Family Visit

We drove to the West with one purpose in mind: to see Uncle Tony and Aunt Jill. Well, we had several other purposes in mind, but they were pretty selfish. Anyway, we went to basically Wales from Bath and had a lovely afternoon dinner at the Stagg Inn ("the Stagg with two gs" as Tony described). Will and I both had nettle soup. For the main, Will had the pork chop from one of the rare breed pigs that the inn raises. I had Hereford beef with Yorkshire pudding. Both were amazingly delicious. However, the best was in deed the last: Bread and Butter Pudding. OMG. Will and I are still having flash back to that tastiness....

We then went to Tony and Jill's house, charmingly called The Butts.

It is gorgeous. We went through their garden, which was laid out in a wagon wheel/Book of Hours design. It was perfection. And their vegetables were pretty spectacular. The most amazing plant: the rhubarb.

Apparently this rhubarb was in Will's grandfather's garden in Tunbridge Wells. His mother dug up some and took some with her to Edinburgh and then also planted some in Staunton-on-Arrow. We would love to bring some over to the States, but we don't think we would make it through customs.

Tony also has his own pond across the street that runs into the river Arrow. He decided that he was going to grow willow trees there and now has about 50 kinds of willows growing around. He has lost several to age and disease, so that number is down from 200. But you have a lovely view of the house from the pond.