Our Cramazing May, Episode XIII

England, oh England.  How I love to visit thee.  My sister has asked before about what kind of house my SIL and her family live in, so in addition to journaling our trip, I wanted to capture the flavor of the setting.  And for me, when I look at these pictures, I go back......I love being there and am so glad that we had this time with our family, whom we miss a great deal.

What I didn't get a picture of is the very narrow and very, very steep staircase you have to go up to get to this vantage point.  It's a staircase so steep that you literally grab the steps in front of you as you are going just to balance yourself.  And the steps are really creaky.  Such character...I love it!

So up the familiar steps we went, and we were greeted with this beautiful view of their back garden ("Yards" are called "gardens" in England.).  My first evening being at their house visiting, when Rex was just a baby, we ate dinner on a lovely April evening outside at the table there...the feeling of that evening and the feeling of this one were very similar--jetlagged, happy, almost feeling like I was in a dream...was I really there?  Was this really happening?  I was full of thanks...

Rex was with me, and guess what he was doing?  (These are not staged photos, people!)

I was tired.  Really tired.  And though the "right" thing to do to get over your jetlag is to just stay up until bedtime, my body refused, as it has done every other time we've arrived at their house.  The room was so cozy, and the cots with the down mattresses were so inviting.....so I slept.  For three solid, wonderful hours.  And I felt so refreshed when I woke.  Still like I was in a dream, but very refreshed...and still very thankful.  In two days, we would be flying to Asia!

(Kash, I know that you are reading, so I will tell you this...right beyond the little orange director's chair in the above picture, there is a door that leads to an office.  On this trip, we checked email on our laptop wirelessly; but 5 years before, we had had to check it on the home computer in said office.  The morning we left for Ethiopia, I checked my email one last time from that room, and there was a message from you telling me that you had learned about M.  That was an amazing day--for us and for you!)

I awoke to sounds of laughter, so I grabbed my camera and headed downstairs to find out what was going on.  Rex had finally dozed off, curled up in a chair in the living room, but Hoffbeast was staying the course--he was still awake and was joking around and catching up with his nieces.

First, P and E showed him how it was done...

 ...and then it was his turn!

It was pretty funny.  He just couldn't quite get the pattern...probably was the jetlag.  ;)  Either way, it was hilarious, and much silliness ensued!  Don't ask me why he is wearing his backpack in these pictures because I have no idea.  Pretty sure I didn't know then either--but I was too jetlagged to bother asking!

In the adjacent room, Jill was working on dinner.  Shepherd's Pie....mmmmmm!!!  It is so delicious, and I was so excited that she was making it!  Also, I had requested my two favorite desserts--summer pudding and Jill's famous brownies, and she was obliging!

The brownies for that night had just come out of the oven...

 ...and the fruit for the next evening's summer pudding was thawing.

Jill and Peter taught me how to make summer pudding once while they were in the States.  I haven't made it by myself ever, but I definitely should.  I can't tell you how yummy it is--you have to taste it for yourself!  Only thing is, it never will taste in my dining room as good as it does in theirs because of....the cream!!!  You just can't get that kind of cream here!

 Here is Jill, busily preparing the Shepherd's Pie...

 Here is a view of their back garden again, this time taken from their sunroom.  Their large eating table is there, so we had to dine.......sigh........in this lovely setting.

It was so good to see our nieces...they are growing up so way too fast!  Here is Hoffbeast and E, posing with Jingles, Rex's stuffed animal that he brought with us.  It's no surprise that Jingles is now Tom's favorite stuffed friend.