Travel back to England with me

It's been more than five weeks since we returned from England—almost double the time we were actually there. Finally I have overcome the blogger gremlins and posted my final England post, with pictures. And surprise, it shows up in its chronologically correct position, based on the day I began working on it, not when I posted it.

What that means is that to read it, you have to scroll back to the June posts in the blogs (before all my posts promising that I was working on it).

Or you can just click right here, and I will magically send you back in time to June 17 (the date of the post). I believe Harry Potter has a spell for that....

A Glorious Fourth

Today celebrates the 231st anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the document declaring the United States' independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Ever since then, people like me have been spending their money and vacation time trying to go back!

The Continental Congress actually voted unanimously for independence on July 2, but it was on July 4 that twelve colonies voted to adopt the text of the Declaration of Independence (New York abstaining), and a copy of the document, signed only by John Hancock, was released to the printers.

The Declaration of Independence was, of course, famously written by Thomas Jefferson, statesman, writer, farmer, third president of the United States, and really a renaissance man of the 18th-19th century. Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, on the same day as John Adams, second president of the U.S., who Jefferson had defeated for reelection in 1800.

Independence Day, the Fourth of July, is our only big holiday of the summer, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and I think despite the emphasis on food, fun, and fireworks, most people remain cognizant of the origin of the holiday, as indicated by the flags sported all around, on hats, clothing, and decorations, as well as the front porches of many houses. (Except for my house, because I didn't even think to put it out. Darn.)

Our friends in England, while they do have a fourth of July (hahaha) are probably not celebrating our Independence Day. Early July is Wimbledon, and today, I believe, were the quarter finals. Strawberries and cream are a traditional Wimbledon treat, and every year about 27,000 kilos of strawberries are eaten during the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, together with 7,000 litres of cream! English strawberries are extremely delightful and delicious, and I enjoyed them a couple of times while we were there. Even more delicious, however, are our local Marysville strawberries (in season right now, but not for long!) and I plan to keep the English tradition by eating plenty of strawberries today (albeit with ice cream instead of cream, since we don't have any of that amazing English cream here).

My Fourth of July began with the Everett YMCA Yankee Doodle Dash 10K this morning. It's a gorgeous day today, although that made the run a bit warmer than might be optimal! Perhaps I can blame the heat for finish 16 seconds slower than last year (at 55:02 today). I do realize that I would have been under 55 minutes if I hadn't taken a few seconds for a drink of water partway through... but given the heat, I voted in favor of a little hydration. A big congratulations to the woman who caught up to me at that water break (just before the four mile point), and ran with me the rest of the way up to about half a mile from the finish, then pulled ahead to finish in front of me!

Entering the final stretch...

...Pushing toward the finish line!


I did come in third for my age group (women 40-49), and won a cool medal! (The results later posted on the YMCA website put me in second place for my age group.)














The woman to my right in the last picture (in pink) came in first for her age group (50-59) (and a better time than me).

I think for the rest of my day, I will celebrate independence from any more running! Cheerio!

The end is coming (the final trip post, that is)

I have finally gotten all my pictures gathered for the final wrap-up and am now in the midst of editing. I thought I might finish today but I am bedeviled by the blogger poltergeists which change my spacing and layout despite my efforts to save what I've done! So I need more time to fix it... yet again... before I publish.

In the meantime, I have published an i-tunes mix of some of the songs from my Half-Marathon Mix, the music I used in the Half Marathon and still run with now. This can be found at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=258837320 . The entire playlist here is 154 minutes long, which is plenty long for any half marathon, plus extra. (My original playlist was over four hours long, enough for—gasp—an entire marathan, almost, but i-tunes only published the songs that were available through them.) I think you have to have i-tunes downloaded on your computer to see it, however.

My body is in Everett, but my heart is still in England

I am working on my "Final Wrap-Up" of pictures, sorting through hundreds of pictures and struggling to select a few and put them together in a logical fashion. I already know that is not chronological, so anyone who wants to know where we were when, will need to go back and read my past blog entries!

In the meantime, news of England continues to filter in. On Friday, I read news stories of torrential rains in parts of England, with threats of flooding in some places, including Durham and York. (Although today I can't find any evidence that these stories ever existed.)

Earlier last week I saw a piece on the Today show about Boots No. 7 miracle face cream, "Protect & Perfect" beauty serum, which has been all the rage in England for its anti-aging properties. I kicked myself for not being aware of this while I was in England, when I could have gone to Boots and stocked up for myself.

And of course, tomorrow (Monday), NBC will air Matt Lauer's interview with Princes William and Harry on the Today show and Dateline NBC.

Not to mention the Harry Potter countdown; only a little more than a month before the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I am contemplating whether to order from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk—I think I will just order both. I have been thinking that I should reread the entire Harry Potter series from the beginning before reading the final book. There are so many things I know that I don't remember anymore from the early books.

I am also starting to read all the books I bought in England or ordered from Amazon.co.uk to be sent to me in London. (I grossly overestimated the amount of time I would have for reading while we were in England!) This should keep my busy during all my free time this summer...and beyond.

I have distributed some of the clotted cream I brought home, and put the remainder in the freezer as an experiment to see whether clotted cream can survive freezing. If so, what wondrous possibilities that could present for the future!

My suitcases remain only partly unpacked—that alone should keep me in England for some time to come! Soon I will reluctantly put away my stacks of travel books and maps, for future use and perhaps lending to others who want to travel my parts of England.

And then all that will remain of my trip to England is the after-effect of scones and cream and cakes and biscuits that make my jeans feel a little bit snug. The remedy for that—more fun runs!

Race for the Cure—16 June 2007

Some of my philosophical travel companions—the Book Club (most of them) gathered on Friday night for food and fun and (ahem) high minded intellectual discourse....

Jennifer & Linda at the grill; Jennifer, Sue, Kari, Della, Linda, Ann

The Final Wrap-Up—A Gallery of Pictures

Greetings everyone, and welcome to my pictorial summary of our entire trip. If you haven't slogged through all the posts from the road, these pictures will take you along without having to read a lot of blathering and digressing by me. If you do want to know more about each picture, click on the caption below the photo and you will go to the relevant day's post. These pictures are not chronological, by the way, but instead arranged by general topic. For those who have read along with all the posts throughout the trip, thank you! Writing the posts was almost as much fun as the traveling (and certainly equally exhausting).

ENGLAND
17 May – 6 June 2007

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infrection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
William Shakespeare

St. Pancras Station, London

Well, I'm having a good time. Which makes me feel guilty too. How very English.
David Attenborough



Taking the train to Durham.

THE COUNTRY


I love London. I love England. We were out in the countryside and I had the time of my life.
Debra Messing

Overlooking the Vale of Evesham from atop Dover's Hill.


Aspects of life here—civility, courtesy, coziness—have always bound Britons to their country... They are part of the British myth, along with lovely countryside, dogs and horses, rose gardens, the Armada, the Battle of Britain.
R. W. Apple, Jr.

A public footpath overlooks a garden in Chipping Campden.

A roadside garden in Chipping Campden.


Villages

You arrive at a village, and in this calm environment, one starts to hear [an] echo.
Yannick Noah

The village of Castle Combe.

Soon the houses in the village will be decorated with lavish summer hanging baskets.

The church cemetery is filled with memories of years past.

A river runs through Castle Combe....

A quiet street in Chipping Campden.

A roadside wall adorned with flowers.

The English may not like music, but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
Thomas Beecham

Concert-goers at an outdoor performance at the Chipping Campden Music Festival.


A bay window decorated with golden roses (they look like Graham Stuart Thomas).

Chipping Campden Town Hall and street.

My writing station.

The other side of the Town Hall.

Chipping Campden market hall.

The main street, Chipping Campden.

The village of Bourton-on-the-Water, popular with tourists for its pretty scenery and many attractions.

Anne and Kristin on the bridge in Bourton-on-the-Water.

Burford, a charming village and a fine shopping town.

Burford is known for its many antiques shops.

The houses and buildings are built from the iconic golden Cotswold stone.

Snowshill, a picture perfect Cotswold village.

The churchyard and cemetery, overlooking rolling Cotswold hills.

The upper road, leading to the Village Hall.

A house in the village, a filming location for Bridget Jones's Diary.

An old-style telephone box in the village square.

The Countryside

When I go out into the countryside and see the sun and the green and everything flowering,
I say to myself
Yes indeed, all that belongs to me!
Henri Rousseau

Overlooking Broadway from the Cotswold Way.

I love the English countryside. I find that extremely satisfying.
Harold Pinter

The path from Chipping Campden to Dover's Hill.

Looking over Chipping Campden.

I love England, especially the English countryside. We had a little cottage in Sussex.
I loved those cottages.
Richard Widmark

Spring Cottage, our little cottage in Chipping Campden.

The patio garden at Spring Cottage.

Walking

Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.
Antonio Machado

A public footpath in Chipping Campden.

A kissing gate along a footpath.

A stile between fields.

"Walk steeply downhill to a stile in the corner of the field..."

An unobtrusive footpath through a field near Buscot, on the return walk from Kelmscott Manor.


The short English miles are delightful for walking. You are always pleased to find, every now and then, in how short a time you have walked a mile, though, no doubt, a mile is everywhere a mile, I walk but a moderate pace, and can accomplish four English miles in an hour.
Karl Philipp Moritz


The Cotswold Way to Broadway Tower.

Approaching Broadway Tower.

Further along the Cotswold Way.

Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very fast.
Thomas Jefferson

A sometimes appropriate road sign (Thomas Jefferson would not approve).

Walking from Chipping Campden to Broad Campden.

Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect
but to turn it out to play for a season. All great men of letters
have therefore been enthusiastic walkers.
Leslie Stephen

Kelmscott Manor, the country home of William Morris, a great man of letters and many talents.

I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river. Zhuangzi

Walking the River Thames from Buscot to Kelmscott.

The locks at Buscot.

Near Buscot.

Riverboats and pleasure boats on the river near Kelmscott.


The walk, the stroll, were private ways of passing time,
the heritage of the feudal promenade in the nineteenth century.
Theodor Adorno

An overgrown stile enroute to Kelmscott.

Climbing Glastonbury Tor.

Walkers descending Glastonbury Tor.

Yet another amazing view of English countryside, this time from Glastonbury Tor.

Inside the tower atop Glastonbury Tor.

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.
Emily Bronte

A woodland path along the Cotswold Way.


A steep downhill path in the National Trust woodland nature trail through Lynches Wood below Dover’s Hill.

Gardens

I love English gardens to the point of folly. . . .
Empress Catherine II to Voltaire

A view of Barnsley House from the kitchen garden.

Climbing roses grow into the shape of a heart at Cerney Gardens.

Looking down onto the many levels of the gardens at Snowshill Manor.

I like the gardens with good bones and affirmed underlying structure.
well-marked paths, well-built walls, well-defined changes in level.
Russell Page

The Long Walk at Hidcote Manor Garden.

Hidcote Manor gardeners at work.

Cerney Gardens is a Victorian garden with rectangular borders and beds.

Looking down onto one of the borders at Cerney Gardens.

The central garden at Cerney is edged with climbing roses.

The Bathing Pool Garden at Hidcote, with topiary.

The walled walk through Snowshill Manor Gardens.

Tintinhull consists of a series of interconnecting garden rooms.

Catmint borders a functional and decorative kitchen garden.

Stone eagles guard over Tintinhull.



A Garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot, Fringed pool, Ferned grot
The veriest school of Peace….
Thomas Edward Brown

Kiftsgate Court Garden, with Kiftsgate blue chairs and tables.

Entering Kiftsgate Court Garden.

A secluded fountain at Barnsley House.

Another pool at Barnsley House, with irises and pond lilies.

A dramatic variety of columbine growing at Cerney Gardens.

A mossy pool at Snowshill Manor is edged with coral bells.

A white garden surrounds a pool at Tintinhull Gardens.


The English light is so very subtle, so very soft and misty, that the architecture
responded with great delicacy of detail.
Stephen Gardiner

Barnsley House, a happy marriage of house and garden.

A pair of lovely ladies mind the gate leading to the kitchen garden.

A hideaway bench in the kitchen garden.

Lettuces planted in the kitchen garden.

Kristin looking over the kitchen garden.

A whimsical scarecrow guards the kitchen garden.

A low-growing knot garden at Barnsley House.

Singing the blues at Snowshill Manor.

Vibrant blue irises at Regent's Park in London.

A colorful border reminiscent of Hidcote Manor, at Barrington Court.

A richly coloured border near Montacute House; most of the vast grounds are parkland.

Stourhead offers a two-mile walk around a sweeping landscape garden, including a lake, bridges, and many classical features.

The Palladian Bridge.

Swans in the Stourhead lake.


We bring roses, beautiful fresh roses,
Dewy as the morning and colored like the dawn.
Thomas Buchanan Read

The Regent's Park rose garden in Queen Mary's Garden.

The rose garden and lake.

Typhoon.

Westminster Pink.

The rose garden.


And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.
Christopher Marlowe

Beds of roses edge the lake.

I ran around Regent's Park and in the rose garden every day we were in London.

Rose beds circle a statue.

Colorful roses.


It is the month of June,
The month of leaves and roses.
When pleasant sights salute the eyes,
And pleasant scents the noses.
Nathaniel Parker Willis

A bench offers a resting spot beneath swags of roses.

The swags encircle the rose garden.

Different varieties of roses adorn the swags; all, however, are pink.

A close-up of the rope swag.

Sheep, Cows, & Cats

Sheep atop Dover's Hill.

A heaven so clear, an earth so calm,
So sweet, so soft, so hushed an air;
And, deepening still the dreamlike charm,
Wild moor-sheep feeding everywhere.
Emily Brontë

Sheep like the footpaths too.

I love the lambs, not the sheep.
Roger Peyrefitte

A pair of lambs.

The mountain sheep are sweeter,
But the valley sheep are fatter.
We therefore deemed it meter
To carry off the latter.
Thomas Love Peacock

Flocks of sheep graze on Dover's Hill.

She walks—the lady of my delight—A shepherdess of sheep.
Her flocks are thoughts.
She keeps them white;
She guards them from the steep.
She feeds them on the fragrant height,
And folds them in for sleep.
Alice Meynell

We walked through fields of sheep and lambs between Chipping Campden and Broad Campden.



Cows are amongst the gentlest of breathing creatures; none show more passionate tenderness to their young when deprived of them; and, in short, I am not ashamed to profess a deep love for these quiet creatures.
Thomas de Quincey

I passed by a group of cows on the walk to Wookey Hole.

Cows are my passion. What I have ever sighed for has been to retreat to a Swiss farm, and live entirely surrounded by cows—and china.
Charles Dickens

Cows block the road on the drive to Barrington Court....

Then retreat as suddenly as they appeared.

Cows on the footpath from the Tor to Glastonbury rile up a passing dog.

The friendly cow, all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple tart.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Cows in a field overlooking the Vale of Evesham.


Time spent with cats is never wasted.
Sigmund Freud

The Kelmscott cat.

Tom is a fixture at Cerney Gardens.


Cats know how to obtain food without labor, shelter without confinement, and love without penalties.
W. L. George

Tom joins us for tea.

He is quite interested in cake.

But settles for a saucer of milk and cake crumbs.


When the tea is brought at five o’clock,
And all the neat curtains are drawn with care,
The little black cat with bright green eyes
Is suddenly purring there.
Harold Monro

Clementine (one of the cats at Beryl B&B in Wells) visits my room for a snack of kippers (saved from breakfast) and milk.

As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.
Cleveland Amory

Marmalade agrees to pose for a picture with me.

Cats don't like change without their consent.
Roger Caras

Marmalade meets me at the swing....

Joins me for a moment....

Soon becomes restless....

And is on his way.

Cats are inquisitive, but hate to admit it.
Mason Cooley

Clementine wants to read my blog.

I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
William Shakespeare

Clementine likes to visit guests' rooms and demand milk.

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
Jean Cocteau

Marmalade, one of the cats at Beryl bed and breakfast in Wells.

Marmalade strolls the grounds of Beryl.



Afternoon Tea with Scones and Cream

She is
The queen of curds and cream.
William Shakespeare

Shopping for clotted cream at Tesco.


The pleasures of afternoon tea run like a trickle of honey through English literature
from Rupert Brooke’s wistful lines on the Old Vicarage at Grantchester
to Miss Marple, calmly dissecting a case over tea cakes at a seaside hotel.
Stan Hey

A tearoom in Durham.

Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable
than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.
Henry James

Tea break at Cerney Gardens.

Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?—how did it exist?
I am glad I was not born before tea.
Sydney Smith

An invitation to tea in Snowshill.

Tea at the Village Hall.

Scones piled with cream, and delightful cake.

Mmmm... delicious!


Stands the Church clock at ten to three?And is there honey still for tea?
Rupert Brooke

Afternoon tea at Spring Cottage.

“I shall sit here, serving tea to friends. . . .”
T.S. Eliot

Abbeys, Churches, and Cathedrals

I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral.
Robert Louis Stevenson

Durham Cathedral

The finest Norman Cathedral in England, perhaps the world.

St. James' Church, Chipping Campden

One of England's finest wool churches (a church built from the proceeds of the medieval wool trade).

St. James' Church is also a landmark of Chipping Campden from the Cotswold Way.

St. Catherine's Catholic Church, Chipping Campden (a landmark of the road to Spring Cottage and Dover's Hill).

Wells Cathedral, the second smallest cathedral in England.

But surely one of the loveliest.

Bath Abbey.

St. Paul's arose like some huge mountain above the enormous mass of smaller buildings.
Karl Philipp Moritz

St. Paul's Cathedral, from the Millenium Bridge.

Norwegians on the Millenium Bridge.

Southwark Cathedral, London's oldest gothic building (and almost impossible to photograph due to close proximity of streets and buildings).

Westminster Abbey.

Wells and Bath

The Swan Inn's little garden, with Wells Cathedral in the background.

The high street in Wells (Starbucks just behind me) on the day of the Wells City Fun Run.

The finish line near Bishop's Palace gardens (after the race is over).

The entry hall at Beryl.

The lovely sitting room.

The front facade of Beryl.

The Royal Crescent in Bath.

The Royal Crescent from the other side.

A Georgian Garden in Bath.

Hands Tearoom, home of delicious big, fluffy scones.

The dining room at Haydon House, set for breakfast, looks onto the garden.

Bath Abbey, early in the morning.

A narrow street in Bath.

Looking down Broad Street.

The weir on the River Avon.

Looking toward Pulteney Bridge and Parade Gardens.

North Parade.

Parade Gardens, from North Parade Bridge.

Riding the Rails


Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown. Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.
E. M. Forster

Bob at the Moreton-in-Marsh station.

Breakfast on the train to Stoke-on-Trent.

LONDON

I go to London, my favourite city in the world, and I feel at home.
Boris Becker

Queen Victoria at Kensington Gardens.

The Norwegian cousins with Anne and Bob on a bridge overlooking the Thames.

London is one of the most enchanting places I've ever been on this planet.
Don Johnson

The Palace of Westminster and Big Ben.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
Samuel Johnson

The London Eye, Westminster and Big Ben, and crowds of walkers out for a sunny day on the Thames.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
Samuel Johnson

Waterloo Bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral.

A break from walking.

Beaches of the River Thames.

In London, love and scandal are considered the best sweeteners of tea.
John Osborne

The New Globe Theatre, where William Shakespeare's plays are performed once again.

Borough Market in south London.

Onward to the Tower Bridge.

The Tower Bridge from Thameside.

Looking up the Thames from the Tower Bridge.

The Tower of London.

Buckingham Palace from the Mall.

The Mall.

This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
William Butler Yeats

Walking down Whitehall towards Westminster and Big Ben.

Commemorative statue in Whitehall.

Buses proclaim England's upcoming abolition of indoor smoking.

The Blewcoat School, once a school for poor children, now a National Trust shop.

I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have already been to the Parliament House; and yet this is of most importance. For, had I seen nothing else in England but this, I should have thought my journey thither amply rewarded.
Karl Philipp Moritz

Houses of Parliament.

Big Ben behind the Houses of Parliament.


I have now been pretty nearly all over London, and, according to my own notions, have now seen most of the things I was most anxious to see.
Karl Philipp Moritz

The London Eye and Big Ben.

The National Gallery.

Lord Nelson Tower in Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and Westminster in distant background.

The British Museum.

Russell Square (Bloomsbury).