Hedgehog day/ Fathers day

Well Fathers day again so a selection of goodies come my way , hurrah. Not so much a day of celebration, more a day of extortion, (who's your daddy !).



We started with making American Pancakes with maple syrup and fruit, which were rather yum (see http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-american-pancakes for details).



After waiting a while for them to settle it was off to Stow House and Hedgehog day. Stow is always lovely and the chance to trip over and beat up a grown up dressed up as a comical animal suit should never be turned down.


Trusty the hedgehog was somewhat scary and Catherine didn't want anything to do with him. I did wonder why they had given him the prison title of trusty, I guess nonce, supergrass, diddler and screw would have given the wrong idea.



A quick trail quiz (did you know that hedgehog can't give fleas to cats and dogs ?) and a chance to make masks and grass hedgehogs.

National Herb Centre and Claydon House

Ah its falling out of the sky like there is no tomorrow, some bloke was collecting animals 7 of the clean ones and 2 of the dirty ones for a big floating shed (check you bible if you don't believe me).

So off to the national Herb Centre we go. They have a good labyrinth, chickens and a very wet children's playground.

The idea was to find something stops slugs and snails eating everything in the garden. Apparently a hammer is not considered animal friendly hmmm. I think someone should start renting hedgehogs.. So we are looking for some aromatic spiky herbs which can nuke mr sluggy . Is there such thing as a napalm herb, apparently not, but we did get some chamomile lawn (felicity kendal and jennifer ehle.. woof) and some other smelly thyme (insert half funny chronological joke here..).

Next day a suitably dry day for a bank holiday we are off to Claydon House. We really are getting moneys worth out of our National trust membership this year aren't we. The
House itself doesn't allow photography to take place within.

So all photos are of the exterior, half the parking was not usable as it water logged, but the bloke who was being drenched in the car park was cheerfully doing his best, so I did my best to splash him on the way out.

Good house, plenty to see strangely no shop to have the children go into a buying frenzy over (that's odd), but a large second hand book shop .

39steps - dinner party -in the trees

Busy weekend

Start with a dash* to London to see the 39 Steps, a play at the Criterion, 4 actors play all 146 parts, very entertaining and with the quick change scenes and puppetry (including a bi plane crash) quite astounding. Was worried at first that no one in the audience was below the age of 70 but I guess they get the tickets at half price and don't have mobile phone (or at least know how to turn them off).

*Could have missed it though as the Oxford tube (who usually gets us there and back better than the trains) failed us! Ended up manically driving into Osterley and catching the Underground in.

Well done HaRVey, London Underground and Tesco (for the supply of very noisy and powdery sweets). Got home at some ungodly hour but well worth it. Somewhat circuitous route home so I could check out Hounslow, yep millford arms still there, but rifleman turned into something else.


Next morning was somewhat of lazy affair but we did go to dinner the next night with Sam and Mike, Roger and Val were also there. We arrived somewhat early so we could watch the FA cup final (should make to note to myself that is should check out who the host is supporting before suggesting to the TV screen about the degree of self abuse that I might think the apposing side might be currently involved in). Chelsea one 1-0 in extra time and Man U were not vocally projecting in a pleasing audible rhythmic fashion from that point on, AAAAHHHH. The meal was lovely with a great deal of merry banter and stuff, highlight had to be the pudding with ten zillion calories per slice, yum. The Bree was so ripe it didn't simply ooze, it practically walked out of the room.


Next morning we set off to the Walkway in the trees Slacey Forest. "My god" I thought "the Ewoks have settled,... that will bring the local house prices down". The platform to the trees are very well designed with easy access, a gradual climb finds you up amongst the woods. Spectacular views of woods, Northamptionshire country side and people exercising their dogs. Beware of the large amount of dog pooh. With a nice cafe and plenty of woods to get lost in and argue where the car park is, well Worth a visit. It also boast a large and well kept play area with some really great see-saws

More pictures

Just in cases you wanted the full photo album uploads see

see here

This links to the full album shot on the day.

Upton House

Upton House

Upton house is a stately home built by the founders of shell the oil giants, I guess it would be too easy to cynically and hypocritical to run oil barons into the ground while still using their earth polluting products (yeah but lets do it anyway).

Yes if you had the money you would buy the Stubs painting, yes you would would build a great house, yes you would buy all the great pottery (not sure you would silver plate the toilet, but hey you never can tell!)

The house well worth a visit for the garden alone, with a huge watch out for the haha at the end of the lawn (that first step is a biggy).

Nice lake, nice pool the usual NT nice staff and gift you can get at any NT house (why do I need fake dinosaur eggs/silly putty/glowing rubber balls/glow n the dark stuff).

Team J -1 goes to Gulliver Land

Yep, Mums away so the kid get to play (all three of us).


Gulliver Land is not what one might call educational (unless you have scientific models on ice-cream melting rates), but it is a very fun day. What I know about Gulliver's travels are the following points.
1) They were written by Jonathan Swift an Irish born writer educated at Hertford College Oxford !
2) He wrote of more than the land of Lilliput (where he was a giant amongst smaller men ), amongst the fantasy worlds described he also includes the Japan's!
3) He wrote his own Epitaph in Latin translated by Yeats.
4) Gulliver is a real family name, though the character is fictional.
5) Gulliver is the ships surgeon.
None of which I saw at the park (get fried food, get beer and get life G).

We left the house somewhat earlier than expected (er.... I'm so not saying that the missing member of the team is the one who makes us late, really, no really ). We popped into the soulless Milton Keynes Tesco's for supplies as I usually get stung by the overpriced offal in bleached white buns in theme parks. So instead we got Tesco's under priced bleached white roles. We got to the park early enough to "enjoy" the opening ceremony, not really a ceremony more a couple of animal suited individuals miming to a sales pitch (buy - eat - buy some more - get the sticker book - we play sim theme park.. etc). I'm not sure what animal the park actors was supposed to be but one looked like a feral rat and the other looked like a road killed hamster.


The entry fee £11.30 for children above 90cm and adults was fine but some rides (the good ones ) require a taller child or adult (130cm), so take a inflatable person with you if you have more children under 130cm than above. I would recommend a retailer for your blow up person but my expertise lies elsewhere.

The park was not busy first thing and all the rides were staffed by happy well trained polite staff . I do wonder though, is it the law that working in this industry yo must have tattoos ? It's not that I'm against body adornment, but ...yes I am, yes I am. Trust in people into self mutilation not hurting me ... er they hurt themselves to look better, hey they might think I look better with a metal spar somewhere nasty. Yes narrow minded, yes petty, yes, but I think you will find I'm right (or at least not disproved).

After 5 hours of screaming like a girl, getting my pants wet and smeared in ice-cream, the children said we had to go home. So a quick visit to the E numbered enriched confectioneries for some ill advised snacks... and so to bed.