Belton House and My Meet-a-Family

Hello everyone!

It has been quite an exciting past few weeks here in jolly ol' England!  I am very sorry that I haven't been blogging every day (or every week!) for a while...school is important and honestly there is very little time left in my day!  However, I'm pleased to report that I'm doing quite well with school and my classes are going very well.  As you can see from my past few blogs, I have been experiencing some beauties around Europe! And in just two days, I leave for the most romantic city in the world, Paris!  I'm really excited to go to Paris- my bucket list has it on there to get some cheese and bread and wine and sit under the Eiffel Tower and just watch people.  However, I'll post more about my plans for this tomorrow after the trip briefing...right now is time for my last experience with my Meet-a-Family!!!
Last Friday, my family, Ann and Andrew, picked me up and took me to their house for lunch.  On our last encounter, we ate dinner and played Sequence together, which was really fun.  On this outing, we were going to a house nearby called Belton House.  It's a house that was from the reign of Edward VIII, so it's pretty old but modern at the same time.  Anyways, I was surprised to eating lasagna for lunch, which is the food I told Ann that I had missed the most during our last visit.  It was so nice of her to do that!   They also asked about my trip to Switzerland, and they could not believe that I ran off the mountain.  We also talked about my family, and they are anxious to come to Harlaxton for an afternoon so they can see pictures of my family (which I never stop talking about!).  

We  then set out on our way to Belton House, which is funded by the National Trust in England.  Ann and Andrew volunteer for them often, so we were able to visit for free of charge.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the fall leaves were all changing.  It was honestly a beautiful house...although it was pretty cold inside.  You would think they had better insulation during these times with the stone, but a lot of wind whistles through the cracks.  It was pretty surprising you needed on a coat and scarf in order to walk around inside the house.  I wasn't able to take pictures inside of the house, but you can look them up online and see how the elitist lived during this time in life.  It was honestly unbelievable.  Their library had books floor to ceiling, and Andrew even said, "I bet they never got to the ones on the top"!  It was a lot of fun with them.  After we exited the house, you can see a grouping of trees to the right, and there is a small lake back there (pictures to follow soon!).  We walked around the lake and saw a heron, and it took roughly an hour to do so.  Even though it was cold, it was a lovely day to go for a stroll and just enjoy their company.  We talked about going to see Irish riverdancers on our next visit, which is in a fortnight  or two weeks time.  After we left the house, we went back and had celery soup for supper (it was SO good!) and had a cuppa (or cup of tea).  All in all, it was a great night!  I had to be back to school early enough to get some homework done because I went to Cadbury World in the morning!  Next blog, coming soon!
Love always,
Taylor <3