Remember in Mary Poppins when they jump into one of Bert’s chalk drawings and spend a jolly ‘oliday with Mary? Well on Tuesday evening, Mike and I jumped into a Frances Hodgson Burnett novel and spent the night in the English countryside at the home of Mike’s boss and his family. The Mansfields’ home is converted from a barn; the inside is full of exposed wooden beams that were put in place 350 years ago. “Good bones,” you might say.

The walk up to the house is flanked with lavender. Seriously, does it get more picturesquely English?

Actually, it does. Look at these unfortunate views.

This is Grace. She used to be three but now she’s four, which is a rawther cute thing to hear in a tiny little British accent.

Grace took me to pick some raspberries from the garden. She was a bit disappointed because some of the raspberries had already “gone ovah.”

But she happily showed me some of her favorite flowers…

… and the cherries…

… and introduced me to Jessie the dog…

… and Willow the cat.

We had such a lovely evening with the Mansfields and are so grateful for their hospitality.

And in case you are wondering, my mission to sample all the Weird British Candy Bars is still underway. Here are some new ones:

Maltesers. I don’t even know how you say the name of these things. Malteezers? Maltzers? “White chocolates with crisp, light honeycombed centres.” The first one was weird… but then I ate the whole pack.

Starbar is “milk chocolate with caramel and peanut centre.” So far, Starbar is the clear winner of the Weird British Candy Bar Contest. Only, don’t eat one and then wipe melted chocolate on your white jeans. (Ahem.)

More soon from my open-top bus tour of London!

Cheers,