Embassy Hopping

Monday 2 July - In order for us to have a summer holiday in France we need to get Mathis a passport. With that as our main goal we got a ungodly early train to London. On arriving we had breakfast at a cafe and then walked through Hyde park to the American Embassy. There was a lot of queueing and waiting and we spent a little over two hours there, however, in the end we were told the passport should reach us in 3-5 weeks. Next stop was the French embassy which was a walk along another part of Hyde Park and over to the Natural History museum (the embassy is just en face of the museum). At the French embassy we were told we needed to process all of our paperwork through the embassy in New York. We made a quick stop in the V&A to feed and change Mathis and look around the shop. We had a very nice, quick lunch at a turkish/French restaurant, L'opera and then walked back through Hyde Park to Paddington station to catch the 2:00 train back to Bristol.

The Secret Gardens of Bradford

Sunday 30 June - W decided to have a nice family outing so we made our way to Bradford on Avon for the open garden days. It was a lovely day with lots of sun. We were a bit disappointed by the first few gardens, and it was quite a haul getting from one garden to the next with the buggy. We found some really impressive gardens closer to the city centre. However, we missed seeing all the gardens as we had arrived late and Mathis needed a feed. We found a picturesque spot by the horse bridge, overlooking the river to sit and feed Mathis before heading home.

A Delivery from the Stork

Wednesday 6 June - After much anticipation and only 13 days late, we finally have a new edition to our family. Mathis was born at 8:48 pm, weighing 9lbs 2oz. I suspect that this will reduce the number of entries on this blog as most of our time will be taken up with taking care of Mathis and figuring out how to be parents.

Tea, Cake and Buttercups

In the hopes that the weather would stay somewhat dry we drove to Lacock. Our first stop was King John's hunting lodge where we had an excellent lunch, followed by some tea and cake. We then took a long walk around the outskirts of the village, enjoying some lovely scenery including a field full of buttercups and cows. We also saw some Gypsies in horse carts playing music and making their way to the village. We wandered around the village and visited some of the shops before heading home.

A Rosy disposition

Monday 4 June - Visited Ashton Court to see the craft and food fair happening as part of the Jubilee celebrations. After perusing the stalls we walked through the estate's rose garden and took a longer walk around the park in search of the deer.

Food and foxgloves

Sunday 3 June - taking advantage of a break in the rain, we took mom and Randy to one of our favorite restaurants, the Ethicurean, at the Barleywood walled garden. We had a lovely meal despite one unusually less than stirling service. After lunch we took a stroll around the gardens. There were lots of vegetables in the gardens but also some lovely flowers including some very pretty foxglove.

A Summery Stroll

Saturday 26 May - We picked Sam up in Swindon and made our way to Bibury. It was a lovely (rare) sunny summer day and we walked around the village, stopping to dangle our toes in the stream and admire the swans and ducks. We had a drink at Bibury court before moving onto Burford where we visited a lovely garden centre and had lunch. To finish off the day we drove to the slaughters and had some delicious ice cream at the old mill. While we ate our ice cream we took a long walk along the water soaking up the sunshine and summer scents.