving school, loving seeing old friends, making new ones, and couldn’t have been happier spending a quiet weekend at home with all the toys they haven’t seen for nearly two years.  Even though this moving to a different country and back has been hard for them at times, I’ve been absolutely amazed at how resilient they are. 

Now, on with the story.  As I said earlier, I have loads more to share with you over the next month or so.  We went back to France for two weeks, spent a weekend in Prague, visited Bavaria, Switzerland, Lake Como, the French Alps, and had more weekend adventures in England too.  It’s funny, as I sit here back in our house in Indiana contemplating writing these last blog posts about the rest of our adventures in England and Europe, the image of Bilbo Baggins pops into my head, the one from the opening scene of the first Lord of the Rings movie when he’s sitting alone at his desk in his little hobbit house and he writes the words “There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale” on the parchment paper about to share his great adventure with the world.  That may be a tad bit dramatic for our little two year stay in England as we never encountered any dwarves, wizards, dragons, etc., and sadly none of us found a ring that makes you invisible, and our story really isn’t interesting enough to share with the world, but none the less, it was our great adventure and I think I’m feeling like Bilbo because I’m sitting here writing about it when it’s over.  We are back on the other side of the pond again and it’s now all just a matter of reflection.  So check back in a couple of days.  With no trip planning or moving to do in the near future, I have plenty of time to wrap up our own there and back again tale.