England Job Exchange

Oxford - I felt more like I fit in at Oxford than I did at Cambridge. I loved the Ashmolean. It had all the epochs I crave - Egyptian, Roman, Greek and then classical European including sketches by Leonardo which I discovered 10 minutes before closing time. The Bodlean was closed by the time I got over there. Scenes from the first Harry Potter movie were filmed there.

Woodstock - Blenheim Palace - huge [lakes, forests, small train, residence for owner in East Wing, restaurant, maze, butterfly conservatory]. This is where Winston Churchill was born but his father did not inherit because he was a later son.

Woodstock - Blenheim Palace -The first Duke of Marlborough was awarded the land and money to build this palace because of a successful military campaign against the French in the 1700s. Consuela Vanderbilt was bullied into marrying into the family in the late 1800s. She was a towering 6 feet and coined the term 'the heir and the spare'. Winston Churchill's mother was also an American heiress, the former Jenny Jerome, whose father made his fortune as a theatrical financier.

The Cotswolds - Evesham - I really needed to have the tourist bureau open to find a B+B in a private residence but despite the fact I practically ran there and it still should have been open it was not. Undeterred in most unlady like fashion I banged on the door and got a map and found the place afterall. On the River Avon I fed swans and their signets. The youngsters didn't know about not biting the hand that feeds you but no damage was done.

This is the telescope the home owner machined himself and with which he photographed the transit of Venus across the sun. He and his wife went on a cruise to get pictures of the eclipse earlier this year. The final picture is the Triumph from 1970 in which I got a ride to the train station so they wouldn't have to worry about me hauling all my luggage back through Evesham on time to catch the train.

Exeter - You can see the Roman wall and in the other picture how the Normans, Georgians and Victorians added to the wall with slightly different stone and masonry techniques. Above on the right is the Guild Hall from the 1500s and still in use for civic occasions and the campus of the University of Exeter framed as it is by the River Exe. The plaque is in memory of last four women hung for witchcraft:

1. Temperance Lloyd
2. Susannah Edwards
3. Mary Trembles [all 3 of whom met their death in 1682]
4. and Alice Molland [tried and hung in 1685]

Exeter - Relatives emmigrated from Devon in 1842 to Canada so I wanted to see what they left behind and try the clotted cream. Michael Caine has a restaurant and a boutique [above extreme left] opposite the Exeter Cathedral [top centre]. Exeter is another Roman walled city. Before the Romans there were hyenas and wooly mastadons.

Eden Project - Inside the biodomes it is as massive
as outside. The picture top left illustrates their use
of special growing pots that increase the yield from cherry tomatoes significantly. The conveyor belt is transporting bagged bananas they way they are harvested and shipped in tropical countries. Huge palm trees grow in the biodomes. There are cliffs and waterfalls. It is so humid and hot my legs were sweating. The picture bottom centre gives an indication of the crowds.

Eden Project - Everything was named and selected because it is any easy to grow variety. The teaching edible garden was right beside the restaurant and was not only succulent but a design masterpiece as well and gave the diners a visual banquet.

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   Eden Project - St. Austell - Tree-hugging environmentalists will take heart that an abandonned gravel pit could educate the world about how to use scientific innovation to grow organic fruits, vegetables, flowers and the fibres we need for everyday life. The place is so vast and steep there is a little train. Palms grow outside in the special microclimate.

Penzance - Parting pictures of lovely shops with stained glass transoms, archways giving a view to the sea, old buildings from the 1600s, and pubs featuring fresh seafood...entrancing! One interesting thing is despite so many shops being high up on hills and with stone foundations many had just been flooded and were not open!