Sunny Spring Weekend in Harrowbarrow

Spring has arrived with a vengeance in eastern Cornwall over the past few weeks. Flowers are out in full force (we have a separate post on that). Forget the stereo-type of dreary English weather as we've had more than our fair share of sunny, warm days. I'm sure that we'll get more than our share of rainy weather, as everyone around here keeps saying, but they also talk about what a rough winter it's been this year and I have yet to see winter arrive.

We spent the past weekend enjoying our little village and the sunshine. We spent Saturday at the Cotehele House and Quay (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-cotehele), a National Trust property only two miles from our house. We write about that in another blog posting. We spent the rest of the weekend enjoying our garden and extended property, the village playground, and the girls' new bikes. Yes, you heard correctly, bikes. Our neighbors over the hedge, Graham and Doreen, had spoken with Christine earlier in the week about bikes. Graham was selling his grandson's bike, and Christine had mentioned to him that she was looking for bikes for the girls. When we returned from Cotehele on Saturday, Graham knocked on the door and said that he had found a bike in the nearby village of St. Ive. Christine drove over there with Doreen and returned with a bike for Gwendolyn. Unfortunately, they didn't have a bicycle in Rebecca's size.

Sunday morning was absolutely beautiful and we decided to go to the Harrowbarrow and Metherell village hall's carpark for some space to refresh the girls' biking skills. Here's a picture of Gwendolyn remembering how to ride a bike. She remembered quickly and only had one wreck.

When we returned home later that morning, Graham told us that he and Doreen had found a bicycle for Rebecca at the "tip" or what we call the dump. He was cleaning it up and tightening the brakes. It was as good as new when he finished. Here is Rebecca testing it out in our driveway.

We hope to build up the girls' biking skills so that we can all ride on the Camel bike path in western Cornwall. It's a reclaimed rail line, similar to the Virginia Creeper bike trail in southwest Virginia, and it runs along the Camel River.

The village hall is really a community center that hosts a preschool, community events like the pantomime that we went to during our first month here, Monday night badminton (yes, badminton - it's a real sport!), and Friday yoga, in addition to other events. They even hosted a night of Cornish poetry and music on St. Piran's Day, March 5 (St. Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall).

The village hall also has a great playground that was constructed with funds raised, in part, by the residents of Harrowbarrow and Metherell about a year ago.

It is a kid favorite, especially for our kids. There are swings and slides and climbing walls,

a fenced-in combination basketball/football pitch (have you ever seen a basketball court with a grass floor?),

a gazebo that people actually sit in while the kids play (have you ever noticed that gazebos are usually empty?),

and the girls' favorite, a miniature zip line.

The equipment is all empty in these pictures because the girls had a serious variation of hide-and-seek going on with some friends from the village.

Other than a quick trip to Cotehele Quay for some ice cream and a quick trip to the Cross House to check out their excellent playground in the beer garden, we spent the rest of the weekend at home. The girls love the trampoline in the side yard. They spend a lot of time out here no matter the weather, making up games and shows. Yes, some of you may find it hard to believe (or probably not!), but the girls have actually made up trampoline shows to add to their repertoire of performances. They keep saying that they'd like a trampoline like this at home, but they don't seem to realize that we don't have a flat space this big in our entire yard in Boone!

There are also handmade swings all over the property. At last count, I've seen five of them. The field behind Rebecca in the picture below is the village's version of a CSA, or community-supported agriculture. They plowed the field last week and I heard that they were to plant over the weekend (or 'at the weekend' as they say around here). I can't imagine farmer's planting at home in March! They're now in the planning stages for a community orchard.

The football pitch in the garden has also become a frequent place for us to spend some time. The Matcham's son, Dominic, is a budding professional footballer. He's had this mini football pitch since he was a kid, and the girls and I have enjoyed kicking footballs around, sometimes with Dominic joining us. Gwendolyn has been working on her goalkeeping skills. Check out her football boots (literally!).

She and I have come up with a simulated football game that I have yet to win. She does a goal kick, and I have to take a shot from wherever the ball ends up. If I score, I get a point; if I miss, she gets a point. The odds are definitely stacked against me, especially as her kicking and keeping skills have improved. I've lost 15-4, 15-5, 15-5, ... My best loss was 15-11.

I'm now mostly kicking from the equivalent of midfield on a real pitch. When the ball is too close to the goal, I kick left-footed. I think that she ended up blocking this shot. She should be ready for keeping duties on her team this fall, at least I think that she'll know what she's doing this year. (Last year she didn't want to use her hands!)

Finally, here's a view out the far end of the garden with an assortment of swings and Liz's greenhouse. On school days you can see the kids out playing at lunchtime from here.