The four of us made a last trip to Jane Austen's house in Chawton, the photos in this blog are all from our last visit to Jane's.
I loved being there with Mike and the boys.
Writing with quills.
Dark of the Moon.
Our last days included nearly having our car stolen by a man posing as a buyer. It ended in a mad dash for our car, a little scary. We are sworn off using autotrader.com! Ask Mike to tell you the story.
Photo by Michael.
Photo by Michael.
Photo by Michael.
Walking with monkey boys wears one out.
Jane's neighbors.
Graves of Jane's mother and sister.
While we visited this graveyard an American man frightened us by oversharing details from his life...his story ended thus, "She looks just like my dad but with BOOBS!"
After we visited the house we went for a short walk, I gathered a stone Jane may have trodden. It's in my pocket right now as I write from Greer, AZ.
Our days ended with a few goodbye dinners, very hard to leave our new best friends.
This is a fairly long and shakey video of our walk through a pasture filled with lambs and ewes.
Baby lambs are intoxicating.
Considering my original goals of getting my kids to try new foods and discovering the meaning of life, I think it went ok.
Michael amazed me eating new foods. He was the boy who would eat about 5 different things and I never would have imagined he could enjoy mussels, but he did!! On our journeys he tried cheeses in France, Lebanese food in Greece, beer in Belgium, pizza in Italy, soups, beans, pies in England. I am so proud of my man for plunging into our dream and making more of it than we could.
I discovered that Dominic is cautious and careful and needs to feel safe. It was hard to know this about him before we launched away from our safe and secure life. Blankey traveled everywhere we did. He was brave and himself and figured out how to make it all work. I am hugely proud of him. Plus he tried all sorts of new foods, including mussels, which he has decided he doesn't care for in pasta.
As far as the meaning of life I did figure out a few things. First of all, the pursuit of happiness is not the way to get happy. Secondly, I am needy, and so is everyone else and that is a good thing. Thirdly, I am filled with greed, and feeding that monster is akin to the pursuit of happiness. I will aim to steer away from filling my greed hole. And yet there is room in my life for more love and more friends and more adventure.
Leaving our loved ones, our home town and our patio furniture behind and crashing on the shores of England was the best. It was much harder than I imagined and so much more exciting, love filled and perfect than I ever dreamed.
With our neighbors we visited the town of Romsey, Hampshire and the nearby Mottisfont Abbey.
It was a chilly day, right about 0 degrees C, so we brought along these hats I bought at Tesco. They are 100% synthetic and it shows, despite the small effort to make them appear animal in origen.
Stick!
Etsuko, on the other hand, was wearing a warmie that was most definitely once a soft, fuzzy, delightful creature. Our boys soon complained of itchy heads.
Mottisfont Abbey
From Wikipedia:
An Augustinian priory was founded here in 1201 by William Briwere, a businessman, administrator and courtier to four Plantagenet kings who chose to make a public demonstration of his wealth and piety. The canons welcomed pilgrims en route to Winchester, who came to worship Mottisfont's relic, said to be the finger of St John the Baptist.
Then the Black Death came along and stole their thunder.
River Test.
This past week our family was hit by a lesser plague, the flu. It wasn't the Black Death, but I did manage to feel sorry for myself.
Mike was in Amsterdam for the week, leaving me with fever and misery to care for our equally sad boys.
On one unfortunate night, Dominic rolled over and vomited in the well placed bucket next to our bed, then realized to his extreme distress that Mr. Teddy Wiggles had rolled into the bucket first.
For the next half hour he moaned, "Mr. Teddy Wiggles, Mr. Teddy Wiggles!"
At the abbey, there was a display of angels made by 12 artists, and the boys had a great time finding them.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of King Henry VIII, the priory was dissolved, and Mottisfont was given to Sir William Sandys. Richard Meinertzhagen (interesting/frightening character) lived here with his parents and nine siblings in the late 1800's.
Fallen Angel.
Mosaic angel by Boris Anrep, 1930s.
Angel in the Cellarium.
After spending some time rolling down and up small hills in front of the abbey, we left to have lunch and see the town of Romsey. It is supposed to be the most beautiful town in Hampshire, but I am not so sure. We did have a wonderful lunch at the Old House at Home Pub, we all highly recommend it.
Kyle shared his DS, which led to a rare brother snuggle moment.
I could stare at this photo all day.
God how we love Etsuko, John and Kyle. We are forever blessed and grateful that life made us neighbors.
