HOUSE SITTING, LITTON HOUSE, UK. APRIL 8-15, 2018

Our first housesit in the UK was Litton House in the tiny village of Litton, Somerset with the sweetest Labradoodle, Coco. It was also our first introduction to locating homes with name addresses, rather than a street number and name...and a start to a fantastic new adventure.

The family was leaving bright and early the following morning to fly to Switzerland for some skiing, so we arrived early evening to meet everyone and learn about caring for Coco and the house. 

This was also our introduction to the use of an Aga stove and cooktop. What a fun new experience to cook with this stove which is always on, and always hot! The cooker and stove work on the principle that a heavy cast-iron frame can maintain low intensity heat while constantly burning oil. The top two cooking elements could boil water in a flash or cook dinner in half the time. It was amazing, and so unusual for us. There is no button or lever to control the heat in any way...it's just always set at the same temperature, and was wonderful for warming the kitchen and family room too. 

The house was quite large and the property also included a very large stone barn used as the garage. Such a fantastic house! Before having dinner together we walked to the nearby Litton Pub for a drink before dinner and my first English Thatcher Cider, a local product of Somerset. 

 Our first day's outing was a 20 minute drive to the nearby market town of Wells, for groceries and a walk around the town.  Driving the narrowest little roads we'd ever seen, Paul was getting some fun practice for our two month stay in England.

 Our first stop was a tour of the Wells Cathedral with a most spectacular interior.  Built between 1175 and 1490 to replace an earlier church on the same site since 705, it is considered one of the most beautiful of all English cathedrals though it is not the largest nor the most famous.  And it truly was!

It was also in Wells that we found our first COOK Store.  Our family had left us a meal for our first evening at their home and once we tried it we were hooked! It made so much sense to buy frozen meals when they are made from scratch and taste home cooked! They were so different from frozen meals we have in the states. Made in small batches and sold at their own shops or sometimes in a small market, we found the entrees to be excellent and so many to choose from.  These meals often became our menu through a week at a housesit.

The following day we took a loop walk around our little village with Coco. The village has a church and a pub and some neighboring houses, but that was it and we loved it!

 The pub was dog friendly and opened mid morning so always a fun stop for hot chocolate or a cappuccino before going home.

 Then came our big day to visit Highclere Castle, the setting for our favorite Downton Abbey PBS program.  So much fun, though it had rained heavily the day before so car parks were flooded and grounds pretty mucky, we were still excited to walk the halls of the castle we'd seen over many seasons of the series.

On our way back to Litton, we stopped to visit a National Trust property, The Vyne, near Basingstoke.
Since we had Coco along we took turns visiting the house which was under renovation so much of the interior was on display but not in its usual place. It's amazing that the construction going on didn't cause the property to be closed.

Even the pubs along our drives are dog friendly, so Coco was welcome inside just sitting under our table.

 Another day, another National Trust property, this time near Bristol, the Tyntesfield Estate. PK was invited to play the piano in the entry as we arrived. I never realized how much we would use our National Trust membership, but these amazing gardens and homes turned up everywhere we went!

Tuesday, we drove 1/2 hour to see the Bristol Suspension Bridge and docks but must have had the wrong directions and instead found the Blaise Castle nature hike, a beautiful walk. The trail had been the original carriage road to the castle. The historic 18th century mansion was more like a museum filled with displays of doll houses, toys costumes and domestic tools.

The Blaise Hamlet, a group of cottages built to enhance the look of the estate and provide housing for the servants, was just across the street from the mansion. The cottages, which are still lived in, have been modernized inside but the restored exteriors remain in the original design with tall chimneys and thatched roofs.

 The following day we visited Clevedon Court, a 14th-century manor house and 18th-century terraced garden; beautiful even on a cloudy day

 On Saturday, we took a drive south to visit and walk to the Glastonbury Tor.

High on a hill and beautiful as the sky cleared to bright blue.

When we got back there was still time for a walk with Coco and get a chance to use my new Wellies I'd ordered from Tesco with their "click and collect" website. 

Of course, always a stop at the Litton Pub and since the days were now getting sunny we sat outside and soaked up the sun..even the village church looked new with the backdrop of the sky.

 We finished our last day with a visit to Bath, just 45 minutes north of Litton, and took an hour's boat ride up the river to Bathampton. It was sooooo cold and damp in Bath, we walked through Bath Abbey, past the Royal Crescent

 and around the Royal Victoria Park where the gardens were in full bloom but, actually, we just wanted to get back to the warmth of the house.

PK made chocolate chip cookies that afternoon to leave for our family when they arrived late that evening. And, then we were off early the next morning to our next new pet and house near Guildford, UK. We now knew that our Trusted Housesitting was going to be an unbelievable experience!

BIRMINGHAM, UK April 5-7, 2018

By late on Thursday afternoon we were in Birmingham, UK, in England's West Midlands region, once a major manufacturing center in the 18th century. All I knew, as we landed, was we were pronouncing the city's name incorrectly. It is not pronounced as we do Bir-ming-ham, Alabama here in the states, but rather Bir-ming-um; kinda all squished together in that last syllable. 

Since we had three days before beginning our stay as housesitters in England, this city was ours to explore for a couple of days.  I'd booked us a darling Airbnb apartment within walking distance of the city center. It was described as "Coach House with Luxe Living in leafy Edgbaston" how could I pass up that label???  And, it was perfect for us in a very British plaids & wool style. A wonderful home owner had us all settled in with a great directory of pubs nearby so off we went for a. lovely dinner just a block away. 

I'd also chosen the apartment because of t's proximity to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens just 2 blocks away, so we set off to see it on a crisp and somewhat foggy morning.  Still in its winter sleep, we did enjoy seeing a garden just waiting for spring warmth to bring it to life. It was beautiful.

Saturday morning we walked into the city to visit our first National Trust property, the Birmingham Back to Backs. This was a restored 19th century courtyard of working people's houses; tiny, crowded  

and shared dwellings that have been saved as a historic part of the city and so interesting. Knowing we would be in the UK for the next ten weeks, we also purchased our  National Trust annual pass. The best money we spent as we began our travels in the country. 

Afterwards we hiked across the central part of the city to attend a free jazz concert. We passed so many historic buildings, though the city was under a large construction project making it hard to get around.

The concert was fantastic!!! Live jazz in any form or any location is always a treat.

Sunday morning was time to move to our first English house sit, plus a day of learning how to maneuver the roadways with right hand driving of the rental car. Pk did so well, though we did have a couple of close calls starting out. All went well, stopping for a lunch along the way and getting to our home in Litton, Somerset, UK late afternoon. Both of us excited and also a bit nervous :)