Fowl House exterior (with jumping)
[Humuhumu jumps off a stone outside the gingerbread Fowl House (strictly for the birds).]

On Friday, we piled into the car and drove to Wales to our fourth Landmark Trust property. It's become traditional for us to stay in one over the weekend nearest the bloke's birthday that isn't Valentine's that holiday which seems to have been designed to make people feel bad about enjoying being alone February 14th.

This one is called Poultry Cottage. Once it was part of a great estate that included a model farm. The estate is now broken up, and the Landmark Trust acquired the cottage (where the fowl-keeper lived) and the Fowl House (where the chickens, pheasants, turkeys, pigeons and doves lived). I'm afraid the keeper's cottage is rather plainer and smaller than the one intended for the galinaceous neighbours.

Poultry Cottage exterior
[Pretty Poultry Cottage, fit for humans.]

We used the cottage as a base for exploration nearby during the day, and as a cosy nest at night after the children were in bed. There was no mobile or data signal, no television and no internet connection. I'm not evangelical about disconnecting - we had some BBC programmes downloaded, mostly for Humuhumu to watch - but both the bloke and I do find it helpful for our mental health to be forced, for a few days, not to check our e-mail or spend our evenings constantly half-distracted by our computers.

Below the cut, some shots of the cottage interior, with children (and adults).

Fowl House exterior
[The Fowl House from the front.]

We did go into the Fowl House, but as I was carrying Keiki and it was quite dark inside, I didn't get any decent photos of the interior.

Poultry Cottage living room
[Keiki using a wooden stool to survey the living room.]

Poultry Cottage kitchen
[Humuhumu in her sky-blue dressing gown, holding a daffodil. The bloke and Keiki enjoying their breakfast.]

Relaxing in Poultry Cottage
[The bloke enjoys a book, a plate of birthday gift cheese and a glass of wine. Note egg-shaped lamp!]

Poultry Cottage amenities
[My glasses, cheese and crackers, glass of wine, and postcard of Fowl House, later sent to my parents.]

Poultry Cottage decor
[Chicken decor, of which there was an abundance. Origami chickens are part of a treasure hunt from the log books. More about the log books later.]

Sleeping in Poultry Cottage
[Humuhumu asleep in her room downstairs. She was very proud of her bravery in sleeping on a different floor from us and Keiki.]

Relaxing in Poultry Cottage
[Me, feeling relaxed after a glass of wine.]
.

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