Rebekah Lucy Loves Woldy Weekends

Although the majority of my family lives on the other side of the world at this point in time, I'm super lucky that my amazing Aunt Helen and her two beautiful daughters Georgia and Isabella live not too far away in the adorable little Cotswold village of Northleach. So when I'm feeling the need for some family love (and scones, and cuddles with the cats, and gin, let's be honest) it's awesome to know they're just a short train ride away. Their house is called Lambs Fold. And they live on The Peep. I mean, come on? That's like storybook cuuuuute right there.

Last Friday after work Annalies and I grabbed some cheap magazines, and Nuts Collection (M&S, you so fancy) and boarded the train to Kingham. Seats for the win! H and Boo met us at the station and drove us out to their place where happy chats, and glasses of gin, and sparkly pink wine, and delicious home cooked meatballs, and a bed made of clouds (seriously) were waiting for us. I'm always exhausted when I get out to the 'Wolds - I blame all of the nature up in my nostrils, so we crashed out in the cloud pretty promptly and slept for a solid nine hours which was amazing.

So cloudy!

Malcolm. You can't tell here but Malcolm is partial to meowing at the walls and attacking the rug at random. I'm quite partial to him.

In the morning, after hot cross buns and pumpkin(g) jam (don't do it to yourself), H took Annalies and I out to Colesbourne Park.

Contains real pumpking.

Now, brace yourselves, because this is going to sound supremely geeky to some of you I'm sure - Colesbourne Park is "England's greatest snowdrop garden". It has been the home of the Elwes family since 1789 (new money, so gross right?), and Mr Henry John Elwes started the collection when he discovered Galanthus elwesii in Turkey in 1874. The house is only open five weekends in every year, so it was pretty neat to be able to see all the snowdrops doing their snowdrop thing, and to explore the enormous property. And also pat some puppies. I CAN'T HELP MYSELF OKAY.

Snowdrops.

Selfies.

Frolicking. Sort of.

The property is stunning, but the current house is... less attractive I have to say. I did a bit of reading up and it turns out it's actually the third house to exist at Colesbourne. The first was torn down in 1850 because it was too small for a family of twelve. Fair enough, I suppose. The second, a Victorian mansion, was pulled down in 1958. It had been requisitioned in the war and when Henry Elwes inherited it he apparently had no prospect of re-furnishing something so grand. The current house, built on the same site, incorporates one room from the old mansion, but other than that it doesn't appear to bear much resemblence. A shame, but I suppose I wouldn't have the means to furnish a Victorian mansion either so I can hardly blame the guy.

One lonely snowdrop.

Reclining.

While we weren't so impressed by the house, H and I took rather a shine to the neatly manicured lawns and proceeded to do roly polys down the bank. I've always fancied myself as a bit of a trendsetter (*cough) so it was pleasing to see a group of children follow suit shortly after our graceful display.

Roly poly time!

Behind the house is the Blue Lake, which was built (built? Can one build a lake?) in 1922 to provide hydro-electric power for the house - ingenious huh? The water is the most amazing blue colour. We rather fancied that it was as a result of Copper Sulphate in the water (CuS04 is the only element I was ever able to recall from science class and it was fairly exciting to be able to use it in a sentence. Hey trigonometry, I'm still waiting for you to prove your relevance to anything...) but the Colesbourne Park website tells me "the wonderful blue colour is believed to be caused by the colloidal clay in the water." If you don't know what colloidal means, Google it. God knows I had to.

"Upon the hill across the blue lake, that's where I had my first heartbreak." - Swedish House Mafia

The Blue Lake and me.

 

Reflections down at the edge of the lake. Annalies, Helen and me.

The lake appeared much less blue down at water level, but check out that scenery. Absolutely stunning.

After our stroll we warmed up with cups of tea and cake, as I'm sure you'll find is customary in the countryside, and headed back to Northleach to chill out and, wait for it... drink some gin. Oh and try on my great grandmother's furs. (I know, I know, I felt guilty about it too - but damn it looks good!)

My great grandmother's fur.

Not my great grandmother's fur. (Also known as Ralph.) I am quite partial to this character too.

In the evening H cooked up another delicious meal and we cracked in to a few bottles of bubbly. H's friend Jo joined us for a couple of drinks and then we headed across to the Ox House which is a super sweet little wine bar where Georgia works. There was a Beach Party at the bar on Saturday night, so it was a good chance to (not) wear my coconut bra, drink some pink prosecco (it's seriously delicious), and experience some village nightlife. And maybe also embarrass G a little bit. But don't tell her I said so.

Never ones to shy away from potentially embarrassing ourselves, about an hour in we got the party started with an impromptu round of limbo, followed up with everyone's favourite game, Pass The Inflatable Banana. Love me a good prop. After we'd consumed sufficient amounts of wine and things had started to wind down we headed over to the Sherbourne Arms with a couple of the locals. I hear being caught at the Sherbourne is social suicide on the village circuit, but I was pretty excited to see the local (and mostly underage) chavs in action and have a go on the karaoke machine. Of course as soon as you put the mic in my hand and set the eyes of two dozen chavs upon me, I go insta-shy, and that was the end of that (sorry Alanis). Needless to say, we didn't last long at the Sherbourne, and instead went home to decorate the cats with tropical leis and take photos of them. As you do.

Inflatable flamingo-shaped fun at the Ox House.

Karaoke with the locals.

After another supremely good sleep in the cloud bed, H cooked us up an amazing breakfast and then we slothed around the house for a couple of hours before catching the train back to London. That's always the worst part of any weekend away, you know a) the bit where it ends, and b) public transport.

Amazing cooked breakfast.

One last snugs with Norman. I am partial. He is clearly besotted with me.

Jealous? You should be. I have the best family in the world.