Salve! (again)

The Madwoman decreed that it was cool enough for us to venture outside for a walk today, so venture we did, up at the Open Air Museum.

Not only did we do venturing, we did mingling too, as the Romans had moved in for the weekend and were busy rising and shining (unlike the sun).

While the Madwoman checked out some egg tempera artwork

we admired a neighbouring tent with some hand loom-woven bags

that would have been perfect for storing wippitt snacks in,

then checked out some toy wooden mice (we prefer ours made of fleece and squeaky)

at the wood-butcher (that's what it said on the sign),

and THEN we found the wippitt snacks in the shape of

bunnies and piggy lugs (still attached to the pig).

As they made us feel a bit peckish and the Roman in charge

didn't offer to share them with us 

we dragged the Madwoman off home to give us some elevenses.

In many ways (mainly foody) the 21st century is an improvement on the 1st ...     

 

 

 

A Grand Day Out

 How nice it is to get back to normal!

Now Angel is feeling much better, we had our first proper full length walk

this week, and voted to go to Chiltern Open Air Museum, .

We found that Spring is ... erm ... springing

We checked for trolls at Troll Bridge

(Humans:1, Wippitts:2, Trolls:0, Fallen leaves:beyond counting)

And spotted a wheelbarrow trying to avoid honest toil

by hiding behind a shed.

And that was quite enough for one day.



Feeling festive!

It was all looking very festive this weekend at Chiltern Open Air Museum.

Typically, the Madwoman's usual incompetence meant that

she got the opening times mixed up and we arrived an hour early.

However, that didn't stop us mooching around and annoying people

as they rushed round trying to finish setting up.

There were Victorians everywhere,doing festive things ...

there were some really lovely craft gifts ...

 

Not to mention a stand-in for Rudolph, being decorated by a reluctant elf. 

We rushed the Madwoman off to the woods before she got any ideas about

garlanding us with tinsel, paused for a quick kiss

under the mistletoe and then, feeling suitably Christmassy, 

went home to write out our present list for Santa.

Out and about again

We're very happy to be out and about again!

We've done a bit of exploring new please-keep-dogs-on-leads walks

but today we had a quick stroll round one of our favourite destinations, 

Chiltern Open Air Museum.

We admired Leagrave Cottages, which someone seems to have 

beautifully gift wrapped ready for Christmas

... they seem to have got a bit carried away though as one of the horses 

appears to have been gift wrapped too.

Bet they'll have trouble fitting that under the tree on Christmas Eve ...

The we admired all the blacksmithery going on in the forge ...

and were dazzled by the newly repainted Maidenhead Pavilion.

Then the Madwoman trod on Angel's toe, making her squeak

and hop around on three legs:

injured and exhausted by all that admiring,

we decided to go home for restorative elevenses.

 

 

 

 

Dressed to thrill

After much patient hanging around,

the Madwoman finally got herself organised

and we headed off for a walk.

 

We helpfully provided instructions along the way,

and occasionally enquired whether we were there yet.



When we did arrive (at Chiltern Open Air Museum - where else on a

sunny Saturday morning? Or on a wet one, come to that)

we found the giant pumpkin was still there, although it appeared to have

magically moved itself off the pumpkin patch.

We felt right at home mingling with it, since - as the more observant

among you may have spotted - we have donned our

special Halloween collars.  

Catching up

We were going to blog yesterday, we really were.

Unfortunately, after a stroll around Chiltern Open Air Museum, 

we were overtaken by indolence ...

But here's what we saw there as we caught up on all

the happenings that had been happening since Angel was ill.

 Thatching has started at Leagrave Cottages.

We are looking forward to seeing a straw whippet running

along the top when it is completed.

We did a quick Health & Safety check and were pleased to see

that someone has thoughtfully placed  padding round the scaffolding

at whippet head height.

 

And then we looked at the giant pumpkin, and entered the competition

to guess how much it weighed.

We reckoned about two and a half wippitt-weight.

Unfortunately guesses had to be in metric so we made

the Madwoman sit down in the wet grass and remove her boots and socks

so she could do the calculations on fingers and toes, and convert that into kilos. 

As we seem to be playing catch-up, here is a pic of when Angel was poorly,

with Archie acting as Head Nurse and assistant Worrier.

(The Madwoman was the Head Worrier and Wielder of the Thermometer)

And here is Angel with the card kindly sent by Penny Dolan ...

Tomorrow it is Angel's 11th birthday, and we have been promised a special

elevenses for her elevenses.

First of the season

Today we found our first shiny conker of the autumn.

(Never stand under conker trees when it's a bit blowy)  

We have also been enjoying the first blackberries.

We're rather partial to them, and like to pick our own.

We have been keeping a careful eye on the ones growing

at Chiltern Open Air Museum, and could swear there weren't as many

around today as there were on Tuesday.

Now, it's not that we're pointing noses at anyone, but we suspect

that certain goats have not only been eating their own fill of them,

but everyone else's too ...

Almost ....

Everywhere we looked today at Chiltern Open Air Museum,

there were Vikings.

Everywhere!

We were glad to spot some fellow whippets in the trader's tent ... 

And even gladder to see so many likely-looking breakfast fires ...

Unfortunately they all seemed to be cooking porridge.

While we are rather partial to porridge,

we are even more partial to sucking pig.

As usual, there was a distinct lack of it ...

Until ....

OK, so it wasn't sucking pig, it was a piece of gammon,

but it's the closest we've got so far.

Sadly, it wasn't yet cooked ...

 

Enshrined

We're happy to report that progress on the new building at

Chiltern Open Air Museum is going well...

It is of course, a Romano-British shrine to Whippets.

Any resemblance to a 1920's garage is purely coincidental.

We are looking forward to receiving lots of votive offerings

in the shape of roast turkey, sucking pig and gravy bones as soon as it is completed.

Hot Victorians

 Off to the Open Air Museum again at the weekend.

We arrived a bit early to find breakfast cooking

(as usual, the sucking pig was conspicuous by its absence)

Even early in the morning it was quite hot already

so we also found some of the Victorian re-enactors in their underwear ...

 Although not the rozzer .... naturally the Madwoman embarrassed us by

trying on his handcuffs ...

 and then as it was getting really hot by then we went home to do a bit of this ...

and then a bit of this ...

Birthday celebrations

Such larks!

All sorts of things going on at Chiltern Open Air Museum this weekend.

For example ...

We found a huge COAMonopoly board ...

But we never got the chance to play, because we both

wanted to be the dog.

We feel that a minimum of two dog playing pieces

should be provided. We offered to take on the role ourselves,

but the Madwoman hurried us away before we could jump on.

She is such a  spoilsport.

 

We did our best.

Selfies aren't easy when you have

perfectly formed but long noses.

 

We checked out the COAM timeline.

Most of this happened long before we were born.

Which evidently explains why there were no pictures of us adorning it.

 

Happy 40th Birthday COAM!

Big questions are being asked ...

The wall at Haddenham Cottage at Chiltern Open Air Museum has an

especial fascination for us - it poses so many unanswered questions

For example, how come those tiles don't all slide off the table?

 

Who forgot to bring the scissors?

And yesterday the most important question of all.

As you can see, the wall appears to have set up a marquee, which

can mean only one thing - it is planning a party.

Will there be sucking pig at it?

And why haven't we been invited?

 

 

Have you missed us?

Well we are back now, so you can stop pining.

Doing convalescing in my sick bed.
Although the bed wasn't really sick at all, so we don't know why
the Madwoman kept calling it that..
It's quite healthy.
And comfy.

Archie has spent some time convalescing and taking things easy:

according to the Madwoman, as well as doing some therapeutic

sunbathing, that also meant taking a short holiday from blogging.

Archie now seems fully recovered and today was our first Saturday

walk back at Chiltern Open Air Museum.

 Our powers of observation are as keen as ever, and out in the woods

by the bodgers camp we found a bald snuffle mat. Sadly, as well as lacking

all its strips of fleece it was also sadly lacking in treats.

Then we said hello to the goats. It has given us an idea for a film project for

Kevin Costner called Walks with Goats. Or maybe something a bit spooky

called In the Company of Goats ... hmmm .... we haven't tried scriptwriting yet.

But we think that we could be really good at it.