This time last year we were in Sedona, AZ where we stayed from October through December and had fabulous weather.  We really liked Sedona but could only get our house for 3 months, not the 6 months we had planned.  Instead of engaging brain and looking for another rental in Sedona we decided to just move on – duh!  This resulted in a very wet time in Tualatin, Oregon, but we did have a fun being with family & friends.  Now it is England through to the end of December. We had decided that this would be our time to catch up with Neal, Georgia and Grandbrats, hence August in France en famille, and then Christmas in London before heading to southern Spain. At least we would be out of the UK for January and February and be far dryer than Oregon!

Herefordshire’s October weather was not too bad and we carried on our exploration of the border castles and pubs.  Sarah Morrison – our host in Florence a few years back – and her sister Jo came to stay for a week.  Jo was pursuing her family tree into the wilds of Herefordshire and Somerset, while Ann and Sarah were more into old stuff, food and booze!  Anyway, a fun time and good to catch up with Sarah.  Just after our American buddies departed we had the London Hendeys overnighting at Daffaluke on their way through to visit Georgia’s Welsh relatives.  Luckily, Jenny & Maxs’ rental in the main house was free so we had Georgia, Neal, Silas, Lizabel, Arthur, and little brown dog across the courtyard from our cottage.  Really neat arrangement!  They arrived in good time for a long country walk before dinner, and we all did an hour and half through the lanes and fields of Glewstone.  A good hiking stick was selected from a beech thicket by Grandpa Tony for Silas , while Arthur found a suitable branch for his use!  We all went off to the Red Lion for dinner, which involved Neal following us through the tiny back lanes in the Land Rover! Fortunately we only met one oncoming vehicle, and that was at a cross roads so there was no backing up for 1/2 a mile in the dark.  Always a fun experience!  I think the kids were impressed with our remote country location?!  Neal handled the production of bacon and egg sarnies for breakfast the next morning, which was then followed by a cross-country hike before they set off for Welsh Wales!  A great stop over and so good to see the grandbrats having a fun time in the country.

Being in England in the Autumn means rugby and I was looking forward to watching the Saturday and Sunday games, plus the Autumn International Series was on with England looking seriously good for the fist time in 20 year!  It seems the days of good old BBC covering everything had gone and all rugby was now split between Sky and BT Sports, which of course you have to pay for!  After long chats with Neal went with Sky as they had all the internationals covered.  Jenny & Max graciously agreed to the installation of the Sky dish on the cottage chimney, so it was rugby heaven – at a price!  However, being in England meant Ann was not able to watch The Tide in action this season – a great disappointment.

Then it was Clocks Back!!!  This horrible event, dreaded by all, means it gets dark at 4.00pm.  If the weather is good it is just about bearable, but when it is cold and wet and the gloom starts moving in at 3.00pm it is not nice.  Ann is now truly understanding why I left the UK as soon as I could!  We had a Victorian fire-place in the living room, and a supply of logs and coal in the outhouse across from our front door, so the evening ritual of chopping kindling and getting the logs in for the night quickly set in. It was cool misty mornings and colder days as we moved into November. Ann quickly starting producing Hot Cider and Mulled wine in the evenings, which was rather nice I must admit, and went well with the roaring log fire.  We had found a super wine merchant in Monmouth, Fingal Rock, run by Tom Innes, who delivered free of charge to the cottage.  If we were not going into Monmouth I would ring Tom and we would put a case together over the phone, then he would drop it off in the evening.  Brilliant!  We had some amazing French & Italian wines at very reasonable prices.  Tom’s wines, supplemented with Bordeaux’s liberated from the London cellar, meant we drank very well during our stay.  Plus of course we had an unlimited supply of fantastic Pork Pies, Pasty’s, Scotch Eggs, local cheeses, clotted and double cream. Ann produced amazing very low sugar apple pies using the Bramley apples from the kitchen garden, which went so well with the creams we always had on hand!  All in all, life was not all bad.  The gym and my jolks around the lanes meant I was holding my own on the “fitness” front, though whether Doc Cain will agree is a different matter.  Also, Ann was doing her water aerobics and quite a lot of walking (with a knee brace) on our trips to castles, cathedrals, and churches.  Mind you the cold, gloomy mornings when we headed into Ross to go  to the gym were not that much fun!

Glewstone Court, our local hotel, bar, and restaurant did an Italian wine dinner which we attended.  Great event, though we thought Tom Innes’ Italian wines were somewhat better, but there was masses of really good food, and the old country house hotel was a lovely setting for the dinner – all very English – and all very enjoyable!

Next on the visitor’s list was Fiona Peffers, an old friend of Ann’s who now lives in Liverpool. She came to stay for a few days and the castle / pub tours continued unabated. Fiona was delightful and it was fun having her visit; I never had to say a word as the girls reminisced over past events and people!

Then for a change we went to White Brook – a 1* Michelin restaurant with rooms in Monmouthshire. We did their mid-week deal which was dinner, a night in a lovely king bedded room, and breakfast; all for $200! Deal or what!  White Brook is remote to say the least and is situated on a good sized stream called White Brook in what had been a series of old farm labourers’ cottages and buildings.  Arrived a little early so were given tea in the lounge while they checked our room – good start. Drinks before dinner and then it was in to the dining room where we had a choice of the standard menu or the 7 course tasting menu.  We have never been big on tasting menus – too long, too many different wines, etc., so we had the standard 3 course dinner, which was actually 5 if you count the amusee bouche and sweet goodies at the end. An excellent wine list and before discussion with the sommelier we were already short listing some expensive bottles of Burgundy.  However, the wine man was good and said we should go with an unknown, and less expensive Burgundy, as he said it was an amazing wine, and he was right. Anyway, a super meal and Chef Chris Harrod obviously deserves his 1* ranking.  Amazing service with the waiters being super efficient and witty!  Rather added to our a bill by consuming a number of seriously good decaf Irish Coffees after dinner. Breakfast was outstanding and apart from all the normal breakfast goodies there was a choice of the Full English onwards, but we both had their own smoked Haddock with a poached egg – delicious!  Just love the restaurant with rooms concept.

Georgia May had said we should do a Thanksgiving dinner so the children got a feel for the American side of things while we were here, and they had American friends who would join in and help.  Up to London on November 26 – this time we thought we would do the A40 route – mistake.  Road works and lots of traffic and being a Saturday probably didn’t help.  Ann of course found books on the Thanksgiving story, and bought Indian and Pilgrim costumes so the grandbrats would get a vague idea of what it was all about, as well as making her famous cranberry relish. An amazing meal with Neal producing a wondrous turkey – definitely one of the best Thanksgiving meals we have had.  And in England!

We arranged to spend another night in the south and visit my sick buddy Peter, but he was not good, so we headed back to Ross after speaking to Gill, this time via the M4!

At the end of November it was getting damn cold with temperatures dropping to -7C at night, getting just above freezing during the day, all mixed in with days of rain! Oh joy!  In order to keep our spirits up went for lunch to another 1* Michelin restaurant, the Walnut Tree, also in Monmouthshire. Chef Shaun Hill is my age and started cooking with Robert Carrier in his first London restaurant. This is his third restaurant where he has achieved 1 & 2* Michelin rankings, and came out of retirement to put the Walnut Tree on the map. An amazing menu which made it extremely difficult to choose.  We had drinks in the bar first and were given pork scratchings with pulled pork as an amusee bouche – just brilliant! Totally delicious meal, but completely different from White Brook, and in many ways better food.  Probably because we both just started in the Robert Carrier way of cooking (my first ever cook book) and I loved the old school twist on his food. Also, his portion size was not your standard Michelin helping!

Stratton Hotel, Swaffam.

As we were into December and had not caught up with our Norfolk friends,, we decided on a road trip to Swaffam, where we booked into the Stratton Hotel right in the centre of town for 3 nights.  Mind you we still had to call the hotel and get instructions to find the tiny alley that led to the hotel after driving around the town square 3 times! Swaaafam as the locals say was equidistant between the Coultens and Frances so that way we could spend time with both of them.  Had a great lunch with Paul and Lowrie at their local, The Bedingfield Arms in Oxborough and lunch with Fran at her Thai restaurant in Beetley. Great fun and so good to catch up with old friends.  We also found that Swaffam had some reasonable restaurants within walking distance of the hotel.  One was a fish & chip shop rated in the top 50 in England, and the other was a Russian restaurant called Rasputin!  We tried both!  Good fish & chips and Rasputin was excellent.  Owned and run by a young Russian couple who produced some stunning mushroom blinis. So we had an evening of blinis, and vodka while chatting to the wife about living and working in Swaaafam!  Not and easy run Ross to Swaffam as it is a series of motorways and A roads.  Coming back was a nightmare as were driving into the sun on the M6-M5-M50 on wet roads in heavy traffic and my windscreen washers were not working!  We were really glad to get “home”.

It was countdown to the end of our stay at Watchmaker’s Cottage and all sorts of things were happening.  We had drinks with Mike & Dulce Constable at their house in Howell Hill – a tiny village in the hills above Ross.  Mike and I worked out at the gym together and bonded being in the same age bracket.  Then it was a lunch with Humphrey Stanley, Glewstone’s resident artist and our drinking buddy at the Yew Tree.

Sausage & Cider Night at the Yew Tree.

He had lent us books on the Welsh castles and given us lots of advice on local routes and places to visit.  Super character. Finally it was the carol service at St Mary’s Church in Ross, which turned out to be just what you want from your local church, but very rarely experience. A really good turn out and the choir and organist for a small town church were outstanding – they truly rocked the rafters.  Beginning to feel quite Christmasey!

We packed up bags and sent them off to the owner of our villa in Santa Lucia so we had the minimum of luggage for our flight to Spain, stocked up on eggs, sausages, and a large pork pie from Cornwall’s, our fabulous butcher in Ross, for Christmas in London, and departed Watchmaker’s Cottage.  As usual, time had flown past and there was still stuff we hadn’t done, but On-On as they say.

Our room at Railway Cuttings was not free until December 22 when Matilde, the nanny, departed for France for the holidays, so we had arranged to spend the night at the Castle Hotel in Windsor, which was right next to the castle and had a Marco Pierre White restaurant. Just fabulous – a lovely king bed room overlooking the castle, and a super dinner in Mr White’s place, where we met 2 ladies from NZ who waxed lyrically about our having a Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc with our Fritto Misto starter!  Then it was a very good Chateaubriand for our main course – good meal.  Followed by some good decaf Irish Coffees in the bar – well it was Christmas! An excellent hotel breakfast on a foggy morning really gave you the feel of England in the winter.

Into London – unload the car and then run it back to Sixt Car Hire in Sheppard’s Bush – and so ended 3 months UK motoring.  Must admit I still miss the Nissan Pathfinder! The next day Marky arrived from Charleston  to make up the Hendey Christmas gathering. Then it was wrapping the masses of Christmas presents for the kids and trying to stack them under the Christmas tree – almost impossible – and all the last minute bits and pieces before the big day.  In the lead up to Christmas we had found out what Silas and Lizabel wanted and had done our online shopping.  However, we had failed to get the required info for Arthur, so I sent of an email saying we would enroll him in the Chocolate of the Month Club and buy him a drum set if we didn’t get any better suggestions.  Georgia replied drums would be good as it would fit with Silas learning the guitar and Lizabel the violin!  Before sanity could return to the parents I bought the new Ringo Starr a 5 piece drum set!

Christmas was fabulous mayhem and Neal & Georgia produced amazing dinners for our stay as well as a superb Christmas dinner.  Must admit Neal is a dab hand at roasting turkeys.  What was really impressive was Georgia May assembling Arthur’s flat pack 5 piece drum set in about an hour, working from an online instructions on her laptop! Following which Arthur let rip on his drums – the boy shows promise!  Once the the drums were installed in the boys’ bedroom we were given a concert of our grand childrens’ musical talents. Quite something.

Mark had bought tickets for the Harlequin’s v Gloucester game at Twickenham, so on December 28th 3 generations of rugby playing Hendeys took off to watch the Mighty Quinn in action at the home of English rugby – just brilliant!   In should be mentioned at this point that of the 3 generations only Silas has played at Twickenham, for his club Ealing, and is also the only Hendey to score a try at Twickenham! Quite an achievement at his early age. Not sure how long that record will stand now that Arthur has started mini-rugby!

December 29 brought our English travels to end as we flew off to Jerez de la Fronterra to start our 3 month stay in Andalucia.