Day 8: Visiting the farm and Stratford town

March 4th, Thursday.

We all woke at our normal time this morning ie 7am-ish. The kids munched on their soda bread first before we went out for breakfast which is served at 830am. Our room is a converted stable and consist of a king sized bed that sleeps the two kids and myself, a baby cot which William doesn’t use and a set of bunks.

Vic was initially excited to sleep on the top deck of the bunks but on second thoughts, we told her to sleep with me on the big bed, for fear we may not hear her call if she wants to go for her midnight pee or worse, she falls off the bed! So daddy “volunteered” to take the top deck. The bottom deck we used to put the kids’ luggage and under the bed, we cleverly hid our shoes from William.

The first thing Vic said when she woke was, “Mummy, William’s hair is very long. Ask the farmer to cut his hair!” What a caring sister she is!

By the way, opposite our converted stable-rooms (there are four of these rooms) is the real stable which houses an 18-year old brown horse called, Rupert. Rupert The Horse looks out from his stable last evening to check out the new visitors and this morning he was out early too. He’s a pretty decent horse that doesn’t make much noise but the kids are still afraid to go near him although they are so enthralled by Rupert.

The dining area of Church Farm is small and cozy. There was another group of guests, comprising of an old lady and her two adult children. Marian who is our host and Farmer Steve’s wife, cooks our breakfast after enquiring on any preference. In fact, the moment she checked us into our room, she has already asked and we informed her of Vic’s allergies.

Vic had her English breakfast of just the bacon, sausage and baked beans. We did ask if Marion could add an extra sausage or bacon for Vic but that didn’t come. However, I was surprised that William got a plate of English breakfast all to himself, minus the mushrooms. Both kids helped themselves to the cereals too.

Hubby and I had our full breakfast comprising of one sausage, two bacons, baked beans, fresh mushrooms, cereals with fresh milk (though not direct from the farm), toast, grilled tomatoes and a sunny side up egg, complete with a choice of tea or coffee and orange juice and complete with a choice of English tea or coffee and toast. Unfortunately, much to our disappointment, the butter and fresh milk were commercialized ones and not home made like what some other farms that I read offered. Still, I have no complains about the breakfast as it was served warm and Marian kept checking if we were alright.

The kids obviously enjoyed their full breakfast. We let Vic have some rice flakes, bran flakes and corn flakes cereals and try some milk to go with. Praise God she didn’t scratch, and her skin on her arm folds have tremendously improved. She is also munching on this Irish brown soda bread, which is yeast free but contains buttermilk. Even then her skin is still good. We hope when we go for our next checkout, she will still score a zero for milk allergy.

After breakfast, this is where the real action begins! We dressed up the kids more warmly in the room, before heading out to the barn to see the new born baby lambs. There were so many of them, I didn’t count. Probably 30 baby lambs and whilst we were there, the friendly volunteer-lady informed us of new ones that were just born.

She bottle fed a baby lamb in front of us and showed us around the barn, explaining and pointing out to where they kept the pregnant and expecting lambs, the new mummy lambs with their babies and in the back section, the mummy lambs with the older babies. There were only a few black-and-white cows and a few roosters.

Farmer Steve is around 60 years old but looks strong and sturdy with a very smooth complexion and rosy cheeks which I am so envious of. He and Marian have an adult son, James who’s tall and handsome (does not look like a farmer) and helps with the farm. Together, they have two big working farms, but the other is out of bounds. They have more than 500 sheeps that are served by 8 (lucky) rams and a few more horses out in the fields.

We saw trucks, big trucks and tractors and huge hay stacks. The weather was very cold and the kids shivered. But spending some time with the sheeps, we walked further down to check out the fields and lake and walked through muddy tracks. Our shoes were the dirties and muddiest I have ever seen. But we didn’t get to the lake because the tracks were way too muddy and wet, so we turned back.

Lunch was at Cox’s Yard in town located next to the River Avon, and is a traditional english pub that has two pool tables and slot machines. I ordered a sandwich, because I was still full from breakfast, and hubby ordered a quarter pounder burger and gave the patti to Vic. William slept in the car and joined us half way through our lunch.

The kids and I spent some time in the yard watching a few swans and ducks swim along the River Avon. After which, we proceeded to walk around town centre and do a little shopping to help spur the economy in little old Stratford ; ) We walked past William Shakespeare’s home but didn’t go in because they charge like crazy and neither hubby nor I were particularly interested.

By 5pm the kids were tired and we decided to tapau something simple to eat back at the farm. So after driving around, we found a Thai restaurant, called Thai King, that served just the right kind of food for the kids after noting down Vic’s allergies.

I must comment that although UK is a country where yeast and dairy and eggs are found in almost every other food, the restaurants here are very careful and sensitive to people with food preference. They even have a sign up on their restaurants to inform patrons to state if they have any allergies when ordering.

So I ordered fried rice for Vic because she missed eating rice and vermicelli soup with pork balls for William. They both ate in the car – I moved to the back seat and fed William, while daddy drove us back to the farm.

The kids slept by 9pm if I recall correctly. Truly a very tiring but satisfying day and we continue to praise God for good weather and a wonderful holiday.