Five things you may not see on your school run.

The highlight of this month has been leaving the 19^th Century cottage and moving into our ultra modern, state of the art home in Otterbourne, a village outside of Winchester.

 

No, just kidding! No such thing exists here folks! There is a blog post ruminating in my head dedicated solely to the joys of modern English living.  Tentative titles: “Life Without Closets”, “The House of a Hundred Ugly Light Fixtures” or “WTF do you mean I have to empty water out of the dryer?”. But I digress….

 

The real highlight is the new school run.  The “school run” is the bane of the modern mothers’ existence. Okay, perhaps two dads, but this is clearly a gendered role. It is the 15-30 minutes of the day in which we drive children to and from school/bus stop. The drive is actually the easy part; the challenge of the school run is getting said children out of bed, clean(ish), dressed, fed and in the car without losing your god damn mind. Getting yourself dressed and presentable is completely optional. Every day it is a race against time and sanity. Every. Single. Day. A few minutes past the magic time you know you can leave by and still make it before the bell rings can turn even the most modest mum into a Formula One driver.

 

From the cottage, the school run was 45 minutes in one direction, 400 roundabouts and generally speaking –  misery. From our new home, the school is only 14 minutes in one direction (7.7 miles). But is a school run like I have never seen because we are living in the English countryside. Hampshire county is made up of loads of small interconnected villages and towns,  loads of green countryside and narrow roads.

There are a few different routes to get to the school but the one I love the most includes a very old single lane for last 2 miles. Most of these finds are from that road.

Thatched Roof Cottage

These gems are hidden throughout Hampshire.  Google tells me that thatch (tightly packed straw, heather, water reed) was the only roofing material available in the countryside until the late 1800s. And just like taking a lobster sandwich in your school lunch in Nova Scotia back in the day, a thatched roof house became a sign of poverty, but today are highly sought after and a symbol of wealth (rich people took bologna sandwiches by the way).

Covered Bridges

These are all over the place and many of them have train lines above them.  This covered bridge fits one car with sharp turns on either side of it. The whole road is single car capacity with many “laybys” you pull into for two cars to pass safely. There are some rules of the English road I have learned, e.g. a flash of high beams from an oncoming car means “you go first”. Drivers here are incredibly courteous and when you let a car go ahead of you there is a mandatory “thank you” wave of the hand. I love it, reminds me of the east coast.

Sheep

Yes sheep, there are lots of them, it’s England.  The kids and I often roll down the windows and listen to them bleat when we drive by and give them a holla (when we are not in a hurry…as in only after school). This one sheep is looking right at us.  Other animals we see not pictured: horses, cows, deer, partridges.

 

Pleasantry

This truck below is trimming down the hedge. The man driving it is about 80 years old.  He puts a sign out ahead of him saying “Tree Trimming Ahead” and then this homemade sign on the back “Sorry for Delay”. Even in Canada where we apologize for everything I have never seen an apology sign on road equipment before.  It’s so English.  Polite.  Lovely. Kind. Proper.

The Hot Mess Mom

This one is common sight in North America but less so over here.  I go for the unwashed and unkept look.  I also sport bright colors which is not part of the mum uniform over here.  My one friend pointed this out to me as the three North American mums where wearing hot pink and orange at school pick up, the rest in a sea of greys, browns, navy and black.

 

Allie and Aiden are also now taking the mini bus to school (except on Tuesday because the bus is full??), but I still pick Allie up at 11:40 and Aiden at 4:30. Yes, I put my three year old little girl on the school bus.  She loves it.  The school bus driver Mr. H is about 70, wears a sports jacket, tie and sweater vest and he personally walks her to the nursery and she loves him. And I love him a little bit as well.