English Miscellany (with Danielle)

Once again, I'm looking through old photos I've taken and trying to get caught up on my picture posting. So today has less of a theme- but does include quite a few shots from the time when my friend, Danielle, came to visit in October! But it's mostly a hodgepodge collection. I kind of like it- quirks and oddities in our daily lives!

Lets see what we have...

For starters: the hubs and I discovered this awesome little car... parked on the sidewalk... right in front of a sign that says "No Parking". Oh, I love London!

And on a walk, I looked down a side alley to see this. Where else in the world will you see a random piece of artwork larger than a car (ok, a SmartCar, not a real car) hanging on a building above a dumpster?!

Oh yeah-- does anyone remember this beauty? On Facebook, I posted this article that boasted the 'world smallest home' selling for £275,000 (that's about $420,000) in Barnsbury, about a 10 min walk from our place. It looks better in their pictures. And I cannot believe the price of real estate around here!

Change of pace: I LOVE this view! It's  on a bridge in the middle of St. James' Park, between Buckingham Palace and Victoria Embankment. You can see the London Eye on the right, and a gorgeous palace-type place, that is apparently, the Royal Horseguards Hotel.

Buckingham Palace... and the flag is up, which means the Queen was in residence in that day!

Another of our favourite nights out... walking from the Southbank, through Borough Market, along to the Globe Theatre, and across Millennium Bridge to this spot in front of St. Pauls!

The view from The Millennium Bridge towards London Bridge and the Shard.

And the view from the Southbank (on an evening we happened to be attending Julius Caesar at the Globe!)

All right... back to a bit of reality. Here in England, we have Primark- the clothing equivalent of Walmart. Hence, a wall full of adult footie pajamas. Seriously, people?! Do you wear these?

Oh yeah- a bit of a theme to some of these pics! I realised I haven't posted many pictures from Danielle's visit. Danielle came in October to squeeze in a bit of a girls trip before wedding the love of her life just a few weeks ago! They're now settled in marital bliss, but I get to remember her 'back when' she was just a fiancee roaming the streets of England!

We took a couple day trips: the first to Oxford. I posted previously about The Eagle and Child (and the Inklings who met there), as it was the highlight of our day, but the rest of the town is worthy of sharing too!
The Radliffe Camera (camera meaning 'room' in latin).

I love all the winding passages one finds throughout Oxford.

And kind of cringe at seeing banks and coffee shops in such amazing old buildings! (Though this could theoretically just be a reconstruction to look old!)

I want one of these!

And this spot signifies the place where Ridley, Latimer, (Oct. 16 1555) and later Cranmer were burned at the stake for opposing Catholicism. It is here Latimer spoke the famous words of encouragement: "Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England, as I trust, will never be put out."

On another day, Danielle and I took a bus journey out to Bath (pronouced with a long ah... or so I've been told!)
The Bath Cathedral.

The Royal Crescent... famous for its groundbreaking curved architecture. (I tried to make it panorama, but couldn't get it to work, so you get two pictures.)

The Weir under Putney Bridge

I loved these sweet rooftops sticking out through the trees. And, if you look closely, up in the hills, you can see bits of the mansion at the Prior Park Landscape Gardens.

The first half of our day was grey and dreary, but the clouds parted just in time for sunset, and we realised that the Bath limestone was made for the golden hour.

Sally Lunn's... which is famous for... wait for it.... its bunns. Considered the oldest house in Bath, it dates back to 1482, though Miss Sally Lunn, a French Huguenot baker, didn't take up residence until the 1600s, when she brought with her a recipe for these large buns.. half bread, half cake, usually cut in half- but eaten in a variety of ways- for savoury sandwiches, to a morning toast, to cinnamon-sweet!

Just to give you some perspective on how old that is: this is artwork taken from the late 1400s.

And being French in the 1600s, Sally may have worn something like this:

Or this:

When I walk these streets, I lose perspective on how much history has happened here. How many shoes, sandals, bare feet have walked the same streets? What peasants, tinkers, merchants, servants wandered the same alleys? What careers have been built and lost? What families have been grown in times of piece and scattered in times of war? What swords have swung and bombs have dropped? Ultimately, what lives have lived here? What souls walked this path? And how many died knowing Christ?

I love how small I feel in the history of England. I love how small I feel in modern England- with its mix of slow country life and the urban multi-cultural worlds (plural) of London. When I take the time from my errands and photo shoots, it really is amazing, and I'm so grateful to be here to experience it!

Ramblings and Such

While my friends across the pond are experiencing the angst of a government shut-down, we're waiting with anticipation for the completion of our upstairs flat. Today the painters arrived, signaling the transition from building to finishing! We're so excited to really settle in, and I can't wait to show you all the process. I've taken some pics along the way, so perhaps I can post a timeline when its finished!

In the meantime, here are some shots of our last few weeks.

Our sleepy Saturday morning. Breakfast casserole & french press coffee are always a good way to start out the day!

Last night, the hubby got a hankering for some prawn crackers (or shrimp chips!) If you've not had them before, they look like little glass discs (see the bag in the foreground), and when you put them in hot oil, they *poof* up and look like colorful, bendy, fishy, styrofoam, which is basically what they taste like. (Though he'd probably argue with me on that one!)

Last week, another Auntie stopped by for a few days. I'm loving all these family visits! We took a few hours and visited the Columbia Road Flower Market. It was jam-packed, shoulder-to-shoulder scuffle down a crowded quarter mile, whilst vendors yell out their sales, competing for buyers attention. I'm convinced the two men competing to sell orchids are actually brothers out-bidding each other to make twice the profit! ;-) (But I won't spill their secret!)
We picked up a lovely bouquet of drying hydrangea. This is it, a week after purchase, drying out, but keeping its color beautifully. And I'm so excited to have a plant I can't kill, as its already officially dead!

Auntie and I went to Buckingham to try to see the Changing of the Guard. We arrived a half hour early to find crowds already lined up at the gate. We pushed in, and got glimpses and peeks, but watched most of it through the raised iPhones in front of us. Basically, if you come to visit me and want to see the changing of the guard, we'll plan to pack a breakfast and be there all morning. :-P Still fun to say I've done it, kinda sorta.

Browsing the Southbank Book Market under Waterloo Bridge.

Kensington Palace, past home of Princess Diana, and current home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. (I'd say Wills and Kate, but apparently, that's not 'proper'.) We were surprised they didn't come out to say hi and give us a tour, but they did just have a baby, so I suppose we ought to cut them some slack.

I was told a certain aunt of mine loved/loves Princess Diana, so we made sure to stop by the memorial fountain.

Rather puny if you ask me, but Auntie said the queen was pretty peeved at Di for divorcing Charles, so I guess this fountain is all she got.

Crocus plants (crocuses?) (crucusi?) pop up throughout London's parks, showering the ground in a carpet of purple. It's an unexpected punch of color in the usual shades of autumn.

Loving our time in London, and praising God for his continual blessings, both little and big!