We also ate Simnel Cake, which, according to Wikipedia, is "a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, which is eaten at Easter in Britain and Ireland. The cake is coated in marzipan and has 11 marzipan balls around the outside to represent the 11 true disciples and one in the middle to represent Christ." Our simnel cake had a puffy chick with glasses in the middle, so do with that what you will.
Easter afternoon, we went to Corfe Castle. It was built around 900 A.D., but Cromwell had it blown up in 1646. It is a MAJOR fortress on one of the tallest hills I've seen since I came to England.
This is the steam engine that goes through the town of Corfe. It is very picturesque and looks to me like Diesel from Thomas and Friends. Diesel was the bad one and was a troublemaker.
Here is a traditional cream tea with real Cornish or Devon clotted cream (as opposed to the fake kind I have ingested on several occasions).
On Easter Monday, we visited Josh's other Granny, Granny White. I now know THREE Grannies, which I think makes me very blessed. Here's her cute little dog, Ellie.
After working in Granny White's garden and making her lunch, we went to Windsor Castle. You can't take pictures inside which is a big ol' shame, but it was cool anyway. Just imagine the castles you've seen on tv: suits of armour, big paintings, things trimmed in gold. That was pretty much it. My favorite part inside was Queen Mary's dollhouse and the dolls that were given to Queen Elizabeth and her sister, Princes Margaret, when they were children by the government of France. The dolls names are Marianne and France, and they have the most bee-yoo-tee-full wardrobe. Lanvin, Cartier, Hermes and Louis Vuitton designed their immaculate attire, and they even had a real car that worked!
The Queen is in residence at Windsor Castle at Christmas and Easter, so of course, the royal standard flies instead of the Union Jack to show she's at home. I loved that all of the street lamps and even drainpipes and vents had crowns on them. Not economical, but really cool.
We went to a Garden Centre with Josh's mum for some plants, and there was a Wendy House there. A Wendy House is just a little kids' playhouse. Here's a Wendy in a Wendy House!
After two days of castles, we wanted to relax and do something fun, so Josh's mum and dad took us to Farmer Palmer's petting farm! I'm not going to lie: it was better than Windsor Castle. The lady at the admission counter laughed that there were only two very big children, and let all four of us in for the price of one adult and one child. Josh's mum decided that we were much more fun than children because we really enjoyed it and didn't whinge the whole time. Also, that's not a misprint, Brits say "whinge" instead of "whine". Josh would like to note that in every photo of me with a small, cute animal or baby, I have the same silly grin.
The very best part, maybe of the whole trip, was feeding the lambs. I had to refrain from using baby talk just then. At first the handlers didn't want to give us a bottle because we're grown, but there weren't too many kids there, so we got one each. Then, this lady goes, "Do you want to see the lambs?", and all the kids (and me) yelled, "YEAH!" Then, a dozen of the cutest fluffiest whitest lambs run out of their gate straight for the bottles. Imagine a running of the bulls but cuter and safer. They only take about a minute to suck down their little bottles, but it is soooo precious. You can't see the lamb's tail in the picture because they wag them really hard like little puppies. They had three different groups of lambs, so this was my face every time the lambs ran out:
In celebration of Josh's new job, his parents took us to Cafe Shore, which has a beautiful view of Poole Harbor. The food was okay (Josh said it wasn't as impressive as usual), but my dessert (a strawberry tart) was amazing.
Well, that's quite enough as I have essays to write and have to try to be clever yet again. To close I shall refer to the national anthem, in keeping with the castle-y, Easter theme. The second verse is brilliant. (Note: Josh did not know the words to this, shameful)
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious
Happy and glorious
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix,
God save us all!
Not in this land alone,
But be God's mercies known
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world o'er.
