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Friday, October 30, 2009

Laundry, Vegetables and Shakespeare

Heather - Friday 30 Oct 2009. We did our laundry at the local launderette, had a great chat with the girl who worked there and also had a brief wander around Kenilworth. We found the allotments. There was about a mile of worth of garden plots, greenhouses and sheds. This would really be worth seeing in spring, as these were being harvested and prepared for the next veggie seasons. In the background was a windmill and we are planning to take a closer look.

Shakespeare's BirthplaceWe went to Stratford upon Avon, to see Shakespeare’s birthplace. His house in uniquely Tudor. We also toured quite a number of the houses of his family and went to their burial place at the local Holy Trinity church. The geese were great.



The houses comprised Shakespeare’s son-in-law – John Hall who was the first doctor to write case notes and published. (Only of the patients who lived). Very opulent by Tudor standards. The house is now having problems with borer beetles and needed half a million pounds to restore. They need to locate suitable timber 300 years old and in the correct lengths. At the same time they shall replace the wattle and daube with authentic materials including, straw and dung. We did get into conversation with one of the volunteers, a Scottish gentleman (Alistair) who advised that the church are still looking for any Shakespeare’s relatives as they are beholden to contribute to the upkeep of the church etc. as part of the estate from Shakespeare and Dr Hall.






A Guild Chapel Gargoyle at Stratford upon AvonWe spent about an hour hearing of cases etc and learning all about the casting of water. (Urine watching).


……., you will be interested to know that we saw a Tudor Knot garden. Unfortunately autumn is not the best time to see it but it was beautiful. We also saw holly in bloom. I do think the native flowers in the UK blossom in their cottage gardens better than in Australia.




After two days I have managed to completely confuse the GPS. We are heading to Lichfield tomorrow (40 minutes away) and will see Kenilworth castle (ruins) and Warwick castle (a modern, working castle) on the way. I am hoping we don’t end up at Dover.

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