to 8/16/2011 -- Borrowdale

(includes corrections from Steve) I’m sitting in the front room of the Leathes House, which looks out on Borrowdale and the fells beyond. Last week was a blur, trying to wind up at work, coop , weird meals at home as we tried to use up this and that.

Stayed latish at work, came back latish, & made a not v. inspired chicken w/ tomatoes & zucchini. Got up, packed & erranded in AM. Borders is closing. I went in to get some paperbacks to read on the plane. It felt so sad – all the times I’d gone there when L & A were little – all the books I’d bought for them (& me) there. Bought a bunch of kids books for the guys in the shelters.

S claimed my suitcase was > 50 lbs (comment by S: which would generate a fee), but in fact it was 44. V. pissed at him that his preference for window seats landed us in a back row where the seats wouldn’t recline, and landed me in a middle seat WHICH I DID NOT LIKE. Kept muttering “shxx”. I should say, he’d gifted me his US Air miles to try to upgrade, but upgrades not available, in the end the flight was oversold & they had to elicit volunteers to fly to London & then Glasgow.

Glasgow airport small – we were staying in Holiday Express (comment by s: with a 2 pm checkin). They couldn’t give us a room in the morning when we arrived, so we took a but into town & went to the Kelvingrove Museum, part of the University. V. eclectic – couple of rooms of French, couple of rooms of Italians, assorted antiquities, couple of rooms of local artists whom I found forgetable) and a v. massive Dali Christ on the Cross. S looked at the Glasgow boys, thought theirs a good use of Matisse-type colors. S proposed lunch in the downstairs cafe (more expensive, fewer little kids), which was smart (I was still pissed at him). Wound up watching Tango demonstrations, and I just ached w/ fatigue. Finally, we could check in; we promptly fell asleep & woke up maybe 6 pm feeling much better. No airport restaurants to speak of, so we ate in the hotel --- ok curry.

Next day, I persuaded S to switch our rental to an automatic, even tho it almost doubled the cost (he's a wuss in his old age, isn't he). Got down to Borrowdale in abt 3 hrs & ate lunch in Keswick (pronounced Kessick) at an overpriced Indian (but service not slow & food fine). Went out for a couple hours walking starting in back of the hotel -- v. bright day w/ beautiful clouds, and the scenery in Borrowdale just beautiful -- and the intense green of the valley bottome filled w/ sheep byres.

Where we are (Leathes Head), the steep slopes are mostly forrested.

Tues was rainy -- we sent into Keswick & visited the pencil factory (they were invented there -- there are graphite deposits) & Castlerig stone circle -- beautiful view of fields & fells, but pretty steady rain & then walked deown to Friars Craig -- good views of Derwentwater. S saw a pub advertising a lunch special at GPB 3.99 including "mushy peas" for lunch, so insisted we go there (as his BD celebration). Then we walked a couple hours along a RR line converted to a bicycle / pedestrian trail, along the River Greta. V. woodsey, not much in the way of views.

Slight excitement -- S (whose Estonian-based cell phone service couldn't get reception at our hotel) saw a missed phone call # & ID'd it as our neighbor's. I was able to call out on my bberry. She wanted to say, there'd been 5"of rain the other day and did our sump pump work? Much discussion abt did she had a key, but then S called the lady who cleans our house, who came in first to check that the sump pump worked, then (several times) to unstick the float that made it run without stopping.

8/17/2011 - Rosthwaite & Stonethwaite

Wed, we did a walk through the upper reaches of B orrowdale: Rosthwaite & Stonethwaite. It was supposed to be a 9 mile walk, approx time 4 hrs, but we did maybe 7 miles of it in 5, isn't that sad? Only a little section was difficult -- just rocky trail. (from the book's description, I was afraid it involved yards & yards of scrambling, but even for timorous me, the distance involved was short). S led, of course -- there was one section where the guidebook said"soon leave this (public footpath) by striking left across Combe Gill for Stonethwaite -- the path is not quite as shown on maps, nor is it a right of way, but its use is permitted". The Seathwaite section was crowded with campers & walkers (to climb Scafell), but otherwise v. peaceful, just us & the Herdwick sheep. Lovely, bright day.

S wanted to drive over Honnister pass to Buttermere --the next mere -- so we got some coffee & set off. I found the drive pretty terrifying -- the roads aren't wide enough for 2 cars to pass abreast, and there were 25% (not an exaggeration) grades.

My bb just ran out of juice & died -- sort of distressing but I shouldn't be checking email anyway, should I? S isn't checking HIS email now, is he??

Continuing w/ the roads, many are not only single laned, but lined on each side w/ stone walls, so the car has maybe 6" clearance.

Thurs, 8/18/2011 - Keswick to Winchcombe

We bad farewell to the Lake District -- Grasmere & Dove cottage would have meant a few more hours'drive & I was nervous enough about my stint of driving on the M6, so I lugged The Oxford Book of English Verse along for nothing, didn't I?

It was about 5 hrs drive down to here -- through pretty grimy Midlands (Lancaster, Birmingham) but these rolling hills & fields are lovely. The house we're staying in is lovely, too, built in the 18th cent, all filled w/ antiques & pictures of a VERY handsome family. Lovely picture of two blond daughters, barefoot, in sleveless black dresses, standing on the grass.

They own some 600 acres and of course the line is they take in B&B guests only out of generosity to share this loveliness w/ them, but it can't be much fun, can it, to have strangers tramping dirt into your lovely home week in & week out? And, I mean, it's not that much money, is it -- total revenue is maybe GBP 400/night or so (max, and there are exps), and I as overpaid dweeb earn roughly that. Of course, I don't live in lovely country-side, do I. I guess that's the point.

The bookstore in town is going out of business. S spent some GBP 20 on maps there, a shocking sum for him, and then spent a further 10.

My bberry revived when I charged it w/o the transformer, and now it's its peppy little self. (altho radio transmission briefly off after I took out the battery).

However, we still have communications constraints, because:
1) S's Estonian-based cell phone doesn't get good reception, so when he calls the states, people can't understand what he says.
2) I can't figure out how to dial UK numbers -- the prefixes we could think of didn't work.
3) I can't figure out how to set up my voicemail box.
The upshot is, S can call me, but I can't call him. Steve thinks I'm technologically inept. I think if he had some normal cell phone I could just return a missed call.

Fri, 8/19/2011 - Winchcombe, Belas Knap, Sudeley Castle

Funny to hear sheep baa-ing as we wake & go to sleep. Keep hearing "sheep may safely graze" the Bach cantata tune, in my head. (posted a link to a rendition in the left hand side of the blog). We walked into Winchcombe today & then to Belas Knap -- a Neolithic barrow that held some 38 individuals -- way up on the Cotswold escarpment. The altitude gain was 700' (so paltry, but it made me huff & puff). Lovely views across the valley -- Sudeley castle & St Peter's in the village.

Belas Knap looks roughly like 1/2 pear, where the pear is 40-50'long and up to 20'high. One guidebook said -- 15,000 man-hours, v. fine dry laid stone, so demonstrated advanced organization. I keep thinking, what would possess people to build such a thing? Someone's ego trip.

Sudeley castle v. damaged in civil wars & largely rebuilt by Victorian textile tycoons. The lovely little church of St. Mary's is almost entirely a Victorian reconstruction (I learned after reverently photographing the effigy of Catherine Parr). Poor lady only lived a bit over a year after marrying Semour -- died of purpureal fever at 36.

The exhibits weren't that substantive -- mostly costumes from a TV version of the 6 wives of Henry VIII -- so largely Philippa Gregory land. Gardens v. pretty - I only spent an hour in the whole place, and 15 min was getting & drinking a pot of tea, since S stayed outside.

We trudged back to the house (so maybe 8 miles total that day) and scurried into Winchcombe to pick up laundry. Dinner at the Indian restaurant, followed by S investigating the coop supermarket to compare prices with the US.

Sat 8/20/2011 - Broadway, Chipping Campden, Cirencester

We drove over to Broadway -- pretty, but it didn't really grab me, and then to Chipping Campden, which is really lovely - buildings of all eras -- 14th - 19th cent, all in the same honey-colored limestone.

Church of St. James v. nice - chapel with 17th cent effigies of worthy couples w/ incredible neck ruffs carved in marble. Couldn't find the floor bronzes in the chancel that were described. V. comfortable looking church. We ate lunch in a 14th century pub -- I had a little of S's hard cider.

By the time we'd wandered around, it was well after 3 & I wanted to see the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Cirencester -- S kept threatening I should drive but good thing I didn't, since we had to scurry to get to the church by 4:30. V. handsome 17th cent floor stones, all specifying profession: soap boiler, or printer or clothier. Also 14th cent bronzes in the altar of one of the chapels.

8/21/2011 - Hailes Abbey

Two mysteries I'm leaving on the shelf of the guest room (but the authors were decent):

PL Gaus - Clouds w/o rain

Rebecca Tope - A Cotswold Killing (she didn't tie up all her ends, though).

Steve's green jacket is disintegrating day by day (and is terribly smelly). The hood is coming apart from the body & the back is flaking off.

Lovely, clear day. We started out for Hailes Abbey -- dismantled in the Dissolution -- took longer than we'd thought to go through the interpretive material. We didn't start walking till maybe 11:30, and the walk took till maybe 2:30. Great views across the Vale of Evesham.

8/22/2011 - Call to A

He's signed a lease starting Sept 1 on a house, so for the mean time he stays w/ Claire, whose parents are divorced. He mirrors where Claire's sister goes (i.e. when she goes to one parent, he goes to the other & uses her bed). He's friends w/ Claire's Dad. Spent most of the weekend hanging out w/ people from work (predominantly 22-23 yr olds). He was asked to tell his manager if he was going to be getting into the office later than 11 AM (so worktimes v. flexible).

8/22-23/2011 (Mon & Tues) Oxford & London

We left the Cotswolds about 10 AM yesterday -- S drove maybe an hour to Oxford, parked in a park & ride, whence we took the bus into Oxford. Ashmolean (alas) closed Mondays. Went through Balliol (Id forgotten that Peter Wimsey was among the alums) -- mostly Victorian. S v. interested because it was the model for Princeton's grad college. The portraits of dignitaries in Hall included Baruch Blumberg (I hadn't known). Incredibly lush flower beds (I've really never seen the like). Included banana-looking things (winters must be v. mild).

[S said at some point he worries I dress too frumpily for work. (this from someone who's spent 30+ years teaching in math T shirts). I worry maybe he has a point.]

We also went to Magdalen -- v. lovely cloisters lined w/ hydrangeas. Then we went back to the car -- S drove us to Heathrow -- one wrong turn, and a scramble to get to a gas station & top up the car (I wound up directing S at one point when he had to back out of a non-functioning bay). Great relief to S to deliver the car unscathed.

Then bus to but-to-airport, 2 hr van ride into London. The hotel we're in is near Harrod's, but you'd never guess -- it's on a v. quiet, short, dead end-street. Our room's one window looks out on an air-shart, but the room has air conditioning, is relatively large, and has a huge bathroom. Drinks & afternoon tea are free, too.

We went to a Thai place around the corner; S upset abt the cost & abt swallowing a hot pepper.

I agonized a certain amt over the GBP 14 for the room service breakfast (no DR), but the breakfast was nice. S went to MacDonalds, a block or two away.

This morning (rainy) he walked some 25 min to do laundry. I went to Westminster Abbey (had never been), leaving 9:30 by tube to use the reduced-price day pass. Waited in a long, soggy line (BUT, I saw the gargoyles in action -- that's worth something isn't it?) Inside was wall-to-wall tourists, shuffling damply through. I shuffled along w/ the masses, didn't take the audio tour, but gleaned what I could from Fodors, the pamphlet, and reading the eulogies on the monuments. The floor-stones included one marking an 18th century plumber of Westminster, but maybe that meant lead gutters instead of sewage? We'll never know.

Afterward, I made my way to the National Gallery -- along w/ every other tourist in London, admission being free. 13th-15th cent is on the top floor of a new addition -- had lunch in their nice dining room in the same addition, then S came over, and we went through the 16th-20th centuries together. He's much more observant & appreciative than I am, e.g. Claude, a 16th cent French landscapist -- I tend to look at paintings & label them -- that's a Turner, or a Monet. Found a Hogarth I'd remembered from a child's book about art I'd had years ago --a v. quick, vivid painting of a smiling shrimp-girl. Two Monets I especially liked - one of trees, one of a seashore - done w/ an uncharacteristic amount of detail, in beiges & whites. The rooms were VERY crowded -- especially the impressionists at the end.

We had coffee / tea in the cafe, made our way back to the hotel. I had my by-now-customary couple of glasses of the nice red wine they serve here -- Bergerac - Chateau des Peyroulets. Went to an Indian place S had seen in the neighborhood where he did the laundry, which was fine -- I mostly didn't want him to grump about the price of dinner. We took the tube there & back -- on the return trip we wound up going down 87 spiral stairs by mistake (at the bottom, but not the top was a sign not to use the stairs except in an emergency).

Did I say that all my resolutions to wear city-type clothes & sandals have come to naught? I can't do museums in anything but running shoes. So there I am in my crops, running shoes, and mesh shirt, surrounded by all these svelte young things in black tights & short skirts & high heels.

8/24/2011 (penultimate day)

OMG this is the penultimate day of vac. S & I separated -- he to Hyde Park and the transportation museum, I to Hampton Court, some 20 mi outside London.

He was VERY happy there. There were hoards of kids pretending to drive the vehicles. Did I notice why the London subways were so deep, instead of cut & cover like NY? Well, London built trains to the suburbs before NYC, but by an act of Parliament couldn't build through the middle of town (which is why there are so many different train stations in a ring). But how to get people from the trains to wk??? At first there were horse-pulled trams. Then, around 1865 -- so 30-35 yrs before NYC--but steam-powered, because electric motors weren't powerful enough to pull trains till around 1900. The Circle Line was cut & cover, but the others were far deeper, w/ ventilation holes every so often to vent the smoke & heat (but see next post -- I think S hadn't seen all the Tube exhibit at this point).

I had a lovely day at Hampton Court -- caught the 9:06 out of Waterloo station. The ticket machine gave me 6 (count them, SIX) ticket stubs for a round trip & I had to ask the guard which to use to get through the barrier. Half the palace is Tûdor -- there were audio tours for the Tudor kitchen (which fed some 1,000) and the Henry VIII state apts (huge banqueting hall), and Henry as a young man (I thought he had red hair? but the video -- maybe from the TV show? showed a v. virile handsome dark haired man).

Went to the cafe for lunch (by then, the Henry VIII section was getting crowded -- the one thing I've learned besides arrive early in the day is to go to lunch early -- by the time I'd finished eating, the line was out the door). Had to relinquish audio on the way to the cafe, so after lunch toured the Christopher Wren part of the palace w/o. Was pretty well palaced out by then. HUGE rooms w/ 30'ceilings -- had to have been drafty in winter. Enourmous portraits mounted 10' up on the wall. Outside were massive cone-shaped yews (?) and a grape vine planted 1768 & still producing (the grapes -- prettily packaged -- were on sale in the garden store, so of course I had to buy some at maybe GBP 8 / lb?). I think it was Trollope's Small House at Allingham ? where a decision to mend the chimney in the small house's grape house signified a turn in sentiment by a noble patron. (OMG I just checked on my bb & was right-- it's so reassuring sometimes to be able to remember something).

So many things to check when I get home. Like, who was Lady Jane Grey and why was she executed? I had her mixed up w/ Jane Seymour, the mother of Edward. Oh, OK, I could find that searching on my bb too. She reigned 9 days, after the death of Edward & before Mary I.

Stung by S's characterization of my clothes as "frumpy", I dressed up for dinner last night in an outfit I'd bought for London, and we went to a French place Fodor's liked nearby. S had the prix fixe; I couldn't resist the lamb (so not prixe fixe), S sort of shell-shocked by the price, but it was VERY nice. Aren't these thrilling chronicles?

8/25-26/2011 (Thurs -- our last day in London & trip home)

Our last day. Rain in the AM, and we went to the Tate Britain in Pimlico. I liked the old stuff best, of course, the Cholmodeley Ladies (born on the same day, married on the same day & gave birth to sons on the same day), a Geo Stubbs of reapers, the Constables & the early Turners.

Then we split -- S to stay another hour in the Tate & return to the Transport Museum, I to go to Liberty of London to buy stuff, then to the National Portrait Gallery. Ate lunch in the restaurant -- which had an incredible view over Trafalgar square & London's rooftops. I should have taken a picture.

I liked the Tudor era portraits best, of course -- my attention faded after that, except that I needed to see Ms. Austen before I left. The only confirmed portrait of her is a tiny little thing, maybe 5"square? a sketch by her sister Cassandra with a funny ambiguous quote by her niece. 'there is a look which I recognise as hers', her niece wrote, 'though the general resemblance is not strong, yet as it represents a pleasing countenance it is so far a truth.'

Lovely, clear weather by the time I emerged -- a more ambitious soul would have walked back instead of taking the tube.

We're headed back to the Thai we ate at the first night -- its prices don't seem as horrendous now to S.

More from the transportation Mus - the lines after the Circle Line were deep because Brunel (pic in the national portrait gallery) had figured out how to tunnel -- the clays under London lent themselves to deep tunnelling, the elevator & electric motor had been invented by roughly 1980, so it was feasible to get people down that deep. Nonetheless, it took US financing to complete the first tunnels.

Then we (heatedly) discussed how we'd communicate if/when he was in Berlin. I keep thinking a normal phone (that he carried & left turned on) would be easier to deal with than the Estonian service he has, i.e. when he calls, my bberry on a normal phone, shouldn't I be able to reply?

Anyway, we got to the airport v. early the next day (crowds had been forecast) -- I finished David Starkey's Henry: Virtuous Prince (a bio of the early life of Henry VIII), and then read an Agatha Raisin (a mystery featuring a dumpy 50-0dd yr old who settles in the Cotswolds) and the newest Dona Leon, & also watched 27 dresses (a chick-flick whose heroine accumulates 27 bridesmaids dresses), and now we're home.

The sump pump is acting up, our water heater's got a crack, my Prius won't get out of park (so I had to walk my groceries home from the coop), but it was still a lovely, lovely trip.