Weekend away

Broad Marston Manor - not bad hey?!

This weekend was our annual Shell weekend away.  This year it was in the little village of Broad Marston on the edge of the Cotswolds in an old Manor House - all very lovely.

We picked Tom up from school with the intention of driving straight away, but after his 'incident' we had to bring him home to sort him out and then set off.  Nevermind - I felt quite sorry for him as he was so glum.  We headed off expecting to hit traffic at the M62, M54 and M5 junctions.  Not so we sailed through all of them, but got stuck in traffic between Stoke and Stafford.  It took 4 hours to get there in the end which is what we thought, but we weren't the last and made good time considering most of the others came from the Chester area.

Tom, Maggie and Jenny

We were in a very lovely manor house - timber frame, big fire places, creaking, uneven floors etc etc.  We had a big double bed and Tom a z bed in the same room.  Tom was a star.  Believe it or not he didn't sleep on the way down (I can't quite believe it either).  He had a play with the other children, some curry for dinner and then happily went to bed - it was after 8pm after all.  The other kids didn't go to bed until much much later (smug Mummy time!!!).

Juggling fish

We sat down for our usual excellent homemade curries around 9pm.  After promising ourselves we wouldn't over eat or drink too much, we both over ate and drank too much so we didn't have a very good night's sleep.  However, it was very good food and the drink just slipped down too easily.

A good attempt at tennis

In the morning we split into 2 groups - Matt went with the 'adults' for a 9 mile walk, whilst I stayed with the Mums and children and headed to Hidcote Manor (National Trust property) for a look round.  Hidcote Manor is basically a load of gardens, lovely gardens with lots of interesting sculptures (ie not too arty so even I liked them) scattered around them.  It would have been lovely to wander around at a slow pace to take it all in, but it wasn't to be (it never is with children).  We still had a lovely time, the kids ran and ran and ran, the older ones were climbing trees etc, it was a proper outdoor day.  There was even a tennis court where anyone could play tennis - Tom gave it a good go and was hitting the odd ball by the end.

Apple from the orchard

We found an orchard and as we were given the National Trust book of '50 things to do before you are 11 3/4' which included eating an apple straight off a tree, that's what the children did.  It is a good year for fruit this year and they were lovely and sweet.

It looked like we it was about to rain, so we decided to return to our Manor House for cake (this weekend is very much about cake and puddings - I took my banoffee pie this year).

Once Jessica (who is only 2) had had a sleep we then headed out to a very good local playground for another run around.  Tom was on good form this weekend.  He is the only boy in the group (the next 'boy' to him is 13 year old Daniel - who to be fair to him is very good with him playing football etc).  Being the only boy doesn't faze him, he just gets on with it.  I hardly saw him all weekend - he was quite happy playing with anyone who would play with him.  He didn't really need us at all!

Stella, Tom and Sam

We had a BBQ for dinner on Saturday night - once again it was really good food.   I did well by not drinking much and as a result we slept better.  Sunday morning the group went off to Chipping Camden to do a treasure hunt, but we already had plans as Sam and Kamila from Telford now live in Bidford On Avon - just next door to Broad Marston, we couldn't not go and say hello.  So off we went.  We haven't seen them for a while (they moved about a year before us).  Stella is now 4 and very grown up and speaking English with an English accent - which is strange because neither of her parents do.  You would think the English accent would come with school, mind you she does go to nursery.  Apparently she is completely English: her favourite food is Sausage and mash and fish & chips, on holiday she was proudly telling everyone she is English.  I think it has taken her parents by surprise.

We had a quick lunch at a pub 'The Frog' on the river and then had to say a quick goodbye as we had a long journey ahead of us and we needed to pop in to Ikea to buy some shelving for the garage.  The roads were nice and empty (apart from a jam just before we left the motorway for Ikea - a truck carrying a caravan had burnt out).  We got our bits and then carried on home.  We got home at 6pm and went straight to a pub for dinner.  We thought we would try the Masons Arms in Ingleton which has recently been taken over and refurbished.  We were very pleasantly surprised.  The decor was lovely, the service very friendly and the food very good in quality and value.  This is now definitely our pub of choice - lets hope it does well and brings the others up to par as well.

Anyway, we had a good weekend and went to bed pretty tired.