Christmas in the Cotswolds.

Broken pinkie

The Boy from NYC

Dad in an apron...

Need I say more!

Happy New Year

Golf in the English Countryside.

So we've had a few weeks to explore the local golf facilities and decided to bite the bullet and join a club. Minchinhampton is 20mins away and has an "old course" which was established in 1889, think "bump and run". In the sixties they bought some more land and established two "new courses", so for the price of one membership you get the choice of two courses and a reduction on the "old" course. Sounds like a deal to us. We now get most weekends off so hopefully it will give us the opportunity of playing in few comps and meeting some locals.

Check it out here

It is supposedly THE course in the area and has regularly hosted local qualifying for "The Open" in recent years.

When in Pheasant country....

Nobody had to tell us it was Autumn...

Nobody had to tell us it was Pheasant season...

You just get presented with game on a regular basis...

The freezer is not full yet, but the way it's going it soon will be....

I am now a bona fide pheasant plucker...

But how do you say enough?

Lucky Dip....with a twist.

I have never really been happy about buying my wine at a discount German supermarket, but sometimes time and circumstances prevail.

New Zealand supermarkets are improving their wine selections, and the Frankton New World wine department has to be one of the best in the country.

English supermarkets are miles better than their Irish counterparts when it comes to wine selection, and I always enjoy visiting "bona-fide" wine shops in this part of the world. Neither country is renowned for their wine production so the shelves are filled with selections from all over the world with equal status. Makes for for some interesting searching and occasional bargain.

However I have now discovered a new method of buying wine, albeit unsustainable as it only happens once a year locally!! The Auction house!

The local auction rooms has a fortnightly sale, mainly deceased estates etc, and they keep the wines for a pre-Christmas "knock down".

I ended up buying 5 lots, totalling 20 bottles for just over £300. Some bottles could be stunning, like a '98 Bordeaux and a '94 CA Cab Sav, but some bottles will be unpalatable, but we will have an adventure for a few weeks each time we get the cork screw out. The decanter will get plenty of use!

So the Lucky Dip starts tonight....and not a screw cap in sight!

Happy Birthday P

Patrick came and had a few days in our new home last week. It was great to see him, though we had seen him last in July when we visited New York.

His birthday was in October, but instead of wasting postage, we decided to treat him to something local while he was here. We have an airfield within 5 minutes of us, one of the many WW11 airfields. They have a flight experience company offering various flying options. Patrick was treated to 30 minutes of acrobatic flying where was in control most of the time.

Do you think he looked nervous?
The grin afterwards was worth it!

Happy Birthday P.

Autumn in Ewen...

It's been a couple of month's since my last post, but settling into life in the Cotswold's and coming to grips with my new computer has all taken it's toll. We are enjoying exploring our new surroundings and there is plenty to take in, like here at the aptly named Burton on the Water.

Being in England, the hunt is never far away, and this was the local hunt club prior to the Ewen Hunt.

We have been away from home a couple of times and enjoyed the coast of Devon and Cornwall. This is the Minack Theatre, THE most dramatic arena on the planet, I would suggest.

A full programme of theatre is provided throughout the summer.

It is not far from Land's End, at the tip of Cornwall. Land's End is privately owned and very tacky, similar to a lot of the seaside in England.

The Eden Project was a very interesting stop on our travels. The biggest Conservatory on the planet?
The autumn colours are just about all gone now, but they have been quite stunning. More so than in Ireland where the season goes from Summer straight to Winter, if your lucky!
We had a weekend in Bath before the weather got too cold but did not "take the waters". Stayed in a hotel in the Royal Crescent, a Bath landmark.
The Cotswold villages do really stand up to the accolades they receive.
We have a "local" just over the road, but don't get too involved. One day they'll get the gardeners and cleaners in and tidy the place up!! Pity, because it could be a gem.
The weather has been sensational and hopefully after the past couple of winters here we may be in for "short winter". That's tempting fate though, saying something like that!
We have even been out a few times checking out the local golf courses. This is the local course at Cirencester, but sadly did not tick all the boxes.
More about golf to follow...

Next Chapter...The Cotswolds, Gloucestershire

So from New York, it was on to our next adventure in The Cotswolds.

Looking after a "listed" 1806 Manor House for a wonderful family who spend the majority of their time "off shore".

Staff accommodation is quite comfortable in this converted "Stable Cottage".

Our closest town is Cirencester, which boasts an abundance of Roman History, second only in the UK to London.

We haven't adventured far as yet (still unpacking our "stuff"), but look forward to exploring more of the UK before too long.

Who knows where the road will take us.....?

New York, New York

So "up sticks" from Switzerland, we had a couple of weeks to kill prior to our commitments in the Cotswold's, so decided to annoy Patrick and have another bite of the "Big Apple" for a couple of weeks. Ooh la la...

Summer in New York can be HOT, HOT, HOT..., so riding the Staten Island ferry was one way of keeping cool. The fact that it is free and we hadn't had an income for 3 months wasn't lost on us either!

Patrick was keen to show us around his Golf Club http://www.manhattanwoodsgc.com so we couldn't disappoint. Golfing "Manhattan Woods" style is hard to beat, and I hope that it is not the last time we get the opportunity.

Two weeks in New York and you get to see a lot of "only in New York" scenarios.

A "foodie tour" of Chinatown was a great way to spend a couple of hours, and highly recommended. No better way for a foodie to enjoy what Manhattan has to offer...

In Chinatown, of course, you can buy anything, from Peking Duck...

...to dried sea cucumber...

....to Japanese abalone...

...or even Swallows nests!!

Next time we visit we will definitely take another of the tours.
http://www.foodsofny.com/

New York, New York, it takes your heart away!.

Scootland revisited....

So after a fairly successful visit to London last week and with the smile still on our face we headed North to Scotland to visit our friends JP and Elaine who manage a shooting estate in the Scottish Borders, 30 mins South of Edinburgh.

The estate is 9000 acres of border country and if it had not been for the heather and the green grass it would have reminded me of the Molesworth or the Nevis. Great country!

This is the "lunch hut" in the middle of the estate where the shooters gather for their "4 course" lunch. No electricity, but very refined just the same for the middle of nowhere!

We tripped around and visited a couple of castles (as you do in Scotland).

Didn't stop for dinner, but very tempted.

This old home in Edinburgh http://www.prestonfield.com is now a hotel, restaurant and function centre. Tres smart!

And the local livestock didn't mind putting on a show for us!

Temperatures were a bit on the cool side for June, especially after Switzerland, but we managed to survive on the odd dram and tipple of vino, JP is French after all!

Spot yourself in the crowd?

This picture is unbelievable!
1.15-gigapixel picture, is a composite of 189 images. The full picture measures 81,471 pixels by 14,154 pixels. The field of view covers 200 degrees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13200114

After spotting so many cameras in the crowd, can anybody tell me how many single photographs were taken in London on Friday?

Walking to the vineyards and wineries...

Wettingen is in a small river valley, and the "North facing" side of the valley is home to 15 acres of vineyards. It makes a great place for our daily walks.

The predominant red wine varieties are Pinot Noir or Blauburgunder as it is more commonly known, and Dornfelder. Because it is such a small producing region, the wines are exciting, relatively inexpensive and very much "terroir" driven.

The main white wines are Reisling, Gwertztraminer and Pinot Blanc.

Grapes are not the only thing grown on the hill-sides.........., and not to waste any opportunity there is also a local cheese made with wine.

If I was staying longer, I could easily see myself integrating into the local industry one way or t'other.

Some of the slopes are not too horizontal which must present challenges at different phases of production, especially harvest!

When we get tired of our 5franc "supermarket" wines, we can easily walk no more than 500m to our local "wine cellar".

We are looking forward to May 1, when they open the "winery" for the first time for the year! A very old historic building. Wine has been produced in the valley since 1428, the winery looks like it has been around that long!