Malvern, off road driving and some snow then floods, of course

With Anne in tow, we headed up to Malvern and prepared ourselves for a day at Eastnor Castle, doing the Land Rover off road thing again. A particularly good one it was too. An excellent instructor who had amazing product knowledge. We were let loose on some of the advanced trails that had not been used for several weeks. That added to the fun - getting up this hill defeated even the Defender's smart electronics as it was shod with road tyres - half way up there was no real grip at all so it needed some "beans" and a high gear, as per the video:

A good day was had by all, well, apart from the poor Defender which went through the water troughs in an attempt to clean off some of the mud:

Naturally the water didn't reach the mirrors or roof so:

We happily headed back into Malvern and the next morning, despite the forecast of rain, we awoke to this:

The snow continued and the recency of our off-road driving day was handy. Breakfast was at the cafe in the Morgan factory. Again, snowing as per this video:

The crew opted for a little pain au raisin - only it wasn't small at all:

To save her, Anne kindly consumed that tiny sliver of pastry hanging down from the bottom. 

As well as enormous pastry, they did a neat line in flat white pouring:

which tasted as well as it looked so a happy breakfast was enjoyed. We ambled through the shop and heritage area:

before heading off to the local wool shop that had kicked off Anne's knitting / crochet love many years ago when we did the Morgan factory tour. We staggered back out into the snow, laden with handicraft supplies to keep Anne going for a while and then headed to get some provisions to take to the cottage we'd rented on a farm outside Leominster. We arrived to find it a bit chilly, then cold - the heating wasn't working at all and as it was below freezing outside.....The owners, who live in the house next door. were great, getting things sorted quickly. We loved the place though - have a look at Sykes cottages weblink . 

Despite the weather, we headed into Leominster for a wander around, Ludlow too, we always love that place. Anne completed some Xmas shopping - we are too bah humbug for such things of course. The farm area was still nice and snowy and the livestock looked unimpressed:

To balance out the Xmas shopathon, we also had a day of culture. Visiting Berrington House and then Croft Castle. Well, hardly a castle but you get the idea:

The site has a very pretty church (originally 14th) century too:

They had a pretty weird looking clock inside, with eyes that moved in time to the pendulum - it looked a bit menacing as you can see from the video:

Unfortunately, storm Bert disrupted the seeing and doing thing with lots of rain and seriously strong winds on the Saturday so we battened down and stayed inside. Anne turned some of her wool mountain into squares for a blanket, the crew carried on her language studies and the captain kept amused learning about Lithium batteries. Actually learning more than he ever wanted to know but still far from an expert. 

Overnight and into the Sunday morning, Bert really got going and dumped ridiculous amounts of rain onto us. That brought the next challenge. Anne was due to get a train home from Leominster. That proved tricky:

In fact, even getting to the train station was impossible:

as the main A road that we needed was closed. Big time. The little local roads were as bad or worse:

and this was the lane leading from the farm itself:

We had planned lunch out in Leominster before Anne's train departure so no proper food had been laid in. The lovely cottage owners came to the rescue again and delivered a Red Cross food parcel. Having decided that Tina was the flood lady, Anne has now overtaken her to become snow, ice and flood woman. Clearly this weather stuff has nothing to do with us.

The following day, the water levels had subsided a bit and the main road had been pumped clear so we were able to drive to Ledbury and spend a very happy day exploring the shops there. Anne stayed with us as the trains were still all cancelled due to flooding. We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the very old Seven Stars Inn there. They have their own farm and that was reflected in the quality of the food.

Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end and the stay in the cottage was no exception. The car was heavily loaded up, including the person who had been trapped by the floods and all of her Xmas shopping. Instead of heading back to Penarth as planned, we pointed the car into the sun (not nice) and headed to Hythe - so we could take Mrs Toddler to another hospital appointment. We arrived pretty tired (3 hours squinting into the glare - yes it was sunny) and with a very muddy car from the back roads near the cottage that had been flooded. Despite the best efforts of Bert, we'd enjoyed a great break.