March 24th 2010
Of course all good adventures have to start somewhere....and ours started in the cholestrol kind. Lets face it you can't go caching on an empty stomach now can you? especially with that cheeky young pup Josh causing mayhem wherever he goes. Right, that the bacon bit of our story sorted...where did we end up next? A place called Hugglescote....what a cool name for a village! Apparently legend has it that at a time when England had brown bears roaming the land, one such bear started to attack a local man. The man ran and dropped his coat in the process, the bear picked up the coat and then hugged it...hence the name Hugglescote. I'm not making this up either before you ask lol!
Today as you will learn in a bit was not to go to Hugglescote, but seeing as there was a cache on the way then we stopped off. The cache owner is the same as the Alice in Wonderland series we did last week and this cache is a part of a series based around the human senses. The primary sense going on at this cache was laughter as Josh tried every kind of park ride there was going. Mr Shiltonpig has never seen a swing as big as the one Josh is on to the photo to the right. After this short diversion we drove all of 0.25 of a mile to our real destination Donnington Le Heath Manor House. (What is it around here that all the names of villages/towns have "le" between them? Are we French? Oh thats right our ancestors were)
So if you want to read more click on the link (please oh please click me) . It is worth noting that there is a cache here, and hence how we discovered it in the first place....and even better its free admission. Normally when it says free you know that its going to be pants.....but in this case it wasn't. Plenty of things that kept us occupied. The cache is one of Mr Shiltonpigs favourite types of cache and he found it in seconds....hooray! So inside the house there is another kind of treasure hunt. On one of the interactive panels you have to find 9 pigs to gain access to another picture....a little bit harder than it sounds. We found them eventually and it showed us a picture of a pig? Confused...well believe it or not between 1960 and 1965 some bright spark bought the property and didn't have the money to renovate it and so converted it into a pig sty! Please note how happy Josh looks to be here in the photo on the left.
Another great feature about this manor house is that it criticises its own council...after 1965 the council bought it and renovated it back into the original settings of the 13th century, but in doing so they demolished and got rid of several 17th century structures. Todays museum decides that it wasn't the best move and publically criticises itself....most amusing...well it was to us. So we then moved upstairs to the best bit of the place, the fancy dress cupboard and gave Mr/Mrs Shiltonpig the chance to imagine what life would have been in times gone by. The only outfit that would fit each of us was the one we tried, for Mr Shiltonpig he is modelling the latest Paris fashion peasant look circa 1253, the basic woollen outfit fits well with the hat. All self respecting peasants of 1253 wouldn't be seen dead without such a hat! Next up on the list was Mrs Shiltonpig, unfairly in my opinion the gentry outfit seemed to suit here rather too well. Josh was up next and he will we are sure kill us for saying this but he looked so cute and its the only time we have ever looked at him and thought he could have been a dress....we will let you make up your own mind on such matters!
Not sure that the gentry boys of 1253 would have worn such a girly hat, but hey all the clothes back then looked really frilly. We just wear jeans and t-shirts...but spare a thought for the poor people of the year 2810 who will walk into a 3 bed semi, which is now a museum and dress up in jeans and t-shirt and pretend that they are 21st century people.....but hey perhaps I am just waffling now. We had loads of good photos today, but space won't allow us to put them all up. Mrs Shiltonpig breaks the nearby beehive and has to piece it together, Mr Shiltonpig does his rubbing his sticks in a nearby tee pee and Josh holding the cache so tight that he didn't want to let it go. It is of note that Josh has developed a strange fascination for stones and all day he spent looking at them, picking them up and giving them to mommy and daddy. Could be worse though, could want something expensive....dreading the day he learns what an x-box or Playstation is! Seriously if you live locally and haven't been here yet then go get in the car and go and drive there right now....oh and in 3 weeks they are doing a civil war theme with real people from the 17th century there! (well ok 21st century people dressed in 17th century type stuff!) One final comment, for those wondering whether we were able to do 9 consectutive days caching...the answer is no... Toodle pips for now.
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