The Best Thing I've Ever Put in My Mouth

Clotted cream is the most delicious food ever. In a world where we can get garlic from china and the food system is globalized I can not get clotted cream in Canada. Clotted cream is not made in nor imported into Canada. I am not allowed to bring it home from England. It is treachery that I can not buy this product in Canada and a dishonor to the Canadian dairy industry that we don't produce it domestically.

What is clotted cream? It is something between whipping cream and butter. It has a consistency that is whipped butter like and the flavor of a slightly sweet, slightly cooked whipping cream. It coats your mouth with a cool creamy sensation.

Most of all clotted cream is FAT! It must have a minimum fat content of 55%, but typically has is more like 65% fat. One serving provides 70% of your daily recommended fat intake. A 2006 UK study of a 120 food ranked clotted cream as the least healthiest. One heaping table spoon of clotted cream has roughly the same calorie count as a cheese burger.

I WILL TAKE THE CLOTTED CREAM PLEASE!

Steam Gala on the West Somerset Railway (WSR)

The paparazzi were out in the village of Williton today. Was there a superstar in town? Yes, its the 31806 steam engine from the Great Western Railway.

This weekend is the Steam Gala on the WSR and steam engines from all over England have gathered in the area to delight thousands of grey haired old men who live for this weekend. We spent three hours at Williton Station this morning and saw maybe five or six families, but the platforms were filled with grey heads and beards.

This is a great event for families. Its FREE to attend, see the old steamers puff through and walk through the diesel works yard at the station. Not the ideal weekend to ride the line because of the large crowds that come out for the event. Apparently there are a lot of steam train fans out there. For these fans its not enough to ride a steam train, but to ride on some very specific trains pulled by some very specific engines.

It was great fun for us this morning. Ilya was especially pleased with the event. Most of all Ilya loved being able to sit in the driver's seat of real working diesel engines. Luckily we arrived early and Ilya was able to have the driver seat to himself for an extended button pushing, leaver pulling good time.

Walk from Williton to Wathchet

Seeing the weather forecast for the rest of the week was grey, rain and wind we decided to stick close to home Thursday.

view of Williton from top of the hill

We walked from Williton, the village we are staying in, to Wathchet, the next village to the west. Its a short walk, maybe two or three km up and over the hill.

view of Wathcet from top of the hill

Williton lies slightly inland while Watchet is on the sea. Looking down the hill toward Wathchet we saw that many of the homes have photo voltaic cells on their roofs.

As we got to the bottom of the hill and neared the train station we noticed a bunch grown men with cameras and video cameras fixed on the rail tracks. We walked cross the rail tracks and realized the steam trains arrival, from Minehead, was imminent. What a treat!

Wells and its Cathedral

On Wednesday we visited Wells, a town about one hour drive east from the village we are staying in. Wells is a lovely town that has retained much of its medieval character, but is primarily recognized for its large and spectacular cathedral.

The oldest part of the Cathedral dates back to ~1175 and is a truly magnificent space. By 1508 the Cathedral was complete and appears much as it does today. Wells Cathedral survived the reformation and boorish attacks by Thomas Cromwell his Protestant heathens, but many of the fixtures and stain glass was destroyed.

The Cathedral costs over $8000 a day for maintenance, upkeep and running costs. So, in addition to the $12 suggested donation to enter the Cathedral a $6 photography permit is also required to take picture of the interior. We did not purchase the photography permit.

And, Jasper's first two teeth poked through his gums yesterday.

Dunster Castle

This morning Ryan and Ilya took advantage of the sunny weather and spend 3 hours at the local playground. Ryan met some local mothers and Ilya attempted to escape into the neighbouring garden with  his new friends.

The weather continued to hold so we decided to visit Dunster Castle after lunch. It is a 10 minute drive down the road (driving is getting much easier, though we saw a huge truck and a bus that could hardly pass each other). The site has been occupied for over 1,000 years and was a private residence until 1970.

The grounds were beautiful- hyathis and tulips were in bloom. In the forest portion of the grounds there was a new kids play area that included a natural wood xylophone. Ilya enjoyed it.

I took a tour of the basement of the castle, including the servants quarters and kitchen. Each room in the castle had a button or wind-up wheel that was used to ring a bell in the servants quarters and request them. This meant there were 30 different bells that rang at different tones to alert the servant's attention.

The kitchen was what you would expect. There was the main kitchen, the scullery, pastry room, and then the meat storing room. The kitchen would have been extremely hot with the stove, open fire and grill, while the other rooms got progressively colder.

The most interesting fact of the tour was that the Victorian kitchen was used until the family moved out in 1970. In the 1960's the lady of the house was give an new, modern kitchen as a surprise. She never liked it and continued to have the cook use the original kitchen, which seems astonishing.

Dunster Castle was very interesting and everyone was satisfied at the end of the visit.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week looks grey and rainy, but this is England in March after all.

Minehead

Today we went to Minehead, a nice tourist town. The population of 10,000 doubles in the summer as visitors arrive at Butlins Holiday Park. Holiday parks are a concept we don't have in Canada but people love them here.

The town was filled with cream teas, ice cream shops and is the terminus of the West Somerset Railway. Ryan and Ilya are going to take a day to ride the steam train, but probably not on the Special Steam Weekend coming up when it will be overrun by serious steam enthusiasts.

Safe and sound in Somerset, England

We landed in Bristol, England  in the rain and dark, picked up our car and drove away on the left side of the road. A little stressful, but here at Kate's family's place safe and sound.

This morning was sunny!

Amsterdam Airport

We had a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam Airport. If you have to be stuck in an airport with kids for anytime Amsterdam is the one. They have a great play area and baby facilities. Even have a place to bath your baby.

Ilya made some friends in the play area. The girls in the picture below only speak Korean and Spanish, but played with Ilya for over an hour.

away we go

Our Family is off to England and Europe for two months!

We left Victoria early Wednesday. Hung out in Vancouver air port for 5 hours. For a family of four we are traveling very compact. here we are with all our luggage including gifts for our hosts and car seats.