That other country - Our summer in the UK

When our youngest son was about 5 and we were living in India, we had a dinner discussion about life back in the USA and he described it as "when we lived in that other country!" He was 3 when we moved from the US so he didn't really remember many of the details of our life there or even apparently what the country was called!

For me, it's been even longer since I lived in my country of birth - about 18 years ago, I did a year in the UK but have not lived there for an extended period since I was in college. 

Being away from your passport country for a long time can give you a new appreciation for a place that as a child, you once took for granted. This past summer we got to spend the whole summer in the UK. It had been 3 1/2 years since we were last there and it was wonderful reconnecting with friends and family and re-discovering the beauty of my country of origin.

Since I wasn't blogging back then, I thought I would write a retrospective post about some of the things that I re-discovered and savoured last summer about "that other country" where I used to live.

1. So green - It's a classic stereotype I know but "England's green and pleasant lands" are really some of the most verdant landscapes I have seen in all my travels. I was overwhelmed during this trip with the beauty of our rolling hills and interlocking fields. These scenes are truly something that I took for granted until I left the UK and I see them with fresh eyes every time I go back.

Had to pull over to capture this vivid scene in the Yorkshire Dales

2. Camping - I know people of many nationalities enjoy camping. Somehow though we seem to camp more when we're in the UK. There are campsites everywhere (from converted farmer's fields to the more fancy caravan parks) and it makes me very nostalgic for our annual family camping holidays when I was a child. Building camping memories for our kids with the cousins this past summer was one of the highlights for me.

Camping in Devon with my sister's family and swimming in the stream. The best!

3. Gardens - Another cultural past-time which I really appreciated this visit was the simple pleasure of the British garden. Not simple at all when you realize how much time Brits typically put into their gardens, but simple to sit out and bask in other people's hard work. Grandad's garden was such a place of recreation and joy and beauty!

Playing swingball and feeding fish with Grandad.
Just two of many ways we enjoyed this beautiful space.

4. The Wind - this sounds a little random but bear with me! Growing up on the coast of England, fighting the wind on my bike on the way to school and having that weather-beaten feel to your face when you got home every day was just normal for me. It wasn't 'til I moved away from England that I learned that not every place is as windy. In fact, I have never lived in any place which rivalled the UK in it's capacity to induce air movements of gale force proportions on a regular basis!! It was fun to see the kids enjoying that this past summer.

Leaning into the wind at Chichester Cricket grounds

Flying a kite on the South Downs 

5. Coast - Being an island, you're never far from the sea in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales. I grew up in the beach town of Worthing, where my Mum still lives and the kids love walking to the beach from Grandma's house. This trip, we also visited a lot of coastal beauty spots in our travels and I found it overwhelmingly beautiful (even if a bit cold for swimming). Hard to select just one or two pictures here!

Beautiful Dorset coast at Lulworth Cove, England

Body-boarding with cousins on the Pembrokeshire coast, Wales. We refused to buy wet suits which we would never use in Thailand so they just braved the cold.
 

6. History - Those of you who know me well will know I'm not big into historical details. I get bored easily with facts and dates and have bad memories of history class as a kid. But being away from the UK for so long has made me appreciate the huge impact that history has had on our landscape - not present in the same way in America for example. To be honest I can still give or take all the details (much to my mother's disgust) but it's really quite incredible that we get to explore such beauty that has been around for hundreds even thousands of years.

Visiting Bodiam Castle (AD 1385) in Kent with friends

Walking the beautiful landscape of Avebury Stone Circles
(erected between 3000 and 2400 BC)

7. Talking of walking, that is another past-time that British people do oh so well! The UK is a warren of public footpaths varying from the more well-trodden byways in the national parks to woodland country paths and hedge-lined short cuts in your local neighborhood. We enjoyed many walks with friends this summer. There is always a new corner of my country to explore on foot.

The stunning Pembrokeshire Coastal Path in Wales

Oh and just to prove our true British heritage, here's one of us
walking with friends in the rain in the Yorkshire Dales.
Turns out my kids haven't grown up in this culture
and are not as hardy at this as I had hoped!

8. Picnics - I don't know if it's because we Brits are skin-flints or because we just love the outdoors but whereas family outings in the US or Thailand usually involve eating out in restaurants, in the UK, we prefer to have a picnic! We enjoyed some wonderful picnics in picturesque places this past summer, but this one with a good friend on the sloping ground above Lulworth Cove in Dorset was probably the most memorable!

Nice view - bit hard to sit and eat though!

9. Canine companions - In many countries where we have lived, dogs are for guarding your house, catching rats and/or keeping the stray dogs away. In the UK, none of these are usually a factor - dogs are for companionship and back to point 7, walking! We are lucky that my sister is a dog-walker by profession so we got to join her on some of her hikes and enjoy her lovely four-legged friends. 

Walking 6 dogs with Auntie Janet on the Downs above Worthing

Enjoying the dog cousins - Jacob and Crumble.
 

10. The grass! - This one takes us back to my first point but in more detail. We really enjoyed the feel of the grass in England this past summer. Rolling down hills or just walking barefoot in the back garden - it's such a wonderful sensory feeling that you don't get in some places around the world. I know we really missed it in India and I've noticed that the type of grass that grows here in Thailand is much coarser and less pleasant to the touch. So, thank you UK for having the best grass I know!

Rolling in the grass with cousins outside Durham Cathedral

So there's my top 10 British gems. Of course the real riches on any trip to our "other home" are the people and those memories of friends and family are still pondered often and cherished in our hearts. I've enjoyed this bit of nostalgia though for some of the cultural and geographical treasures of my country of birth. Hope you did too. . . and if you live in the UK, please don't take your grass for granted!