Lunch in London with Kayleigh

Since leaving University a year ago, I haven't seen my friend Kayleigh once! We spent many an hour in the cafes on campus mulling over the great and wonderful issues of life, complaining about work, and so on and so forth. It was a moment to put our work on hold and be silly or whatever we needed at the time. Naturally, I felt I needed to get together with her once more before moving back, so we met half way in London. Grabbing a Subway sandwich, and finding a nice space on the grass in St James Park, we chewed our sandwiches and "the cud" for a good few hours. In between, we had a visit from a pelican, people looking for the London Eye, and several tourists with cameras. The weather was perfect, with wispy clouds in the sky shading us occasionally from the sun shine. This weather seemed a perfect back drop for an ice cream, so after grabbing one from an ice cream vendor by the stream, we went and listened to a band of bag pipes who were playing in aid of charity for the homeless being collected by Morris dancers dressed like those from Mary Poppins! I will miss our little chats, but Kayleigh and I will simply have to catch up in a Tim Horton's in Montreal on a snowy day.

The Pelican!
He was very friendly
The bagpipers and morris dancers
The London Eye behind the Foreign and Common Wealth Office building
Buckingham Palace, the flag means she was in!
Me, in front of the Canada Gate!!
And, to continue on with this Canadian theme: Canada Geese!!
And finally, Kayleigh and me with the Palace behind.

Ringing at Windsor Castle

Listen to the bells ringing!! (click here)

When I was asked to ring at Windsor Castle, I was amazed! The chance to ring in a castle? How could I resist? Plus it was on the anniversary of my Dad's death, so what better way to remember him, and honour him by doing something he loved doing - bell ringing. We drove down to Windsor on a rainy evening, so we couldn't see it at it's best, but the building is still impressive nonetheless and I still felt in awe when we pulled up outside. We waited to be let in by the guard after we were issued with ID badges, and I took the opportunity to be a tourist for a tiny bit. We were led through several quads and corridors and finally came to the ringing chamber. Because the ringing chamber was an after though, the bells weren't hung in a traditional square tower. These ones were hung in a round corner tower of the surround of the castle. The bells wouldn't be described as 'wonderful'. I believe I heard them described as 'lumpy', 'odd struck', 'tough to ring', 'anti clockwise', and 'out of tune'. I guess the romance of the fact that they were in the castle didn't make up the tone of the bells. Tonight however, they were rung for the Duke of Gloucestershire's birthday, as they do for every royal birthday, Christmas, Easter, Ascension day, and the Saints Day. After we rang the bells, we were taken all the way up to the bells. To get there we had to clime up at least 5 stair cases, and hoist ourselves up ropes to get right to the top but it was well worth it! We were right up in the roof at this point and the wind was whistling through the shingles. We also saw the clock chime, as it played St. David's song. I was really, really pleased to be able to get the chance to ring at Windsor Castle before moving back. Though the bells weren't quite as nice sounding as I'm used to, I still felt it was a privilege.

The Castle from the outside.
This is the type of tower we were ringing in.
St. George's Chapel
Inside the ringing chamber.
In the ringing chamber again.
These are the weights of the bells. The tennor (#8) is 26 hundred weight which is approximately 2,912 lbs.
One of the bells in the frame.
One of the bells from the top.
This is one of the sets of windows where in the 'olden days', you would simply have had a rope tied around your neck and would have been thrown out of the window!
The clock mechanism, we were told dates back to the 17 hundreds.
This is the 'junk' from the chapel. This is how it was described to me, I thought it was wonderful!
More of this so-called 'junk'
The cannon.
This is a peal board from 1748. I had to read it twice to notice that it took two men to ring the tenor (8th bell). And that was for the whole peal.
Notice anything strange.....?
The group making noise!

The Buddleia

I was out in the garden one day, putting the laundry on the line. The weather was beautiful; sunny but not too hot, and a light soft breeze. I was sorting out the socks from the knickers, and pairing the socks before putting them on the line (you'd understand if you've ever seen my laundry out) and my thoughts were drifting. As I got to hanging up the shirts, half way up the line I looked up and was face to face with a gorgeous butterfly resting on the buddleia. Otherwise known as a butterfly bush or tree, the bunches of flowers are like tightly packed lilac flowers. You can always tell when you're around a buddleia because there is a distinct smell of honey in the air; Hence why butterflies and the like are highly attracted to them. On this occasion, there were about six different varieties of butterfly on the tree, among them the white cabbage butterfly, and the peacock butterfly. I couldn't resist trying to get a picture of the latter because the purple-blue on its wings matched the buddleia.

The Reunion

Though it was a short visit, I had a blast with my friends! A lot of sight seeing, and driving plus a few chuckles and wheezes over drink at the pub. Hopefully the frivolities will continue on the other side of the pond when I join them at the beginning of October!!

Fun Times in Oxford!

Of course, another place we had to visit was Oxford. Though Cheryl had already been before it was Krystle's first time so I tried to get the most in without breaking the bank or our feet. We managed to go into the covered market, the Alice Shope, looked at Christ Church, walked along Corn Market street, shopped in some of the Varsity shops, shopped at Primark, and ate our lunch in the Botanic gardens while watching the funny punters. The weather decided to be on our side and we actually got some sun shine! Though it was all packed into a short space of time I feel we at least managed to get a flavour of Oxford, and did see most of the things we'd planned.

Corn Market street with a billion people on it.
Cheryl and me in front of the Bridge of Sighs.
View of Magdalen College and one of the green houses in the Botanic garden.
Magdalen through the gardens.
Cheryl eating lunch.
Krystle says cheese!
Our camera shy duck :)
Oxford sunshine.
Krystle and Cheryl riding in the front of the double decker.

The Uffington White Horse

One of the things that the girls said they'd like to see while they were here was the White Horse. So of course, I obliged as I had never been there myself. What a perfect opportunity to see something so monumental before moving back. Plus, it was only a short distance off our route home, so it worked out quite well. As per usual I did my home work and printed off the page of information from the link above and gave it to Krystle to read on our way there. After a few scenic turns along the way, we finally made it! Luckily the weather was on our side so we didn't have sheets of rain to compete with, just a bit of a breeze. But when you're that high up what else would you expect? Again, the views were stunning and we had a lovely walk up to the Horse itself (despite not being able to see the whole thing) and also to the Dragon Hill. The web page had a good history of the legend behind Dragon Hill, as well as the White Horse which made the vista even more enlightening.

Krystle and Cheryl on top of Dragon Hill.
Krystle marching her way up to the White Horse.
I think this looks like a dried up river or lake. Plus the ridges on the left look like a glacier passed through there at some point.
Dragon Hill. The white on top of the hill is supposed to be the blood of the slain dragon.
The White Horse (up side down) and the Dragon Hill underneath it.

Cheryl, Krystle, and Sarah do Avebury

It only took Cheryl 7 years, but she finally made it over to visit me in England! Krystle came with her so it was a double treat. Cheryl has family down in Dorset, so I went to go and pick them up from the near-by village of Avebury which is located half way between where she and Krystle were staying and my house. Luckily, Avebury is an historic village so before sweeping them off to the White Horse, we had a wander around the Avebury Henge. The link takes you to a website which goes over the history and the modern story of the henge. I couldn't word it any better, so I highly recommend you have a noodle through the the site. If you search Avebury using Google maps you can clearly see the ditch surrounding the ancient henge. Even if the archaeology goes a bit over your head, the walk is still wonderful, and you get great views!

Cheryl and Krystle wave hello!
Some of the ditch, and some of the ancient stones.
More of the stones.
The ditch and some of the stones from up on top of the mound.
More of the ditch closer up.