Blenheim park: revisiting the old haunts

Blenheim Park, I miss you...We used to live in Woodstock, just five minutes away from the entrance to the park, and when my older son Sasha was a tot, we spent all our afternoons there. I think he seriously believed it was our "back yard". He spent many an hour there, dozing in the pushchair or running along the quiet park lanes, feeding the geese and watching the sheep.

Blenheim Park is glorious in any weather and any season. I can easily believe the quote attributed to King George III, when he visited the Palace in 1789, he said "We have nothing to equal to this". The Palace guides will undoubtedly repeat this quote if you take the guided tour.
Last Saturday we got on the bus to Woodstock to revisit our old haunts. Sasha always loves going to the park, and Eddie enjoys it as well. So much space to run! So many places to explore!

The autumnal colours and hues are worthy of any artist's brush. The soft reflections in the expanse of the lake look like upside-down watercolours.

The landscape is changing at every step, and I am never tired of seeing the beautiful scenery.

Eddie was in a playful mood, and happily hugged a big tree.

With a crunchy mama like mine, I inevitably end up as a tree-hugger

The boys were chasing each other and giggling. The weather wasn't super, it was quite windy and even a bit nippy.

The sheep ignored the people and did their own sheep's business. The Duke of Marlborough stood silently on his pedestal.

We missed the train ride by a couple of minutes. Eddie was rather upset about it, and kept telling me the next morning that we should go back to the park and catch the train. After a quick lunch in the cafe (with totally overpriced food), we headed for the play area. It wasn't very busy there, as most people came that day to the crafts fair (which we avoided). As much as I would like to see the fair, Sasha gets easily distressed in the crowds, so we didn't even try to poke our noses there.

We decided to catch the bus back in the village of Bladon, and walked there, chanting Baa Baa Black sheep when we spotted this black sheep.

As the bus wasn't due for another half hour, we decided to visit St Martin's church which is best known for the graves of the Spencer-Churchill family.

We stopped by the grave of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine, bowed our heads in respect and hurried back to the bus stop.

It would be nice to go back to the Blenheim park before the end of the season and look at all the Christmas decorations in the palace. I worked there for a while a few years ago as a palace assistant and loved arriving just before the palace was open to the visitors to have a quick run through the rooms, admiring the splendour of the interior and saying "Hello, Charlie!" to the big portrait of Charles II. If you haven't seen Blenheim palace at Christmas time, you're missing a spectacular sight.
Let's just hope the weather is relatively clement for a visit, as they say it's going to be a long snowy winter.