Thursday, February 08, 2007


Travels with Emily (the GPS navigator's voice)

We've lived in the UK 15 years now and we've never seen Hadrian's wall or the Eden Project or even Blackpool! So that's all to change now when we start exploring on alternate weekends in the new campervan. Here she is on a frosty morning where we spent the night in a Forestry Commission carpark near Battle(as in ..of Hastings) after walking through the low hills where in 1066 the sound of clashing arms rang out as Norman and English soldiers met in battle to decide the fate of England. Billy's supposed ancestor, William the Conqueror, and his Norman invaders killed King Harold (as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry), and now we live near Chesham Bois.

The weekend before we found ourselves in 40mph horizontal freezing rain in the carpark of the Brecon Beacons National Park visitor centre in Wales (seen in the clump of trees in the back of the photo) trying to get the training miles in. My feet were totally soaked! And the campervan smelled like a wet dog all weekend. Fool hardy? Perhaps a mite bit...

The weather is not looking good for the planned walk in the Cotswolds this weekend... we've had over 6 inches of snow, which is the most that Billy and I can remember ever having! It was pretty chilly working in the studio while Billy wandered over to Roughwood Lane to see the farm. I'm lucky I had planned to work from home today, commuting into London would have been a nightmare! Nick and I went out to feed the horses some parsnips (well. we were out of carrots...I hope that parsnips are OK for horses?) and they were as excited as we were about playing in the snow.