Sunday in England

We left a homey B and B run by Viv and Fred with the help of Mr. Takamura, their 8 year boader who is also an engineer for Honda. He much prefers the UK, "too hot and humid in Japan". At first, we thought what have we gotten ourselves into, the place is a little less than elegant to say the least, it took us about an hour to even find the place and we never would have without the help of a kind stranger at the petrol station. Located way out in BFE, ask your kids if don't know that expression, with only the smallest of villages nearby, we were there to see Warick Castle the next day. As the evening progressed we fell in love with Viv and Fred. Fred is 89 and does the gardening. Viv is a whirlwind of energy and activity. Dinner was family style, a good hearty stew,salads and bread. The other guests were very interesting, a lady,DEb,who was showing her collie at the dogshow in Crofts and her mom Sylvia. They live on the Isle of Man and welearned alot about show dogs and the Isle. We also had, Sam, the grandson of Fred, a carpenter who is currently buildig a cottage on the property. Shy and sweet, we finally got him to talking, he grew up in Wales, learned Welsh, which he thinks he can no longer speak. He proudly showed off his building to us this morning. Mr. Takemura is a hoot, bright, funny and very helpful to Viv and Fred. He helps them both and takes care of the goats and chickens - his job is"poop cleaner" his hobby is at Honda. There were also 4 acupuncture students, but we didn't get to drill them until this morning. One is from Scotland, the other 3 English I think, the program takes 3 years to complete and they stay with Viv when they come down for school which seems to be on the weekends. So what looked like a bust to begin with turned out to be a wonderful evening and we feel like we have a new friend in Viv. ML's you would love her!!
WE are in Dannington now, BEv already told you about that. Windsor tomorrow.
Our love of the Brits continues they are all very anxious to talk with us, discuss Obama, so far they all love him and are glad to be rid of both Bush and Tony Blair, talk of the economy both here and there and anything else American. They all profess to "love" America and Americans. They find us very friendly and enthusiastic. We, of course, are trying to tone it down so not to appear too obnoxious, but they seem to want to have a chat.
I should probably have one more language lesson at least,maybe we will do that tomorrow for all of you ready to expand your minds. We have access to a computer tomorrow at our hotel so it should not be a problem.
Very cold today, windy, and we had our first real downpour which we got caught in, not too bad after almost 2 weeks. It was sunny and lovely when got up but they say, wait 5 minutes and then will change and boy did it.
More tomorrrow,
Diane, Oldest and therefore semi head WAG