A lovely little village whose name is. . . shh, it's a secret

When we were in England last Fall, we took two wonderful day-trips with The English Bus. One tour took us to Oxford, Stratford and the Cotswolds, the other to Bath, Stonehenge and a Secret Place.

I have written and shared photos of all our stops on the day trips (except for Stonehenge, for some reason) and if you missed them, just click on my highlighted links and have a look. Lovely photos, I promise.

When we set out on the Bath/Stonehenge trip, our guide told us we'd be going to "A Secret Place." He asked us all — there were 16 of us in the small bus — if we would keep his secret and we all agreed that we would.

So I'm not going to tell you the name of this secret place but I'm going to show you a few photos.

I will tell you that this place is mostly owned by The National Trust. You can come here to live (if you can afford a house) but you must agree to be an active part of a living community. This is not a medieval theme park. Young families are particularly welcomed — the school has around 75 students.

The latest structure that was built here was built around 1499.

The secret place has often made an appearance on television and in movies. It's so very picturesque, isn't it? You may recognize one of the old houses from the Harry Potter films.

Without further ado then (and don't forget to click on the photos):

(That's William. I'd know the back of his head anywhere.)

(William again, walking toward the Harry Potter house.)

(I wouldn't mind living in one of these little houses.)

This was certainly a highlight of our trip although I've said that a few times now. Maybe I'll reach the point of saying this was a "highlight of highlights."

Tell me a story. . .

When we lived in Ottawa, I took William — then a toddler — to the theatre to see Robert Munsch. The theatre was full of parents and kids, kids ranging from babes-in-arms to 12-year-olds. It was mostly pandemonium with a high-decibel count but it was great fun. My own toddler contributed his share — and more — to the racket and my only regret about the afternoon is that he was too young to remember it.

He loved Robert Munsch though and Robert was very adept at getting the attention of his audience and we all enjoyed the participatory elements.

William's favourite Munsch story was Mortimer. . .

. . .as so often with Munsch, a subversive story in which the kid outwits the grown-ups and kids, of course, find this most satisfying. At the concert, Robert asked all of us in the audeience to sing "Clang clang rattle-bing-bang" in the tune we used at home. We all sang as loud as we could — kids too — and of course, everyone's tune was different and it couldn't have been funnier.

Clang clang rattle-bing-bang

Gonna make my noise all day!

I enjoyed seeing what Robert said about Mortimer:

Once I was telling stories at a school in Toronto. It was not a fun school. The principal ran around looking very mean; the teachers ran around looking very mean; and the kids ran around looking very unhappy. I don’t think anybody got along very well in that school. At the end of the day I told stories to all of the kids and when I was done the principal got up and started yelling at the kids, telling them how they were going to be quiet and go back to their rooms and not cause any trouble. When he was done talking all the kids were silent for a second and then they all started to sing, “Clang, clang, rattle-bing bang.” Well the principal was really freaked out. I decided it was time to go.

Robert asked the audience to sing together again, this time, the mother's song from Love You Forever.

I’ll love you forever,

I’ll like you for always,

as long as I’m living

my baby you’ll be.

Once again, everyone sang with a different tune but the atmosphere was much different. Many of us acknowledged that we simply couldn't read Love You Forever without dissolving into tears before we finished the book. The kids weren't impressed and didn't understand but maybe they will someday.

Living in Ottawa, we had access to TVO and it was there we became acquainted with another fellow who became a favourite: Fireman Sam. Sam seemed to be — and was — a very simple and innocent guy. The stories were straightforward and suited a small person and who wouldn't enjoy becoming familiar with a village called Pontypandy?

At that time, Fireman Sam books were not available in Canada and we had to order them from the UK. We still get an occasional email letting us know when a new title comes out. That makes us all feel a little sentimental.

In Halifax, we lived on a busy downtown street where traffic passed our front windows day and night. One of our favourite books from that time was Night Cars.

It is late at night in the city. From his father's shoulder, a sleepless baby watches the snow drift down from the sky onto the busy street below. What are all those noises? What are all those lights? His tired but patient father explains everything, from the bustle of taxis swishing through the slush to the grinding and slamming of the early-morning garbage trucks.

The book had a very moody quality and was lovely to read. It was written by Teddy Jam, the pen name of author Matt Cohen.

And there were Goodnight Moon and The Velveteen Rabbit and Katy and the Big Snow and any number of books about trucks, diggers, bulldozers and all manner of heavy equipment. Not to mention sports, fairy tales, fables, legends and the classics.

Nothing though took over every room in the house like the little blue engine called Thomas.

We first saw him on TVO as well. His ascent had begun but at that time, he was still a fairly unknown little engine. The first books we got were still the small oblong hard-cover books by The Rev. Wilbert Awdry and many of the engines had not yet made an appearance.

Thomas did get very big indeed but at our house, after the books, the trains and the tracks were all that were needed.

(We had lots more tracks than are shown in this Internet picture.)

Every day when William came home from school, a new configuration of tracks would begin to take shape. The tracks ran under the chairs and around the legs of the coffee table. They often straddled two rooms and we all learned how to get around the house without disrupting the goings-on on the Island of Sodor. In short, Thomas, Percy, Edward, Gordon, Henry, James, Emily, Rosie and Sir Topham Hatt all became valued members of the family and they all had their place.

Most of the childhood books have been given away to other children or sold at book sales for good causes. Not the Thomas books though. William decided at a certain point that he would keep them and they would accompany him on his life's journey, wherever that may take him. The books are carefully packed into a box with the trains and tracks, a few videotapes and maybe a CD, and the beautiful Thomas the Tank Engine bedspread that he slept under for much of his little boyhood.

On our recent trip to England, we were passing through the village of Stroud in Gloucester on one of our day trips with The English Bus. As we passed a row of modest houses, our guide pointed out one of the houses and said, "That's where The Rev. Wilbert Awdry lived. Some of you may have heard of him."

Oh yes. If only he knew.

A roof, a window, some stones

Did you know that if you buy a thatched cottage in England or Wales, it is, in all likelihood, a property registered with English Heritage Trust, a charity that looks after the National Heritage Collection? That means that if you have a lapse in judgement and decide you want to put some kind of tacky shingles (or even nice shingles) on your roof, you probably won't be allowed.

We saw a lot of thatched houses on our drives in the English countryside and, as always, our guides with The English Bus were full of information about the roofs, the regulations, the building materials, the advantages and disadvantages of a thatched roof. Who would know there would be so much to learn?

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This is the Bath Abbey. There has been a church on this spot for more than a thousand years. It's really interesting to read about at the link.

"The Abbey as we know it is the work of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who from 1864 to 1874, completely transformed the inside of the Abbey to conform with his vision of Victorian Gothic architecture. His most significant contribution must surely be the replacement of the ancient wooden ceiling over the nave with the spectacular stone fan vaulting we see today." (From the official site.)

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Did I mention some stones? I'll be back.

Bless me Father for I have . . . murdered someone

I had watched five seasons of The Good Wife – American lawyers – and three seasons of Silk – English barristers – and I thought I needed a little break from the law.

I have begun to watch Father Brown, a series about G.K. Chesterson’s affable murder-solving priest. I remember Father Brown well from my earlier reading of the short stories. In the murder-solving genre, he’s a bit like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple – an unlikely detective.

It’s just what I was looking for. The stories and the characters are gentle; there are murders but they’re genteel and the murderers are usually not evil and they often come to an accidental end before the Inspector can get his hands on them.

That’s a relief because the stories this time around are set in the early 1950s – in the aftermath of the war – and the death penalty was still in effect in Great Britain. Much better for our murderer to stumble on to the track in front of a moving train than sent off to be hanged.

Part of my enjoyment of the series is the beauty of the village and surrounding countryside where Father Brown tends his flock. At one point, I said to myself, I think I’ve been there!

I looked it up and sure enough, the series is filmed in different villages in the Cotswolds. Some of those villages were on one of the tours we took with The English Bus. As always with the tour, our guide – Colin, in this case – had much information and many stories about these beautiful villages and as we had in other places, we parked the bus and he led a walking tour to make sure we got the maximum enjoyment.

Here are some photos of our stop – two different stops, in fact. As always, remember to click on the photos to enlarge them.

William and I agreed that we could live in one of these houses (below) – if they had good Internet. (A standard requirement.)

The timeless beauty of Oxford

It’s always a little thrilling to see a place in person that you’ve seen – often many times – in the movies or on TV. I don’t know why. I guess it’s one of our child-like characteristics.

It happens a lot in New York. You’re just walking along and suddenly, there’s Tiffany’s and you’re looking around for Audrey Hepburn with her coffee and croissant.

It doesn’t have to be New York though. See these steps? Those are the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. If you listen carefully, you’ll hear the triumphant music that accompanied Rocky on his victorious ascent.

One of the stops on one of our day trips in England with The English Bus was Oxford. It’s likely, unless you’ve never gone to the movies or watched TV, that you’re very familiar with Oxford.

I loved Brideshead Revisited, the 1981 11-part television series. (I also loved Evelyn Waugh’s novel on which the series was based.) The two young men, Charles Ryder and Lord Sebastian Flyte, met at Oxford and there are beautiful scenes, outdoors and indoors, of the time they shared there.

Since we returned from England, we’ve seen the movie Testament of Youth, based on the pacifist Vera Brittain’s memoir of World War I. Vera also went to Oxford and it was nice to see her there so soon after we had been there ourselves. This is a scene of them making the movie.

And just in the last week, watching the legal drama TV series called Silk, I saw Oxford again when one of the barristers travelled from London to Oxford on a case.

Oxford, made up of 38 separate colleges, is considered to be the oldest university in the English-speaking world. There are records of teaching there that go back to 1096.

What follows are some of my favourite photos of the time we spent in Oxford. The first is, I think, the most commonly seen venue in the movies and on TV. (Don't forget to click on the photos to enlarge. You won't be sorry.)

The Sheldonian Theatre, built by Sir Christopher Wren

See William and me?