The day started by taking a train to London to Telford and then a 20-minute drive to our house in the Shropshire countryside, in the village of Leighton.

The home where we are house sitting dates back to the 11th century. It even had a bell tower at one time so that the local pastor could ring the bell to start calling people to church before he left to reside over services himself.

We are taking care of two dogs. Patrick who is 11 and Bertie who is a 10-month-old puppy.

We have plenty of space as there are five bedrooms for us to choose from. There are sitting rooms, a formal dining room, patio, courtyard, and rather large back yard area where we can go throw the ball for Bertie. The yard backs up to a forest and a small stream on the far side.

After getting settled, we drove to a small village that is a Wolrd Heritage site called Iron Bridge. The bridge opened in 1781 and was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. We were only there for a short while but certainly plan on coming back as we want to tour the town the bridge and the museums.

After dropping off the groceries, we walked to the local pub for dinner for a wonderful meal of fish and chips and local meat pie. We met and talked with some very nice locals as the pub was filling up with people stopping by to have a beer. The pub still had the old workings in the basement where during one of the British civil wars, the Parliamentarians (vs. Royalists) use to make cannonballs (see the last picture below with Taina and Yvelore in it).

After coming back home, we took Patrick and Bertie into the back yard for playtime. Patrick needs to stay on a leash at all times or he will bolt after any critter that he can smell and be gone. as for Bertie, he can be off-leash, but somebody needs to be with him at all times as he will simply jump the fence and be gone.

Daddy and the kids ended up having fun running, wrestling and tackling each other until it started getting late.

Then we came inside to listen to music and start planning out the next 10 days adventures.

#Shropshire #Leighton #Ironbridge