Same old England?

After three weeks of familiar English life – motorways and country lanes, towns and villages, pubs and cafes, farms and forest we reflect on the question a few people have asked “would you come back and live here”? That familiarity does allow some comfort – you know you can get a good cup of tea wherever you go, or alternatively the coffee is very average everywhere. As soon as the sun comes out the beaches will be packed. Other reminders of home – scones and cream, a pint of bitter, the weather changing as soon as you get used to it. 

Apart from the distance to West Australia and our family, probably the biggest reason we would struggle to settle back here would be the sheer volume of people and traffic. 64 million inhabitants and 36 million motor vehicles on this small island means you’re never far from anyone and if you’re going anywhere there will often be a queue. It is true the British love queuing in person or on the road, they are very patient. We encountered so many miles of road works on the motorways up and down the country.

Tony mistakenly believed a sunny summers day on the south coast meant a nice quiet drive and a leisurely wander along a National Trust coastline, when in fact it meant being swamped by thousands of beach-goers packed tightly on the sand and the roads backed up for miles. 

As in Australia, the British want to live in the suburbs in a bungalow with a garden, albeit on a smaller scale. Compare that to what we experienced in Europe cities and towns where apartment buildings contain over half the population. Urban sprawl is not an American or Australasian phenomenon, it began here in the 19^th century as the industrial cities spread out into the countryside although to be fair there is so much greenery that the distinction between town and country is blurred.

We spent a welcome week or so in Burley in the New Forest, enjoying the trees and the moorland and the company of friends.  Then we headed north to Edinburgh via the Yorkshire Dales (check out the latest TV hit a slow ride through the Yorkshire Dales), viewing National Trust properties long the way.  We decided that if we had a whole day of driving to do we would visit stately homes and gardens on the way to break the journey and to use our National Trust Membership at Wallington in Northumberland, Quarry Bank near Manchester, and Croome in Worcestershire which was the site of a WW11 secret airbase.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/croome/features/grayson-perry-art-exhibition-comes-to-croome

Edinburgh was full of people for the Fringe Festival, the Arts Festival and the Book Festival, all on at the same time!  We stayed in an excellent Airbnb in Warriston near the Golden Acre, a 15 minutes bus ride up the hill to the city centre.  The Fringe had over 400 shows happening each day and we just went to the half-price ticket booth to see what was on offer.  We took the flyers from the artists spruiking their shows each morning, booked tickets and we weren’t disappointed at all seeing 6 completely different shows in two days, a mixture of theatre, musical, one about UK tax (!) and a compelling piece about volunteering in the refugee camps in Greece and near the Hungarian border.

Fringe Fest venue

Spruiking for ticket sales

maintaining my interest in waste!

We spent some time in Scotland exploring graveyards for long dead relatives in Ladykirk, Berwick on Tweed and West Linton – all good finds for the ancestry project.

We spent a night in the Peak District at Ladybower, hills all purple from the heather, and near the lake where the Lancaster Bombers practised their Dambuster routines in WW11.

Ladybower Lake

 

Then to Somerset and the village where Sally grew up, EastBrent, for the annual Harvest Home – a celebration of the harvest being gathered in and an opportunity to partake of a huge luncheon for 500 people of ham, salt beef, roast beef and salad, Christmas pudding and Cheddar cheese (being only a few miles away from Cheddar) – all washed down with proper scrumpy cider and local beer to keep you nicely relaxed during the speeches!  Some things had changed but the traditions remain and we had a wonderful lunch catching up with family and spotting friends from primary school all those years ago.

The view from Brent Knoll - note the Hinckley Point Nuclear Power Station in he distance!

St Mary's Church, East Brent

Parading the bread and cheese at East Brent Harvest Home Luncheon

An original mini 'utility'!  Spotted in Bideford, North Devon

Now we are in Devon for a few days, visiting local gardens and scenic small towns and planning our trip to Iceland in a couple of weeks.  We visited a beautiful garden at Rosemoor yesterday owned by the Royal Horticultural Society. It made me envious and, as always when I visit the UK, I came away with the idea of creating fabulous hanging baskets etc that never quite work in sunny Perth!