Wagga Wagga to Worcestershire & back again
Thanks to the internet, it’s been relatively easy for me to keep in contact with family and friends back in Australia. Emails, wifi text messaging apps and video chats make the distance between Adam, myself and our loved ones ‘down under’ seem minimal. For a couple of members of my family though, this sort of communication just doesn’t work. My grandparents aren’t online, so my grandmother and I have taken to exchanging handwritten letters.
Summer is the season for fairs in England, so days after checking out Malvern’s annual Food Festival, Adam and I found ourselves at another Worcestershire classic, Asparafest.
Set in Evesham, a half an hour drive east, Asparafest celebrates the market town’s asparagus farms. It was one of those quirky community events Adam had told me about before we moved to England and I was keen to see it for myself.
Monday of this week was a bank holiday in England. Adam and I both had the day off, so took advantage of our free time to visit the Great Malvern Food Festival. When I lived in Australia, Wagga Wagga’s annual food and wine festival was one of my favourite events of the year so I was keen to check out my new community’s version.
Lots of people come to Australia hoping to see a kangaroo or a koala. For me in England it was a badger or otter. I daresay my fascination stemmed from the childhood classic, Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows, and more specifically the 1980s stop motion television series of the same name, which I can remember watching as a child. Animal people who drove cars, dressed in snappy outfits and had wonderful adventures – what wasn’t to love?!
Adam has always had a bit of a soft spot for badgers. He even gave me a badger mug at Christmas! The vineyard he lived at before moving to Australia was frequently visited by badgers and an allotment he maintained near the village of Cradley, west of the Malvern Hills, was near a woodland where badgers lived. His stories of watching badgers snuffling about seemed magical and he was keen to share the experience with me.
So one evening last week, we made the short journey to Cradley to look for badgers.
I’m sure I’m not the only person who, when thinking about canals, thinks about Venice. Oh the romance of narrow waterways passing by historic stone houses in rainbow colours, a gondolier in a straw hat and stripy shirt and lazy warm days on the water, gelato in hand!
Canals though aren’t just restricted to Italy – hundreds of places have them, England included. The U.K. canal system really rose to prominence during the Industrial Revolution and given the Midland’s strong association with this era, there are plenty of examples of canals near to Malvern.
Last week I got a Facebook message from Australian friend Kerri, who’s currently holidaying around the U.K., about a delicious asparagus and wild garlic soup she’d eaten. Intrigued and inspired, especially by some of the images of wild garlic that are appearing on my Instagram feed, I went out in search of some the plants myself.
After weeks of diligent watering, weeding and a bit of help from mother nature, Adam and have undertaken the first ‘harvest’ in our terrace vegetable garden!
The salad leaves have been the quickest to grow and we’d been watching the little plants get bigger by the day, just waiting for the right time to snip off some buttery soft goodness.
I can remember being a 17 year old school girl sitting in my English class, devouring Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It was a world so completely different to my own, yet the story still resonated with me and it remains a favourite book. When we’d finished reading the novel our teacher played the cult 1995 BBC mini-series of the same name, starring Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth and *that* white, wet shirt scene. Oh how my teenage heart fluttered, not only for Darcy but for the beautiful scenery and those amazing houses. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve re-watched that series. I know the story, but never tire of it.
Last week’s visit to the Peak District allowed me to fulfil a cheesy Pride and Prejudice fangirl moment. Adam and I headed off to the National Trust’s Lyme Park – the property used as Pemberley (exterior only) in the BBC production.
I have a confession to make – up until very, very recently my knowledge of England’s Peak District was based primarily on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I knew Derbyshire was near the Peak District and that’s where Mr Darcy’s ‘Pemberley’ was based. I quickly discovered at the start of this week though, there’s a whole lot more to the Peak District than Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Adam and I chose the Peak District for a long weekend away on a bit of a whim. It was a region I’d never visited and Adam only briefly. What we discovered was towns and villages filled with exquisite stones buildings, amazing scenery and a thriving food and beer scene.
Adam and I played host to our first visitors from Australia late last week. Kerri and Adrian have been friends with my parents for years – the sort of people in your life you can never remember not knowing.
They’ve been in Italy, Malta and England on a lovely long holiday and made the time to spend the day in Malvern with us.
Wattle and Ash 