I spent the last weekend with my cousin Kristy visting our Great Aunty Pat (our dear Grandmother's sister), Great Uncle Geoffrey, cousin Rob, and his Carolyn in Wool, Dorset. We had a lovely weekend together staying at Manor Farm. Not only did we spend hours catching up over the breakfast table (it had been 9 years since I had seen them last!) but we managed to see some of the surrounding area as well - Tyenham (a village evacuated and bombed during WWII), Monticute (a beautiful national trust Elizabethan home), Wodborrow Bay, and the local cinema in Wareham, the Rex.
Rob is the fifth generation Hyde to farm the property. He has diversified since the original farming days and converted the land to organic standards with barley & oat crops for human consumption, and red clover to feed the 1000 head of sheep - 500 Dorset Downs for meat, and 500 Freislands for their milk (sold for organic yoghurt). The property almost surrounds the village of Wool.
Rob was very excited by his new acquisition - a Cobra. It sits nicely alongside the Austin Healey from the '60s in his garage (an old coach house). [Rob L this pic is for you]
Tid bits I learned this weekend from my hosts [Mum, can you guess who told me what!]:
- the Spanish Armada was one of the greatest ever sea battles in 1588 and wouldn't be here today if we hadn't won it
- all Elizabethan houses are built in the shape of an E (when I grow up, I am having one of these)
- the tree with the beautiful purple foliage is a Copper Beech
- the UK calls them AC Cobras, and in the States they're Shelby Cobras
- the yellow crop I keep seeing but cannot name is oil seed rape aka canola
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