Home Sweet Home
October saw us making a very short but very sweet trip home to meet the latest edition to our extended family, she is already 5 months old and it seems like only yesterday that her mum & dad (our Nephew) were leaping for joy at the birth of his first child. Obviously the camera was taken along and a number of shots made, this one seems to capture her pretty well.
Having seen the new addition we had a little time to visit Mark, Hayley and Ethan and had a lovely day out at the nearby Normanby Hall where duck feeding was the first order of the day.
The ducks did OK, but I think Ethan did better with his "one for you, two for me" approach
Pretty soon Sarah was joining in with fewer and fewer chances of a slice going to the ducks we decided to take a walk in the grounds (or an adventure as Ethan would say)
A little further along in the gardens a single pair of ducks in a different, smaller pond got the lions share of the bread as granny and Ethan had eaten their fill by then
We walked through the woods and crossed a number of bridges that clearly had trolls beneath them, but we escaped with our lives and out across the lawns to the conker trees where Ethan was initially dubious about picking up the strange shiney lumps hidden in the fallen leaves
though it wasn't long before he decided that conkers were pretty awesome and waved each 'find' at us whilst shouting "nuther one da-dad"
as a little lad learning the 'hunter/gatherer' skills previously vital to survival, stuffing your pockets with conkers comes naturally (once you can find your pockets of course)
it's difficult for a little lad to understand where all these free shiny brown things come from and even more difficlut to understand why nobody has picked them all up yet.
Once his pockets were full Ethan filled everyone else's pockets with a fine haul of conkers
it was wonderful watching Ethan dashing around in the leaves so excited at each 'find' and it really reminded me of watching his dad do the same when he a just a little boy. He still does it now too....so do I, who can resist a conker tree in autumn?
When you are 2.5 years old the only thing better than finding a conker is finding two conkers, all you can do is look at them in awe and examine every detail of those magical fruits
then share them evenly between pockets to distribute the weight
If you are lucky enough to find another 'double' you should call in the group and show off your hoard. We did eventually have to tell Ethan he'd found them all and it was time to move on, but collecting conkers was great fun....and not just for Ethan
After conkers it was time to scale an enormous tree that has been in the grounds of the estate for centuries, it's low branches are now resting on the lawn and make tree climbing pretty easy.
the branches eventually rise up giving a real sense of adventure to a little 3rd generation tree climber (the other two generations are enjoying themselves too)
On reaching the trunk we are easily at the dizzy heights of 4 feet or so from the ground and pose for our triumphant photo
As I jump down I give away our distance from the ground, thankfully I do remember to breathe in hard before Sarah takes a side on shot.
just a little more tree climbing before heading off to the deer field to look at the estate herd, unfortunately we had to stay looking at them through the fence as it is rutting season
from the deer field we went back toward the house and gardens to see if there were any fishes in the small pond there
Now we are living in North America we are both struck by the number of historic buildings, victorian estate houses and other such architectural wonders scattered literally every few miles in the UK. I guess sometimes we have to move away to appreciate what home has to offer.
Down at the pond there are no fish to be seen but Mark managed to find a little something to keep our adventure going.
After the pond we wandered back to the stables area where a cafe and gift shop await. Whilst the others head for the cafe Ethan and I explore the stables and some old horse drawn coaches before meeting back in the courtyard for a cuppa and some cake.
As with all victorian estates, if there is food to be had the peacocks will find you and Ethan had great fun feeding them pieces of sausage roll
It was a fantastic day topped off by chasing Ethan around the street in his little battery powered car which was a christmas present last year and has (remarkably) survived a whole year almost unblemished.
It was so wonderful to see little Paige, spend some time with Mark and Hayley and go on an adventure with our little grandson, and as always it was difficult to say goodbye and head back down to London for our flight home.