Day 3 - Thursday, July 11th

We wake rested to explore our little cottage in the light of morning, and Laura and I have breakfast on the garden terrace which has stairs leading up to a sun deck located above the dining room and adjacent our bedroom gable.  Ella had the downstairs room and in the morning asked why we had tried to wake her by rattling her door earlier, only we had not done such a thing.  We then make some attempts to figure out this puzzle or recreate the noise, but are unsuccessful.  We consider the possibility of a 16th century cottage having its share of ghosts.  We give up and everyone but Ella shrugs off the incident.  After a leisurely breakfast, we head out to explore our lovely, little village heading first to the town’s shop which doubles as an art gallery and is located adjacent the council hall.  It is operated by friendly volunteers and we stock up with a few provisions.  After stowing these at the cottage, we head down the narrow, one lane road out of the village to Iford Gardens located a couple kilometers to the east where we explore the Italianate manor and its elaborate and well maintained grounds with many hidden nooks stretching up its hillside before trekking back to the cottage for a mid-afternoon nap.  Abi arrives after attending a day of her grad school summer conference and I meet her at the train for the brief walk back to our new home.  We all head to the inn for a very tasty meal where I am forced to reconsider all my seemingly baseless jokes about British cuisine.  The girls tune into Dr. Who and Laura and I turn in early to read in bed.