dawesberry adventures my view of the big family adventure.

We stayed in Somerset with them twice, Meg stayed on a further week before departing back to oz, and we’ll stay there again just before we finally depart europe. It’s a lovely house with endless rooms for all the great lot of folks that might happen to be staying there. There has been a good deal of restoration as well as remodeling to this 350 year old house, which makes it quite comfy for the occupants. Very homey. Steve and I parked out in the driveway, next to a very charming caravan/lounge. The cutest caravan set-up I’ve ever seen. Must take a photo. Two other houses that were all part of the same manor in years gone by had full families in them. Blackberry bushes everywhere teased me with their lack of maturity. It was a busy house wile we were there… the kids were still in school, so they were up early, all going to different schools at different times, needing dinner while the sun seemed to be saying it was late afternoon (but it was well 7pm), and then there others besides us, visiting at the same time. Marley was fully happy there, Jack and Gem were always ready to play whatever, ping pong, computer, etc. Megan had Tahli and they hung out in Tahli’s little room, dressing up as pirates in anticipation of the movie coming out, on the computer (did I mention that with resident and visitor’s laptops, there were 4 to 7 of them there depending on the day?? Benjamin was the youngest, 7, I think. He is a brilliant creative kid who was probably a bit frustrated at times that he didn’t have someone his age to play with, but that wasn’t huge deal. Jack still hung with him…Jack is such a consciencious person, and has full interest in music. Steve had a session or two with him because he’s most interested in guitar, and his talent is clear. Tahli is Tahli (Mark’s daughter who lives mostly in oz with us) playful, cool, delightful and loves my Megan. Although they there was a mattress that megan could have slept on, they choose to snug up on Tahli’s single mattress every night, despite Megans twitching… (lordy I hope that girl doesn’t go back into seizures). Kim was there when we got there, always a delight. Naomi was there when we left, equally delightful. Ella wasn’t much hanging with us. She was often off with friends and was still in school when we got there, but see the Glastonbury article for more on her. Gem wasn’t much into connecting with someone of my age, but Marley loved his company. It was great to see Mark at home and as dad to his 3, and Tara’s 2 (and Robyn’s other 2!?). He’s usually been a visitor when I’ve seen him in oz, but here, he’s at home; working (flexible) days, husband, man of the house, and father to young boys. Very sweet. Tara is the queen of this house, for sure. She runs a glorious, generous home, never too precious, though there was a day which was the wrong day to spill the cream into the cracks on the kitchen floor but she didn’t find out about that until now, if at all. She’s vivacious and nurturing and full of good humour. It was a good time there, and although we doubted that we’d be seeing them before we went back to oz, Tara playfully insisted that it was just a hop and skip away from the A303, and wouldn’t we just stop in for tea when we brought back the coffee plunger that she gave to us!! He he he!