Oswaldtwistle and Newtown Upthank

Apologies for the silence lately. There has been a lot going on to keep me away from blogging, but it is about time I did some updating! I don't have photos of my weekends yet, so words will have to do...

My house is very full at the moment. Kelly and I have two houseguests crammed into the place, and our other flatmates are enjoying their company so much we're often all in the lounge together until very late. Even 'quiet nights in' are ending up as late nights out after we've all tested a few of my slowly-nearing-perfection flavoured vodkas and decided to hit The City. It's a lot of fun, although my inner-40-year-old is struggling a bit.

Fortunately, I had some sedate tourism planned to balance the madness...

Last weekend I went to visit Clive and Janice near Leicester. Clive and Janice are my second cousins on the other side of Dad's family from everyone in Colne. The best way to explain the link is that Janice's father Bert is my great-Uncle.

Although I hadn't met them before, there's quite a strong connection as my parents hosted C+J for their six month trip Down Under last year. You have to admire people over fifty who quit their jobs, pack up their stuff and head halfway round the world - it's hard enough when you're 28!

Anyway, I've been keen to meet these rather brave peeps since I got here, and had organised a £9 return coach trip way back in November. Of course, since then I had endured my unnerving Dublin experience that put me off weekend travelling, so I wasn't quite sure if it would be a good time or exhausting. Fortunately, it was amazing and my hosts were wonderful...

In addition to being cheap my bus ride was fast and comfortable, so I arrived in Leicester on Friday night well-prepared for an interesting weekend. I spent the first evening with wine and yummy food hearing Clive and Janice's thoughts on NZ and Australia, and reminiscing about the scenery, air, people etc. I got very homesick for my parents.

The next morning Janice and I headed off to Stratford-on-Avon to see some Shakespearean stuff. We passed some extremely quaint village names on the way - the favourite two give this post its title!

Although the forecast gales never materialised the temperature was very low; it was rather unpleasant to walk about in, but kept the streets nice and empty. The first stop was 'Shakespeare's Birthplace', which I had been told was actually 'The House Next Door To Shakespeare's Birthplace Because Some Idiot From The Council Read The Plans Wrong And Demolished The Real One'. I looked for clues to confirm this, but all I could come up with was that the house is always refered to in quotation marks as 'The Birthplace' and never Shakespeare's birthplace.

In between all my pedantic punctuation checking I actually managed to be enthralled by the history of the building. The timber and plaster style of Tudor houses is really interesting, and all the doorways are tiny. The amount of space families of nine grew up in is astonishing.

From the Birthplace, Janice and I just walked around Stratford and checked out all the old buildings. We visited a few other places with links to Shakespeare, and laughed at all those with rather tenuous connections (the house that may or may not have been home to Will's best friend's father....?!?!?!?) until we found ourselves taking the much-anticipated drive to Anne Hathaway's Cottage.

I remember seeing this cottage in a book when I was at primary school, and wanting to visit it someday. Yay for me, and my 'To Do' list world trip!!

Of course, being winter, the cottage was not at its best. But the thatched roof and formal garden were still very nice. The interior was like most of the other houses we had seen - fireplaces in every room, wattle and daub walls and set up as a museum. In summer this would be a gorgeous place to linger, especially with cream tea served in the orchard, and it was my favourite of all the Stratford places.

As with most of my tours, by late afternoon it is too cold to do much else, so Janice and I headed back to their house in time for tea with 'the rellies'.

That night I met Janice's daughter Jenny and her boyfriend Darren. And I also got to meet Janice's sister ('Our Julie') who is famous in my family for being engaged for sixteen years to a man who lives down the street from her hairdressing studio. They were all very nice, and just as welcoming as Clive and Janice were.

Uncle Bert was also able to join us, and it was surreal to sit across from an eighty-year old version of my father. He has the same smile as 'Our Bill' (which I have inherited), and this gorgeous shock of white hair that I can't wait to see appear on my Dad's head. We were both a bit overwhelmed by the resemblance I think...

For the rest of the evening, I just sat back and listened to Bert' and Janice's stories and soaked up a bit of family history.

The next morning Clive and Janice took me to Bradgate Park, which is 850 acres of old hunting grounds surrounding the ruins of Lady Jane Grey's childhood home. The ruins were a gorgeous burgundy colour, and the surrounding countryside was utterly picturesque with herds of deer playing between the tussocks and bubbling brooks.

We walked to the top of the grounds to see 'Old John' - a folly in the shape of a beer mug, but found the icy wind far too strong to linger. So it was quickly down again for a wintry lunch at home (Potato Pie sans mushy peas) before Janice kindly dropped me back at the bus station.

It was joyous to spend the weekend being part of a family again. I am very lucky to have connections over here that help with the distance from home. My flatmates keep reminding me how fortunate I am and with a long period stretching ahead of me without my brothers or parents around, I expect to travel to Leicestershire (and let's not forget Lancashire!) quite often to recharge my Greenwood batteries.