Day #5 - Transition to London

Breakfast was in the conservatory every morning.

This morning began early for me as all I could think about was how spread out we had become at Stockbottom House!  I spent part of the morning organizing myself and Peter, and making sure we had most everything at least collected in one area.  I went over to the main house to see if I could help with breakfast.  Sara was headed out to her garden, so Pete and I followed. She showed me her asparagus, spinach, onions, potatoes, squash, beans, peas and strawberries, among other things.  She found a couple of strawberries leftover from her earlier harvest and threw them to Pete and I. They were SO incredibly SWEET!!  It's like she grew them in sugar!  After we came back in, we finished putting breakfast on.  I've forgotten to mention that Sara makes fresh bread every morning in her breadmaker...I'm so spoiled!

After breakfast, we all piled in the cars and headed into Pitton for church.  We went to the same local small church we had visited on Wednesday.  It really is lovely, especially with the bells ringing and the candles lit.  And when we walked in, the organist was playing Pieta Signore...Andy's senior recital song!

During the service, Pete was wonderful - redeeming himself from the past four days when he wasn't so wonderful  After the service, we enjoyed coffee, and cookies.  Sara even had Pete hand them out!  Always good to put a child to work. After we left the church, Doric took us on a quick tour of the neighboring town of Farley.  Had you told me there was a smaller town than Pitton, I probably wouldn't have believed you, but there it was!  We even got to see a cricket match being played in the town.

Back home, we enjoyed a light lunch including potatoes, beans and spinach right out of Sara's garden!  I am truly going to miss the meals at her house.  We quickly finished eating, grabbed our bags, took a few farewell photos, and then headed off to the Salisbury train station.  It took both of their cars to get us and our stuff there, but we arrived in plenty of time, got our tickets, said our goodbyes and off we went!

Ready for London!

It was a nice, quiet 1 1/2 hour ride to Waterloo Station.  Once we arrived, it took two cabs to get us to the apartment we've rented for the next four days.  It's expensive getting five people and all their stuff around!  It took a few moments for the owner to show up, but we were finally in, and it's beautiful!  We left Andy behind to 'hold down the fort', and Pete, Em, Steve and I took a walk to find the closest grocery.  We found a small Sainsbury, and went about purchasing items for breakfast tomorrow, as well as dinner tonight.

Shall we make dinner?

It was fun to cook in the gourmet kitchen.  And dinner was really good!  Apparently the people who own this place LOVE television, because there is a TV in every bedroom, kitchen and living room!  The kids all ended up watching whatever they wanted to watch while I tried to catch up on laundry.  A good transition day I think.  Tomorrow, we start tackling London!