Grandparenting in the UK Countryside

At the wildlife park with Shanti, Alan, and Hazel.

 After 13 months we finally got to meet and hold our granddaughter, Hazel, in person.  What a joy!  Even with regular FaceTime visits over the past year, it took about four days for her to warm up to us to us.  She was born just as the London lockdown started, and, other than her parents and day care providers, she has had little contact with adults.                                                          

Helping unload the dishwasher

Playing in our front yard

                                                                

Shanti, Alan, and Hazel.  It's been so nice 
to hang wih them!

Besides becoming fully vaccinated, a few stars aligned up two weeks ago to make his trip possible.  First, the UK government permitted London residents to leave town and the quarantine rules were changed so that we could do so with family members and for only five days—provided we get regular Covid tests.  We’ve had three so far, including the one required the day before we could board the 216-passenger jumbo jet with just 10 other passengers and eight crew.  

No problem with overhead storage!
We moved back a cabin to stretch out
on the empty middle seats for a good
sleep.

 

Shanti and Alan found a delightful three-bedroom home in the countryside about an hour from London near Marlborough.  Actually, our place is a former stable next to a 16^th Century mansion.  Very comfortable!  It even has an adjacent barn with a piano, foosball, ping pong, and is a refuge for me to practice drumming on my practice pad without driving everyone else crazy.

Our stable

The area is laced with public paths through farms, pastures, and villages. Shanti is working remotely. Kathy and I are just chilling and having fun with Hazel.  What a 25-pound bundle of energy—almost too much for us oldsters who thought we were in shape.  

Our yard

The 'barn'

View from our bedroom

Yesterday morning we received our negative Covid results, releasing us from our five-day quarantine.  We celebrated by grocery shopping at Waitrose (kind of like Whole Foods) and buying unique products, cheap wines, Moroccan blueberries, French cheeses and fabulous breads.  Shanti took the day off and we drove to a wildlife park in the beautiful countryside.  We also visited a monolithic site similar to Stonehenge. 

Stonehenge Light (Avebury) without
hoards of tourists

Hazel identified a lot of “dogs” at the zoo, including some with stripes, horns, manes, humps, and long necks.  Some could even fly.  Tomorrow Alan will drop Kathy and me off for a 10-mile walk along a canal tow path.  On Saturday we depart for four nights in London, where Kathy and I will get a chance to experience their neighborhood and see Hazel’s amazing day care facility.  

So, life is good! We're so glad we upended our other plans and made the trip.

“What We Can, While We Can!”

 

Zoo playground (Hazel
has her mother's childhood
fearlessness.)

Feeding Grandma

On a public path near our place

 

Celebrating our quarantine release

Bed time story

'Little One' does a commendable job of
keeping up with the elders!

PS:  My Thanks to our most wonderful son-in-law Alan Hampson for most of the photos.  That's why you don't see him in many of them.