Village People

My internet connection is still as dodgy as can be, but at least I have occasional sweet spots in which I can get things done. I'll persevere because I really want to share our photos and experiences from the weekend, when we finally set out to explore our new hometown. We had SO much fun.

Out here we really feel that we are in England. Oxford feels like England, of course, but it also feels like a big tourist destination with tons of foreigners like ourselves streaming around. Here, we seem to be the only foreigners for miles and there's not a postcard in sight. Just regular English people in regular English villages going about their English lives. It's fantastic.



Click on the satellite image above to get a sense of our new stomping ground - the white star on the right marks our house and Oxford is sprawled out in the upper left-hand corner. As you can see, we are gloriously surrounded by nothing but green fields dotted with small villages. But at the same time, the M40 motorway to London is just north of us, which makes David's commute much quicker.

Our drive to the movie theatre on the outskirts of Oxford takes down narrow roads, over little stone bridges, and through the beautiful villages of Cuddesdon and Garsington. It is just the coolest.

So anyway, on Saturday afternoon, after completing the morning errands into Oxford and watching the Formula One qualifying race (which is in Britain this weekend!), we went for a walk into "our" village, Great Milton.


Above (and at the top of this blog) is the road sign just down the road from our house, where we turn right to go into Great Milton.


And this is the road into the village. It looks like a bike path, but it is actually for cars, a few of which came zooming by as we walked along. In the English countryside, most of the roads are "single-track", meaning that only one car can use it at a time. There are occasional small pull-outs that you have to squeeze into when meeting an oncoming car, and there are many blind corners and hills that require nerves of steel. But there seem to be few incidents, as everyone is used to it.


Fun with a convex mirror at a bend in the road.


Coming into Great Milton from our little road.


One of many lovely cottages scattered around the village.


"Downtown" Great Milton. This is where I would catch the hourly bus to go into Oxford.


The village's only pub, The Bull. We haven't tried it yet, but we will!


Great Milton's only shop, which doubles as the post office. It was closed, but seems to have some basic staples like newspapers, bread and candy.


Great Milton's church, which you've seen before! But when the sun's out and I have my wide-angle lens, I can't just walk by! We still haven't seen the inside, as we have to get the keys from next door and haven't bothered yet.


And this is what's next door: Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, which I think I've also mentioned briefly before. It's one of the finest restaurants in the entire UK and has prices to match (upwards of $200 each for dinner). It is housed in a 14th-century manor and has luxurious lodgings to go with the restaurant.


David took this photo of a private courtyard at Le Manoir from over the churchyard wall. Croquet! What fun!

We explored Le Manoir's property in depth this time, although we are probably not supposed to as non-customers. We just tried to look like we belonged and no one asked questions! Thankfully some rich people dress down. :)


Above are the huge vegetable and herb gardens whose products are used in the restaurant. The greenhouse (with zucchini) looked very X-Files to me.

But this was the best part of all. As we were heading out of Le Manoir and admiring the fancy cars in the parking lot, we heard a helicopter overhead. Soon we realized it was landing nearby! Right next to the parking lot is a small, grassy helipad.



We were SO jealous. We figured they were either arriving at Le Manoir from London, or had been out to some nearby tourist destination for the day. How awesome would that be? I have come to really hate airports, and trains and crowded roads are not a lot of fun either, so if I could afford a helicopter I would totally suck up my fear of heights and use it regularly!

After the pilots made lots of adjustments overhead and turned off the rotor, we watched three happy, rich-looking women in linen pants and high heels emerge and head for their hotel room. Nice.

After they left, we approached the helicopter and David asked the pilot if he could take a picture. He clearly gets this a lot: he beckoned each of us in turn to come pose with him for pictures.



Then he said he had to be going, but would be back in about a half an hour. He seemed to assume we were staying there and might actually use the helicopter, which was awesome.

David asked where he was going, and get this: he was a shuttle to the Formula One race! Of all things! We should have thought of that, as the Silverstone race track is just north of Oxford. The traffic approaching the race track is notoriously bad, so this would just be the coolest thing ever.



Then he was off within minutes. The takeoff was so much fun to watch. We were joined by a local family on a walk with their kids and a dog and we all waved at him as he flew away.



That excitement behind us, we headed back home via a footpath through the fields, which began on the delightfully-named Lower End road. One of the things England really has going for are the many great names of streets and villages. In the map at the top of this post, you can see one of our local favorites: the village of Toot Baldon.


Our footpath home took us through some seriously spectacular views of the countryside. I can't get over how big the sky is out here - it reminds me of Montana! The combination of very few buildings, fairly flat land, and not too many trees just makes it seem to go on forever.


Back at the homestead. This is one of our landlord's many barns, located not far behind the house.

We have been disappointed there aren't more animals on the farm - especially cats, which have been nowhere to be seen - but while we were out exploring back here, we did discover he has pigs!


David visits with the pigs. Man, did they ever stink.


Oink, oink!


And these are the chickens we enjoy so much. Aren't they pretty, for chickens?


And finally, this is the back of the house, where our apartment is. We are on the second floor - the window on the right is our kitchen and the window on the left is our bedroom. Our apartment has its quirks, but the location of this place sure can't be beat!

Saturday evening while dinner was cooking, I looked over the Great Milton Bulletin, which we had received in the mail that morning. It was so much more interesting that I expected! And it just added to the wonderful feeling of experiencing good old-fashioned England. It began with the news from the last meeting of the Parish Council, which included things like minor flooding at the Yew Tree Cottage and the need to call Oxfordshire Highways about various things.

Inside, there were various stories and messages submitted by people of the village, including our very own Mr. Peers! He apparently has a monthly column in the bulletin, which is called "View from Views." There was also a really funny report of the Great Milton Cycling Association's recent ride from London to Brighton, and a summary of the Village Fete that was held in June.

The weather wasn't as nice on Sunday, so we didn't do any more exploring. But we did watch the British Grand Prix on TV and shake our fists at the helicopters we heard overhead! And in the evening we took our nice village drive to the cinema to see Die Hard 4.0, which was good silly fun and recommended.