England Job Exchange

2007-02-26T15:01:00.000-08:00

Please check my other BLOGs:

http://lccaustraliajournal.blogspot.com/

http://newzealandjournal.blogspot.com/

2006-10-17T08:40:00.000-07:00

Cheddar Gorge - Eons ago the whole area was covered by an ancient sea and limestone resulted from the exoskeletons of all the sea creatures. Then a river started carving a gorge through the limestone and got lazy and carved some caves and just flows underneath it all. The village is very charming.

2006-10-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

Paris - final picture taken from Sacre Coeur, of Paris laid out before you. We took the finiculaire et Basilique du Sacre Coeur up the hillside to Montmarte but walked down to the metro station.

2006-10-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Paris - gardens of delight! I really liked that the gardeners took chances and used exotic plants and combinations that were thrilling. I do like classical design so I was in my element. In one garden there was huge fountain and surrounding pond and children could rent antique sailboats and sticks to guide the sailboats on the little pond. They were totally entranced. It was fun that there were real live ducks and seagulls in the pond too just to mix it up. There were really old trees donated by Thomas Jefferson still flourishing. The chestnut trees have some kind of blight and many will have to be cut down and replaced.

2006-10-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

Paris - The first image is an arc near the Louvre with gilding on the top. You enter the Louvre through the modern pyramid structure by going down several stories. The Louvre was formally a palace and it is gigantic. The art work of Paris is divided by epoch so the Louvre has earlier works of art and the Musee d'Orsay [ a former train station built in 1848 and painted by Monet...extreme right] has the Impressionists. There was some kind of scare the day we were there because the army was patrolling the Louvre with machine guns! I was amazed you were allowed to take pictures of the works of art in the Musee d'Orsay as long as you did not use a flash mode.

2006-10-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Paris - the same cafe under the awning in both pictures was a favourite haunt of Ernest Hemmingway. We just happened to pass by it twice. I really liked that important buildings in Paris have clear signs about went on there of significance in the past. One street we walked down was the birthplace of a famous French scientist and also had a plaque commemorating a French poet from 1944 who was captured and sent to Auschwitz where he died.

2006-10-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Paris - cafe life and the bistros on the side streets in the Latin Quarter near the Pantheon where I stayed. People had the cutest dogs. And the other image is a market stall of just mushrooms -- any imagineable kind was there looking deliciously fresh and delectable -- a vegetarian's delight!

2006-10-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Paris - these are typical colourful tourist barges on the River Seine. You can buy a ticket that allows you to get off at the various art galleries along the Seine for one price. How could you rush the Louvre so you could see them all in one day? I liked the copper bridge at the top left-- simple and elegant and such an expensive material for these days.

2006-10-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

Paris from the top of Notre Dame - Unfortunately due to haze we could not see the Eiffel Tower.
It was scary at the top of the cathedral but it was impossible to fall off and the crowd was right behind you so no time to panic on the stairs...upward and onward. How did the workers in the 'olden' days manage their fear of heights and still create works of art?

2006-10-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Paris - Street and cafe scenes - People in Paris work hard and play hard. They stay late at the office and really want a break from work evenings and weekends. The fact that 50% live as singles and only have a tiny apartment all adds up to make cafes a very attractive place to linger.

2006-10-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

Paris - interior shots of the apartment where I stayed --- small by North American standards but large by Paris standards where the typical apartment is 15 x 12 feet and costs 300,000 Euros.

2006-10-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

London - ornate buildings everytime you look up, Big Ben, London Eye and crowds complete with a layer of garbage at least 6 inches deep as if you were walking on a cushion. At the London Eye you buy a ticket in another building and that other building was so crowded with tourists they asked everyone not actually buying a ticket to leave the building.

2006-10-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

London - Trafalgar Square top center and another square close to Piccadilly Circus where I stayed. It was very busy with tourists. I had a cruel laugh at people foolish enough to rent a big car and try to drive in downtown London. One fellow got himself stuck in a cul-de-sac with a pack of honking taxicab drivers heralding his every miscue. I was so glad to just be a pedestrian.

2006-10-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

London- Views from my room... I am not certain of the population but 8 million sounds about right. The city goes on for a long time in all directions with both the underground, trains, buses... I find it unnerving how far down the underground lines are and how steep the escalators can be. I thought it was brilliant to use them during the war for air raid shelters until someone told me bombs would come bouncing down the stairs and explode when they hit a level. Wouldn't that be a piece of bad luck!

2006-10-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

Bexley Heath - Red House - Final shots of the house where William Morris was still a young man [during its construction]. He was filled with ideals and wonderful design concepts that sometimes didn't work but still look magnificent .

2006-10-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

Bexley Heath - William Morris' s Red House - please let me indulge myself with lots of pictures. I have shown restraint and not shown them all. It was a miracle to find this place outside of London by train. A local man drew me a map of how to negotiate through back lanes, intersections and down what used to be countryside in the 1860's. William Morris was a dreamer and many of his plans for Red House were never implemented because they were impractical. He did hold worker bees whereby artist friends were invited to come from London for the weekend to paint different ceilings. He had an elaborate series of pegs so they would be able to replicate intricate patterns. He was not okay about the 'friendship' between his wife and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. When Sir Edward Burne-Jones and his wife were devastated by their loss of their daughter, enthusiasm for the Red House waned and the long journey it took to get there and so William Morris reluctantly left it behind.

2006-10-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Rodmell - Monk's Cottage - you can see how lovely the garden was, how the add-on really was totally accessible only outside, and how there was even a conservatory for growing delicate plants. The village of Rodmell was picturesque situated as it was in the the South Downs of Sussex over the Telscombe Hills from Brighton.

2006-10-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

Rodmell, Sussex - Monk's Cottage was Virigina Woolf's country getaway. It became more than that during the heavy bombing of London. The woman taking tickets at the cottage entrancewas a little girl when Virigina Woolf gave fancy dinner parties and would peak out her window and look at the famous people in Virginia Woolf's garden. I saw an autographed photo of Albert Einstein in a niche beside the fireplace. This was a bohmenian place. She loved all colours as long as they were a granny smith green. The easy chairs were well broken into and slipcovered as if she had just dashed out for a moment and would be back. As she earned money from her writing rooms were added but they were eccentric as in not being connected to the rest of the house and accessible only by going completely outside. And once done adding a new room she might take a dislike to it and never use it again! To compensate she would then add something else like the little writer's studio above right. The villagers knew the difference between her talking to herself to work out dialogue and talking to herself when she wasn't well. I found the eccentricites endearing.

2006-09-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-10T03:01:00.000-07:00

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:

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

2006-09-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-10T02:20:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-10T01:40:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-09-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

Penzance - I wanted to stay in a B+B by the sea and I found a 200 year old light and airy place I never wanted to leave. I learned later that the owner, a former
academic librarian, must approach house decor and how the place is organized in a way that is soothing to my brain. In WWII a German bomber accidentally dropped a bomb in all the backyards behind this house on his way to Plymouth so they were interesting and all different. You can see St. Michael's Mount in several of the pictures and the Sea Rescue so that Penzance could be helpful if there was a maritime disaster. You could smell the sea air and it was invigorating to stroll through the streets.

2006-09-09T20:52:00.000-07:00

Cardiff - quite a cosmopolitan city with many old buildings but lots of new ethnicities. I stayed in an African area of the city.

2006-09-09T12:27:00.000-07:00

Holyhead, Wales - Its a seven hour train ride from Holyhead to Cardiff Wales. As I mentioned before, some passengers from the Stena ferry were on my train and in the same car for seven hours until we reached Cardiff. It was a memorable experience. Snowdonia was the most beautiful part.

2006-09-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Stena Ferry - Trucks waiting to load and a Marks and Spencer truck actually going onto the ferry midsection. On bottom [the speck in the giant wake left by the Stena as we leave Dun Laoghaire] are dare devils in a power boat who cut back and forth through the wake until we were too far out to sea. There was no misadventure but it sure takes guts to try your luck against an ocean going ferry!

2006-09-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Palms at Dun Laoghaire

Dun Laoghaire I took a commuter train [we were packed like sardines from Dublin] to the ferry port of Dun Laoghaire to catch the Stena Ferry to Holyhead Wales.

This is how huge the ferry was [even bigger that P+O Irish Sea]. It had casinos, duty free shops, restaurants, bars and little did I know I had purchased a deluxe ticket so could have all the wine I wanted [plus an 'all you can eat buffet']. I showed moderation. Others [later on the train with me through Wales] had not shown restraint and it was quite a scene for the 7 hours it took to get to Cardiff.

2006-09-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

Dublin - This is the martyr's wall at St. Patrick's Cathedral [below]. It celebrates Irish Republican war heroes from 1988. St. Patrick is reputedly buried at this site. The stone wall to the right is from 1240 and there is a Medieval and Viking historic area closeby. Those Vikings really got around!

The money for St. Patrick's hospital [below] was donated by Jonathan Swift in 1745.Collin's Barracks and Museum [above right] is named after another Republican war hero from the early 20th Century. It was free and contained floors and buildings of treasures. Transferware plates and platters from Irish country cottages caught my eye as did a huge studio camera from the 1800s with billows and made out of fine woods [definitely not a portable!].

2006-09-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

Dublin -More pictures of churches coming up but first these two aerial shots taken from the seventh floor of the Guiness Building up a scary elevator with clear floor and walls so you could really see how high up you were! [also claustrophically small and packed with really large tourists!]. The picture to the left is the G.F. Handel Pub that sadly seemed to be in bankruptcy protection. He performed at the ChristChurch Place in 1742 [see picture below].

2006-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Belfast-I wasn't expecting to like Belfast so much. At the dock you can take a Titanic harbour cruise. I opted to do a self-guided walk. The lampost to the right is an example of how beautiful the dock must have been in Victorian times. Below are some double decker buses Belfast-style and some mini BMX bikes that bystanders could win.

2006-09-09T05:57:00.000-07:00

Portstewart - Had my suspicions when the bus zoomed past the Giant's Causeway [upper left, basalt formation under the Irish Sea all the way to Scotland as a remnant of when the two were connected] that I might never actually see it. Instead I experienced miles of white sandy beaches with no one on them except for the odd person and their dog. My accomodation is shown with a seaview from the end of the street, Portstewart is shown from the convent which is also show on the cliff and an oil and gas drilling platform in the last picture.

2006-09-09T05:43:00.000-07:00

Larne - I waited for hours for the coastal bus to pick me up at the Port Authority for the trip to Giant's Causeway. At the appointed time the bus whizzed right past me but the port authority guards were having none of that and through a series of forward calls got the bus stopped until I c ould run aboard. The coastal bus service did not improve on the way back. That driver told everyone attempting to buy a ticket that there was a better bus coming. The lucky ones heard the other passengers shout out 'that bus has already gone'. The gullible are still waiting for the better bus.

2006-09-09T05:25:00.000-07:00

Troon to Larne - I took the train to Troon Scotland and the P+O Irish Sea ferry over to Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The P+O ferry is so huge it can carry buses, car carriers, 100s of cars and trucks and foot passengers. There were 3or 4 restaurants, bars, currency converting service and full screen movie. The Irish Sea was very calm. It was surprising how far out the seagulls go.

2006-09-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

Glasgow
Willow Tea Room and Charles Rennie Macintosh artifacts attract devotees I saw again at the Glasgow School of Art , the Mackintosh House and the 'Dove+Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald and J. Herbert McNair' show at the Hunterian.

2006-09-09T03:43:00.000-07:00

Glasgow - Charles Rennie Macintosh will be featured prominently in my Glasgow pictures. Sharon Dyer from the Glasgow School of Art and Design is extremely knowledgeable and gave me a personal tour of his furniture and the library and the School itself which he designed. The Kelvingrove Museum is fantastic and free. Its shown on the bottom in the distance.

2006-09-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Hill Top Village - bucolic landscape with a central field of sheep, stone walls, a pub, grand houses on the hill and a winding narrow road leading back to the ferry to Windermere. There were hikers and cyclists of all ages and stages of physical fitness hiking around large sections of Lake Windermere.

2006-09-09T02:38:00.000-07:00

Beatrix Potter Cottage - I found the garden, the gate, the stone shed
a 'fairy land' of delight. I loved the vegetables, fruit and flowers.

2006-09-08T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hill Top

This is Beatrix Potter's cottage...the lovely walk way up to the house, the doorway, the gardens and the crowds. So many Japanese tourists come to Hill Top that they have a Japanese tour guide just for them. We had to wait until a specific time before we could enter the cottage it is so small and there were so many of us. The Beatrix Potter books were open in each room featuring the actual details of the room that were used as illustrations.

2006-09-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Lake Windermere

There were different kinds of ferries to take across the lake. I opted for the old fashioned kind. I got to know the Japanese family sitting in front of me inside the ferry. They were ever so nice when left standing in the rain with me when the van driver decided he had enough passengers already and legal limits precluded squeezing us all in. The family and I had to wait another 1.5 hours. People brought their bikes on the ferry to explore Hill Top.

2006-09-08T04:31:00.000-07:00

Lake Windermere

It looks cold and blustery but it was actually just a little overcast and warm.

2006-09-08T04:14:00.000-07:00

Lake Windermere

This is Lake Windermere, the largest freshwater lake in England. Wordsworth loved it here as did Beatrix Potter as did I. It really reminded me of Canada. I took a ferry across the lake to Hill Top and Beatrix Potter's cottage.

2006-08-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

www.woodfarmhouse.co.uk for receipes!

My accomodation owners prepared a fantastic buffet for their FLP business associates and were gracious enough to invite me to share the fabulous spread of gourmet food. I loved every morsel and I had seconds. I will be on a tour of the Lake District, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, the Cotswolds, Oxford, East Sussex, and London until Aug. 28th so there will be no updates until at least Aug. 29th. Ta ra for now!

2006-08-14T04:08:00.000-07:00

Cambridge - Parting shots of the Department of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics where Stephen Hawking works. The bottom images are typical houses in the neighbourhood right beside DAMTP where Stephen Hawking could live if he had a spare £1 million. If he doesn't live in a grand home he should, the Universe being a fair dealer.

Have to mention the Fitzwilliam Museum where I saw the notebook of Newton from 1662 where in clear and dark printing he had notes on Optics, his laundry expenses, and things he wished forgiveness for such as 'harping at Christmas' for which he charged himself 50 pence. I also saw the writings of Virginia Woolf, Thomas Hardy, Rupert Brooke, and Keats. I will thrilled
to see a whole floor of Roman artifacts but also Greek and Egyptian artifacts. They also had Handel's Bookcase complete with 67 original manuscripts. I found tiles by William Morris and furniture and art by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Leonardo da Vinci drawings were also there.

2006-08-14T03:43:00.000-07:00

Cambridge - My husband and I have been admirers of Stephen Hawking for a long time and I set myself a mission to try and capture a few of his genius ions by seeking him out in Cambridge. Sadly I never met him or saw him but the Universe let me find his favourite tea shop called Fitzbillies. I loved what they sell and their ambience and didn't my gaze fall to the side of their front window where waiting for me was an autographed picture from Stephen with the adage
'I'll have 4 of each please'. He might have been referring to the Valharona patisseries beautifully displayed in the window. The other images are the Sir Issac Newton Centre and in the distance the DAMTP where Stephen has an office. The building on the bottom right might be the office building but hard to tell and it was Saturday so everything was shut.

2006-08-14T03:30:00.000-07:00

Cambridge - more typical scenes of quadrangles, churches, courtyards and academic life. In one of the pictures if you have x-ray eyes you can see a crane in the backround. Nothing stands still in England and progress happens even in Cambridge. Bye the way I met a woman who moved from London and it was her opinion that Cambridge is far more expensive than London!

2006-08-14T03:22:00.000-07:00

Cambridge - It was gale force winds and driving rain the whole time but I still managed to capture the ambiance of the academic life, cerebral design and eons of time. The punting boats for hire were sitting idle. There will little ducks in a canal in front of the townhouse at the bottom left.

2006-08-11T07:17:00.000-07:00

This is Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood. It's actually close to where I live and I can get there with only two bus changes. There were two funny things in Sudbury Hall. In one room the 'dishy' first lord who got all the money by attracting 3 rich wives also had paintings of his two mistresses [one the alluring actress from the 1600's Nell Gwyn] . The funny part is that both paintings showed the mistresses in very revealing dresses but they were the same dress...did the artist only have one dress they could model in? did the lord only spring for one dress and passed it on to the next mistress? The other funny thing was that plumbing was hidden behind a bookcase and someone had selected books from the collection that only had to do with watery themes like 'Rapid Streams', 'Soake's Hoaxes'. I found a book of childhood memories from WWII in the Museum of Childhood. It contained stories of the difficulties of evacuation to the countryside from London during bombing raids and the terror that the doodlebugs created. We're off to Cambridge next and then a hiatus when I go on a tour of the Lake District, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the Cotswolds.

2006-08-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

Chester - you know I had to give you one more picture of Roman anything...in this case it is the stairs at the bottom of the wall to the left that look really ancient. The other picture is a garden you can see beside the canal when you look down from the wall. Before we leave Chester I have to tell you the cheeses in the cheese shop that caught my attention: Staffordshire Organic with Wild Garlic, Capro Blue from Croatia, Quicks Cheddar, Brie de Meaux [King of Bries], and Roche Baron [Bleu].

2006-08-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Chester - the cathedral in two shots. It was enormous.
Grosvenor Park was also huge and beautiful. The Grosvenors gave their name to the museum. It had Roman artifacts so I was in heaven. I also enjoyed a military museum. It had a mock trench from WWI and the various objects that saved men's lives by deflecting bullets [bibles, whiskey flasks, watch bobs]. The accounts of men given the Victoria Cross were amazing. One man took over a hundred men prisoner single handled even though wounded. There were seized Nazi armbands and machine guns.

2006-08-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Chester - I have an affection for anything Roman so I had to visit the famous walled city of Chester. I've assembled my favourite shots of various aspects of the Roman Walls. Like everything else in England the Georgians and the Victorians made 'modifications'.

2006-08-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Charlecote Park - this is a fine home and grounds outside of Stratford Upon Avon where Shakespeare when he was a 'lad' was alledged to have poached deer from the Lucy estate. The National Trust has a fine theatrical video narrated by Dame Judi Dench which I really enjoyed. I also loved the huge kitchen with big copper pots and fine china. But my favourite was the scent garden. I wasn't the only one who loved it there...the butterflies were swarming it. A garden centre across the road deserved the long visit we gave it.

2006-08-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Stratford Upon Avon - New Place was the home that Shakespeare purchased in 1597 with his London earnings. Shakespeare's grand-daughter and her husband, Thomas
Nash built right beside New Place but theirs is the only one that remains. A rich vicar who bought New Place found the taxes excessive so he burned it down! that showed the Council who was who! This same vicar also cut down a mulberry tree that Shakespeare himself planted because it brought too many people for the fruit. An enterprising man way back then bought the wood and made souvenirs that are on display in the Nash House. The place on the right is Harvard House which has some fantastic Roman coins and pottery. And yes one of the descendants of the original builders of the house went on to found Harvard University.

2006-08-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Stratford Upon Avon - the picture on the left is the Royal Shakespearean Theatre and the one on the right is the Swan. We were fortunate enough to get tickets to a performance of King John at the Swan and it was fabulous. Lots of blood and guts and we were rivetted to our chairs. It was hot and the actors were sweating for real in heavy costumes. It made me feel important to be amidst the people dressed up in their finery for a night at the theatre.

2006-08-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Stratford Upon Avon - This is Hall's Croft where Shakespeare's daughter Susanna and her eminent doctor husband Dr. John Hall lived. The gardens were spectacular.

2006-08-02T07:34:00.000-07:00

Anne Hathaway's Cottage - more flowers and the fabulous gift shop. The deep shade in some parts was a welcome relief from the heat.

2006-08-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Anne Hathaway's Cottage - this is the childhood home of Shakespeare's wife where he lived for a time and where his children were raised while he was off in London making the money. You'll have to indulge the many pictures of flowers. No pictures were allowed in the house. This was a more posh house than Mary Arden's. Not only did the gardens look fantastic they smelled fabulous as well.

2006-08-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

This is the pub in the village of Wilmcote where the Mary Arden home is located. There is a row of small cottages nearby that are really sweet and one of which is for sale. But it is so haunted that people going in it to look through feel uncomfortable immediately and back off. We're off to Stratford Upon Avon next!

2006-08-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

Wilmcote - This is the childhood farm of Mary Arden who was Shakespeare's mother. They have all kinds of wonderful animals and birds. I saw my first Tamworth pig there. I learned that 'chairman of the bord', 'upper crust' and 'potluck' all originated in the late 1400s. Rats falling into the beer brewing or the stock pot were thought to improve the flavour. One of the kings at this time only ever had one bath in his life. The floors in the buildings were slanted but its no wonder when you see the cutaway construction techniques which were twigs intertwined and stuck together with a mixture of manures.

2006-08-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

Stairway to Heaven, Hatton Locks, Grand Union Canal in Warwickshire --
If you have x-ray eyes you might just be able to make out a series of 21 locks that barges make their way up. There is a closeup of one of the locks. At the bottom is one barge going up the locks being driven by a young woman. She and her partner have lived on the barge for 3 months. One cat was already aboard and the partner was off rounding up the others to live on the barge over the summer. The young woman was doing a difficult and tedious task with great skill and confidence but it was taking hours and she was getting weary.

2006-07-28T08:04:00.000-07:00

This is the ruin called 'the Old Hall'. It was the result of a fight with her fourth and final husband but when he died she abandonned its construction and let it go to ruin in favour of the Hardwick Hall that now stands only a few 100 yards away. The other shots are of the estate and its extent and symmetry. We're off to Stratford Upon Avon next. Stay tuned!

2006-07-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

Hardwick Hall - no picture taking was allowed in the building so I have to show you the scale of the estate with outside views. This allee went for a long distance. Everything has to be carefully trimmed and watered. The inside contains alot of tapestries. Bess would wait until there was a distress sale and purchase many when her rich friends were going through insolvency. I found one room smelled really musty but I only noticed it at first.

2006-07-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Hardwick Hall - I was 15 hours on the bus or walking from where the bus lets you off at Glapwell to the back entry of the estate. This is the home of Bess of Hardwick , a very ambitious woman from the 1500s who married well 4 times and married her children to each successively wealthier new husband's children to keep all the money in the 'family'. At one time she was the second wealthiest woman in England. She also owned Chatsworth House. The Old Hall still stands nearby as a ruin. The backside [below] looks surprisingly like the front side.

2006-07-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

Tamworth Castle - this is the non-haunted bedroom, nice and tranquil. The haunted bedroom appropriately placed over the dungeon gave me the spooky effect show below. The other bedroom had outfits in it you could try on and guess who tried an outfit on and had her picture taken by her exchange partner's mother, Margaret Stark. Thank you Margaret!

2006-07-27T05:19:00.000-07:00

Tamworth Castle- This is the kind of castle you picture if you are North American with huge thick walls of stone, tiny cut glass windows, turrets, narrow and scary walkways high up, suits of armour, daggers and swords and complete with two ghosts.

2006-07-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

Jane Austen preferred the country life to life in Bath and she did not write about her life there with favour. It was fascinating seeing the dresses and learning how they spent their time and liked their buildings designed. For example for symmetry they would have doors that lead no where so the room would be
'balanced'. There was no running water in the houses which meant no indoor plumbing. Servants brought water and hauled waste away manually.

2006-07-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

Astronomer Wm. Herschel was really passionate about double stars and that is what he thought he had found when he discovered Uranus in1781. The museum was his former home, donated by his great-great-great grandaughter. Not only an accomplished scientist who already determined the depth of the craters on our moon in the 1700s with a telescope he developed himself but he was also an accomplished musician and gardener. Everything was in order in the house and it gave me a feeling of tranquility and cerebral contemplation like a great mind was at work within the walls.

2006-07-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

This is the end of the Roman Baths. We are moving on.

2006-07-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

Bath - These are photos of just the Roman portions of the Bath. It was what appealed to me most. I could just imagine the Romans coming out to dip in the waters. Their construction seemed pure, simple and aesthetic to me.

2006-07-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

The statute of a woman you can see atop the railing in front of the people was actually added by the Victorians. The Roman part is only original under the balcony. In the 1700s Bath decided to raise the street level 17 feet because of flooding. In the 1960s even with that drastic raising of the street level the River Avon rose 33 feet in a flood and swept out the stores on the Pulteney Bridge.

2006-07-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

It looks like a movie scene with lots of extras but they were in fact other tourists. The water is so hot from the natural springs of hot water adding a million litres a day that bubbles are rising everywhere. The water is hot to the touch [46 C]. England was hotter than Jamaica the day I went.

It was interesting seeing the Roman coins tossed down and still in place after 2,000 years. They had Bill Bryson commentary on the audiophones. I really enjoyed seeing the instruments Roman
women used to look beautiful such as tweezers.

2006-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

BATH -This is the Saracens Head Pub where Charles Dickens stayed during his reporter days. Bath was not favourably depicted in the Pickwick Papers. Below is a cherub [bottom left] carved into an alcove. I liked the symmetry of the long corridor of shops with probably a Victorian skylight at the bottom right.

2006-07-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

BATH - The rich people housed in the Royal Crescent, bottom left and the Circus built by the son of the builder for the Royal Crescent wanted to be shielded from the winds off the Atlantic. They were instrumental in having the Marlborough Buildings [top middle] constructed that run N/S and shield the Royal Crescent from the prevailing west winds. No. 1 in the Royal Crescent is a completely restored Georgian. The Circus housed Gainsborough and William Pitt.

2006-07-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

We were up on a high ridge walking alongside this deep valley. It was blustery but it was beautiful. We had the warm lunch to savour and the beautiful views and we were heading home to the cars after a 5 hour hike over hill and dale. It was so beautiful and fulfilling. Next I'm off to Bath in the SW corner of England. I have to take the train. There is some big festival there this weekend as well so it could be quite crowded. Stay tuned for the pictures next week. Ta ra for now!

2006-07-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

Hiking is very civilized in England. You hike straight up 300 feet and find the 'Dicky-Dee' ice cream man with 99 p icecream in a cone with a wedge of chocoate at the bottom of the hill to give you the courage to climb up the next hill and get to the village where the pub is! So this is the village you come to where the pub is and where we ate our lunch in the village square. I felt like the village and the pub were perfect and I had actually died and gone to heaven. The houses were all neat and tidy with perfect gardens and the pub was clean and beautiful. The washrooms had the toilet tank up in the air and fresh flowers at the sink with a beautiful hand towel and scented soap. I had to show you the proverbial stone walls maybe from the Norman times around 1100 AD. The incline on the second picture is for real. We were really walking uphill and the cattle too.

2006-07-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

I went hiking with a group that gets together for hiking and skiing. Part of the group had just been hiking in Evian France. The weather looks brooding but it never rained. We went up to a cave called Thor's Cave where bears used to live but now its just a slippery place with scary bits of climbing. There are sheep and cattle in the fields and you need an ordinance map to keep on track. Once we walked through a cottage's side garden but its been allowed since 1840 if not earlier.

2006-07-12T05:29:00.000-07:00

Just before we leave Chatsworth [there were so many more fabulous pictures but I had to be selective and not bore you!] I wanted to point out that they used to have the biggest green house conservatory in the empire. Queen Victoria loved to come for the day and just glory in the greenhouse but it took 3 coal mines going 24 hrs. to keep the greenhouse toasty warm in all seasons and during WWI when coal had to be used for the war effort and labour began to be expensive and just wasn't available the plants died and the greenhouse had to be demolished so they used the stone bases to define a maze which you can go through at Chatsworth now and befuddle yourself. The maze is in the background in the picture to the bottom left.

2006-07-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

There are 4 lakes above Chatsworth that a French engineer in the 1700s used to fuel the cascading steps you see up close and in a long view above at the bottom. He also designed this fanastic spout of water that creates an amazing spray. There were little ducklings at the other end. Sir Joseph Paxton who created the gardens described his first four hours at Chatsworth where he came up with the ideas he developed over the next 30 years, met and fell in love with the woman he would marry and be happy with for the rest of his life, and it was only 9 am.

2006-07-10T07:55:00.000-07:00

Statuary - so lovely. Hard to know how many 100s of years old they are. Then on the bottom left a decorative garden...the unattainable kind by mere mortals again. And a practical kitchen garden with two layers of netting over the soft fruits -- gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries. On the many buses it took to get there, I bought gooseberries at a farmer's stand and they were luscious. I think the food in England tastes unbelieveably good.

2006-07-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

At top left is the cottage garden...what you and I [the plebs] could do with a small plot of land. If you'll notice it is decorative and functional. Small fruits and herbs as borders, taller fruit and asparagus on the sides and backs, and apple trees on either side trained to make an arch and provide apples. Everything tidy, no weeds, and artistic and productive. I loved it. Everything else would take hours and many hands.not for mere mortals

2006-07-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is the dress that Keira Knightley wore in Price and Prejudice shot at Chatsworth. This is the dining room that kings and queens dined at. The final picture is blue and white china tulip holders that are at least 6 or 7 feet high and they displayed the great wealth of the estate holders to own tulips in such abundance that they could cut them and have them as decorative flowers when tulips cost a fortune.

2006-07-10T04:25:00.000-07:00

This is Chatsworth House where they filmed Pride and Prejudice. Being that it is a Saturday in July there were about 20,000 visitors to the estate and it hardly seemed crowded. There were people from all over the world touring the house and gardens. I was amazing that the estate was used in WWII to house evacuated children from London and other cities. They also had Egyptian tablets with hieroglyphics, sphinx stone statues, a Hellenic foot from the 300 BC and a trompe l'oeil on an oak door of a violin. Of all the art the Dutchess in the 1920's saved a pen and ink drawing of herself done at a picnic and it surpassed all the great masters because it was done with love and you felt you knew her seeing that drawing.

2006-07-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

Its an old style double decker bus where the ticket taker stood at the back of the bus where customers got on and sold you a ticket. You never interacted with the bus driver. This is me, Kathy Lea, enjoying a 'shanty' in the pub at the Bass Museum. Its a beer concoction with lemonade and it was very cold and delicious.

2006-07-07T02:49:00.000-07:00

For a team building exercise the Library and LRC staff at Burton went to the Bass Museum.

Kathy is being introduced to the Shire horse and her handler. She is capable with another horse to pull the loaded wagon behind her. This is my new work group enjoying the day. Finally a steam engine with a wooden train car behind.

2006-07-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

Here is the Amazon book review of a quirky novel 'And God Created the Au Pair':

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452287286/sr=8-1/qid=1151596721/ref=sr_1_1/103-8647356-1153424?ie=UTF8

Katherine Stark and Kathy Lea while not sisters are swapping continents just as the fictional characters of Charlotte Bailey and Nell Fenton have done. Check out their hilarious commentary on the quirks and foibles of both Canada and England in the novel called 'And God Created the Au Pair' which actually is just a series of their e-mails.

2006-07-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Ending with this typical sighting of a wild foxglove. Looking forward to showing you images from Chatsworth estate and hiking pictures from Ilam but that is in the future. Ta ra for now!

2006-07-04T05:44:00.000-07:00

The Burton area including the village of Moira had light industry. Moira had a furnace to make pig iron in the mid 1800s. There explains the canal which brought raw materials to the industries inexpensively. This canal goes to Ashby and it has locks, small boats and paths either side for bicyclists or joggers plus lots of mother ducks and ducklings. I sat and ate my picnic lunch on a park bench behind the furnace.

2006-07-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

Just some scenes you come across when hiking...wildflowers and the water lilies blooming away in the little ponds you discover.

2006-07-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

This is a scene of what it is to walk through a forest in England and a typical viaduct on the hiking path. And this is a scene from Moira. The houses looked very tidy with lovely gardens.

2006-07-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

You walk right beside these villages on the public foot paths or hiking trails. I saw all manner of dogs [dalmation, german shepperd, boxers, beagles, spaniels, and breeds I do not know], a vole, canaries, young girls on huge horses, courageous people in wheelchairs, children in large groups with their grandfather, children with parents on bikes and couples on bikes. The dogs came running down hills towards water as if it meant their freedom.

2006-07-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

Had a driving adventure to Conkers. While its an amusement area for children it leads into hiking trails in the National Forest so I actually walked from it to Moira, Donisthorpe, and Measham. Some of the distance indications seemed inaccurate. I was gone hours but each sign would say the next destination was only 1/4 but no distance measurement.

2006-07-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

Its a very fancy and exotic back yard at my accomodation complete with a lily pond, hammock that looks very space age and a wonderful teak-like table and chairs for eating in the garden...a regular event. And another view out my bedroom window down below.

2006-07-04T04:11:00.000-07:00

This is my accomodation...more pictures coming of it. The open windows at the top are my bedroom on the third floor. I can see the countryside and hills on the way to Derby from my room. It entices you to go for a ramble and find the public footpaths. I am no longer getting lost. I now know how to find 'The Elms' again if I want to.

The other shots are the road where I catch the bus to work and the houses at the back of the laneway and the enticing fields behind.

2006-06-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Check out this link to here the CBC dedication to the job exchange on June 19, 2006. It is the Delieb 'Flower Duet'. Unfortunately they thought my personal e-mail provider was involved but no worries. The music and the sentiments are enjoyable nonetheless and Katherine and Kathy had their 6 minutes of fame. Cheers everyone!

http://lccjobexchangeblogspotcom.castpost.com

2006-06-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

Last night on a ramble I met all manner of dogs near Swadlincote or Woodville, England. Rosie pictured here is a favourite name as is Rory, Roxy, Robbie, and Molly. Rosie was afraid of my skirt. As long as I was sitting down we were best pals but the moment I stood up barking began. Last night alone I saw a whippet, an Irish wolfhound, a bull terrier, and some kind of purebred German retriever all being walked by their masters and loved beyond belief with true dedication.