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~ a romance with art and all things British

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Category Archives: United Kingdom

Scones, Cake and Tea

15 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by pat in Art, Cornwall, England, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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cake, painting, scones, St. Ives

Somehow in over 20 years of going back and forth to England I had missed St. Ives, an artistic port tucked away in Cornwall.  This past autumn we put it right. And as is often the case, My Beloved Brit researched on line and found the most glorious spot on a tiny back street hidden in the midst of this famous seaside town.

“Olives” is a truly lovely spot that specializes in tea and scones, but also has marvelous cakes and coffees.  I knew immediately it begged a painting, no matter how daunting the details (That plaid shirt!  That glassware!).

Nonetheless, she persisted.

I loved the colors and the contrasts between hard and soft surfaces.  Slowly I worked on putting a first layer of paint down.

I had taken several photos of our young barista, but loved this layout of reaching for a cup.  The extended arm helped me not lose her in the jumble. Once I had the first pass of color completed I started to slowly return and add detail, highlights and tone.

As i proceeded, I decided where I wanted emphasis.  I spent days on her shirt, face and hair.  But what a release in this time of anxiety to work on such a lovely expression of pure joy.  A full 7 weeks later, working almost every weekday, it was done.

Scones, St. Ives, 30 x 24″, oil

And, by the way, My Beloved Brit had the Vegan Chocolate Cake, and I had Cranberry Scone with clotted cream and jam. One of the best “lunches” we had in England.

English Inspiration

10 Thursday Oct 2019

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, Bath, Burnham-on-Crouch, Cornwall, Cornwall, England, Gardens, Grasmere, Lake District, Lake District, London, paintings, sketching, The New Forest, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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We’ve just returned from three weeks in the UK, our first visit in 3 years.  For Mike, it was a whirlwind tour of meeting up with friends and family, trying to catch up with all the news and rehash old stories. I love that part of these trips, but for me, my goal was searching for enough painting resources and inspiration to sustain me in to the future.

These trips give me the space and freshness that I rely on for months in my studio work.  Often I revisit my photos years later, and find a new vision that I hadn’t seen before. There is something about having the time to explore an unfamiliar environment, away from the daily routine.  You see things in a different way. Connections are made, insights discovered.

Whether on country strolls, or museum visits in the cities, it re-charges me for months to come.  This time I took close to 500 photos! But often I just walked and breathed in the images.

We started in Kent, in the Southeast corner of Great Britain and found a great bolt hole between Dover and Canterbury.  It was a beautiful resort, the Broome Park Hotel. Although promoted as a “Golf Resort and Wedding Venue” tucked in to the countryside, I found glorious walks in the early morning across the surrounding fields with no one else around except the birds and sheep. We had a “lodge” on the grounds with two bedrooms a living room and a washer and dryer!  A real bonus for European travel.  And we could walk to the pub in the main manor house at night along the fields for dinner. It was a mid-week bargain, and we could catch up on sleep.

Revived, we found time for a wonderful visit with family in Essex,

and joined up with old sailing mates at the Southampton Boat Show.

And then it was back to the countryside – The New Forest and the Montagu Arms.  The wild horses roam the streets in this unenclosed pastureland, heathland and forest, both in the countryside and through the towns and villages. On one of our very first trips to England together, Mike took me to The New Forest as a special treat, and I still love it.  Perfect weather that first week also helped. Mid-70s and sunny!  Could this really be September in England?

A quick stop at one of my favorite spots, Bath, then we were on our way to Cornwall and St. Ives, a north coast town that is now home to Tate St. Ives Art Museum. It was a challenge to park in the hilly, seaside town and make it down cobblestone streets with luggage in tow to our Inn, The Lifeboat. But when we got there it was worth the challenge. Reception told us it is a right of passage to deal with parking and luggage in St. Ives.  We succeeded, barely, but the reward was a room facing the sea right on the front.

We loved it here.  It was filled with galleries and art for me, and boats and pubs for Mike. It is a huge haven for artists with The Tate in the center of it all.  The exhibitions at the museum focus on the history of many local artists who came here during WWII to escape the bombings in London, and ended up starting a fresh new art colony. The tradition continues with studios tucked everywhere, many of them open during this autumn “Arts Week”.


Mike found a fabulous place in the backstreets of St.Ives, “Olives”, and we did a “lunch” of scones and cake and tea that was to die for. There were winding roads all through the town filled with many surprises, and we often just wandered, seeing where the twisted narrow roads would take us. It was a joy to explore, always looking for a new sea view for dinner.

Finally, we went down to the south side of Cornwall to visit and catch up with more family, and rediscover one of our favorite spots, Charlestown. I actually drove that day from St. Ives to Charlestown on those teeny tiny roads, roundabouts, and confusing lanes through the Cornish country. But we made it without a scratch!

The weather was changing, and fierce winds blew us along our walks from our Inn down the lane to the sea.

We then headed up the west side of England in the rain, across Bodmin Moor

and after a stop in the Cotswolds at a familiar site…The Hare and Hounds…

we were off to the north and The Lake District.

We had four days in the Wordsworth Inn in Grasmere and although the weather finally turned showery and cloudy after over a week of sunshine (very un-British) we didn’t mind. It’s the grey country, after all. And it’s what makes everything so lush and green.

I had brought my rain coat and “brollie” and managed to walk every day, visiting old haunts and discovering new inspiration.

After the best break ever, we headed back down south through Cambridge, home of one of my favorite art museums, The Fitzwilliam, and a room with a view of the punts on the River Cam.

Then on to visit friends at Burnham-on-Crouch, Mike’s old sailing hub,

and finally the last 5 days in London.  Phew!

London meant The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, and The Royal Academy.

We did Notting Hill, Piccadilly, Kensington and Hyde Park…and I even took a rainy afternoon to see a matineee of “Downton Abbey”.  What could be more appropriate.

We even managed to fit in Sunday Roast with friends in the center of London.

Finally Heathrow, and home! To paint…where to even begin?

Now starts the time of looking for connections, sorting through images, thinking of patterns and context of not just the visual images but also the stories that connect us all.  The depth and underlying currents are just as important to me as the visual beauty of our world. Country lanes and city streets with the background sounds of Brexit on the news.  I am already looking forward to the studio season.

Teach your children well

20 Thursday Oct 2016

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, paintings, sketching, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Cambridge, Cambridge University, Fitzwilliam Museum

No matter what museum I am in, in any city, I will almost certainly see a group of school children visiting the galleries with their teachers and often a docent from the museum.

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The Art Lesson just happens to be a scene I witnessed in the UK, at the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University. But it could have been at any great museum.

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The Museum itself is imposing, and when you enter you see cavernous ceilings, long halls lined in marble and a beautiful and eclectic collection of paintings.

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When I first walked in to this gallery of impressionist paintings, there was an energetic group of children loudly roaming all over this particular space. But they soon calmed down and took their place on the floor in front of the paintings. And there they stayed surrendering to the art.

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The casually relaxed children were clearly in stark contrast to the formal gilded trim and marble columns.  But with a certain intensity, they finally found peace with their surroundings.

 

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I could relate to these children.  I have often wanted to sit on the floor in front of a great painting and just let the images speak for themselves.

Port Isaac, aka Doc Martin’s Port Wenn

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by pat in Cornwall, England, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Doc Martin, Port Isaac, Portwenn

We love the British tv series Doc Martin.  It reminds us so much of our visits to the southwest coast of England.  This trip, we decided to visit the series’ filming location in person, on the north coast of Cornwall near Tintagel (the legendary location of King Arthur’s Court).

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It was a chilly, gray late spring day.  Typical for England.  And the village of Port Isaac (aka Port Wenn) was empty before the big bank holiday weekend coming up.

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We parked in the lot on the outskirts of town and headed down the hill to the town, hugging the coastline. As we turned the curve, things looked awfully familiar.

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The first thing we could pick out was Doc Martin’s surgery, and Burt’s “Large Restaurant”, although of course both were not really what they are on the British comedy series.

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Mike thought it looked very quiet and not like the show at all.

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The streets and shops were almost empty, the cast and crew nowhere to be seen on the quiet streets.

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I saw exactly what I expected, a typical Cornish fishing village that sometimes served as a movie set for a famous popular TV show.

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We headed back up the hill to our car for the hour drive to visit my beloved Brit’s cousins in St. Austell on the south coast.

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Magic.

Poppies

29 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by pat in Art, Art Museums & Exhibitions, England, London, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red, Tower of London. Poppies, World War I

There is an incredible art installation going in at the dry moat of The Tower of London to commemorate the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and the allied victims who fell in that global conflict.

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The ceramic artist who conceived the project is Paul Cummins, and the title of the piece is “Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red”.

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More than 800,000 ceramic poppies will be placed by over 8,000 volunteers from across the UK over the next three months with a formal beginning August 5th. The last of the ceramic blooms will be symbolically placed in the field on November 11, Armistice Day.

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The flowers will have a life even after the exhibition at The Tower. The poppies are actually being sold to the public with proceeds going to six service charities in the United Kingdom, including the Royal British Legion.

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The field of poppies will grow over the remainder of the summer and autumn and become massive–888,246 to be exact.  So many lives commemorated in such a visual way.

Road trips: The American West vs. The UK

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by pat in Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Glacier National Park, Lake McDonald, long car trip, travel, Yellowstone

My Beloved Brit and I love a good road trip. This summer it was America rather than England.  It’s made me think about the many differences, and similarities, in traveling in the two countries.

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Checking out our transportation on our trip out west through South Dakota.

The Distances

At least from a road trip standpoint, Great Britain is the size of a postage stamp compared to the United States. In the UK, we can cover a great part of the country, east to west, north to south, in a relatively short period of time. The land mass of Great Britain almost covers the state of Florida with a bit of Georgia thrown in. England fits in New York State. Of course, this is a good thing, because the cost of English petrol compared to gas in the U.S. is more than twice as much (Bloomberg put the average American price per gallon at $3.69 compared to $8.25 per gallon UK in the second quarter of 2014)

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On the road in Wales

This summer we drove across the Great Plains in the United Sates on our way west.  The vastness of the grasslands driving for hours and hours is amazing. Not that we haven’t driven great distances through England, Scotland and Wales.

The Plains, grasslands of the midwest United States

The Plains, grasslands of the midwest United States

I have seen these open vistas in the Yorkshire Dales in England and on our way to Balmoral in Scotland, but never have I seen it go on for days and days like in the center of the United States.

Scotland on the way to Balmoral

Scotland on our way to Balmoral

Jet lag or car lag

The jet lag from the red-eye overnight to London from the U.S. is worse, I think, than the car-lag of driving through 3 time zones in 4 days. Although the car-lag is slower and more drawn out (and totally confusing on figuring out TV schedules each evening in a hotel room), I still prefer it to flying overnight in a seat the size of a high chair and waking up from an hour of sleep to start a new day.

Cambridge, our first stop after flying all night with very little sleep in the summer of 2013.

Cambridge, our first stop after flying all night with very little sleep in the summer of 2013.

But, still, it is pretty exciting coming in to Heathrow Airport as dawn breaks. It’s staying awake for the next 12 hours that’s the problem.

Hotels, pub rooms and inns

The many hotels we stay in while traveling in the United States tend to be of the chain variety.  They are clean and predictable, if not a bit boring. My Beloved Brit likes it predictable with TV, internet and coffee maker in the room. And, of course, air-conditioning.  Every once in a while I throw in a special, one of a kind hotel into our travel itinerary.

The lobby of the Lake McDonald Lodge at Glacier National Park.

The lobby of the Lake McDonald Lodge at Glacier National Park.

It’s always a risk. At Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone at the Lake Inn it was a success.  The Prince of Wales over the border in the Canada side of Glacier National Park, not so much.  Although it was spectacular, the rooms were small and noisy with no amenities. Still, we saw a fox and a bear after dinner during our walk on the lawn, something you don’t often see at a Hampton Inn.

The Prince of Wales Hotel on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. Spectacular on the outside. Way too noisy and basic inside.

The Prince of Wales Hotel on the Canadian side of Glacier National Park. Spectacular on the outside. Way too noisy and basic inside.

The view from our room at The Prince of Wales. It beats looking out over a parking lot.

The view from our room at The Prince of Wales. It beats looking out over a parking lot.

England is starting to catch up with this idea of predictable function, but the choices of standardized chains are less prevalent, so we tend to stay mostly at country inns and pubs when abroad.

Our cozy attic room in Southwold

Our cozy attic room in Southwold, England

Even in London, where you can now find some of the major American chains, they seem to have more of their own local neighborhood personality. And of course, as soon as we shy away from the metro areas in the UK, we are back to pubs and country inns.

An Inn on the east coast of England.

An inn on the east coast of England.

Monumental vs. intimate

The trip this summer was all about the great sites of the northwest that we had never seen before…Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, the Badlands, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park.

The Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

The Grand Tetons in Wyoming.

The view from our hotel window at Yellowstone, on the lake.

The view from our hotel window at Yellowstone, on the lake.

Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park.

Glacier National Park Montana

MBB at Glacier National Park in Montana

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

The England we usually visit is more intimate in nature.  Maybe it is just a size thing again, or what we tend to choose when we travel over there.  But there seems to be a different sensibility.

In the Cotswolds, England

In the Cotswolds, England

Where the U.S. has rolling hills, massive mountains and sky that goes forever…

Cutting across the mountains to Jackson Hole Wyoming

Cutting across the mountains to Jackson Hole Wyoming

…I tend to think of England with winding paths, narrow roads edged by hedgerows and cozy cottages (once outside of London, of course).

Driving across Wales in the UK

Driving across Wales in the UK

In the Peak District, England, 2008

A bridge in the Peak District, England, 2008

But both countries seem to have large animals lazing in fields…

Cows in Norfolk England could be sisters to our midwestern stock

Cows in Norfolk, England could be sisters to our midwestern stock

A deerpark in Norfolk England

A deer park in Norfolk England

Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Watching out for bears in Glacier National Park. We finally saw a momma and her two cubs on the Canadian side…at a safe distance.

Watching out for bears in Glacier National Park. We finally saw a momma and her two cubs on the Canadian side…at a safe distance.

…and enough glorious scenery so that we never get bored with another road trip, no matter which country.

The weather

My Beloved Brit doesn’t call England “The Grey Country” for nothing.

England is known for its grey skies.

England is known for its grey skies. This is Norfolk on the East coast.

In the United States, out west is known as Big Sky Country.  The skies are HUGE and bright blue for the most part, at least on our trip.

Heading in to Montana from Wyoming.

Heading in to Montana from Wyoming.

Sometimes, but not often, those American skies were grey…

Near Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park in Montana.

Near Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park in Montana.

…but they soon brightened again.

Of course, the weather is always perfect to be out on the water, grey skies or not. My Beloved Brit can always find a boat for a swing around the pond whichever country we are in.

Celebrating my birthday on a boat on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Celebrating my birthday on a boat on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Getting ready for a sail in Burnham-on-Crouch, England.

MBB getting ready for a sail in Burnham-on-Crouch, England.

The Practical Points

Rest stops in America (except on the northeast corridor) all tend to follow a pattern with a state theme.  In South Dakota it was teepees.  In Wyoming, covered wagons.

The state welcome center in Wyoming. Not quite as commercial as many we stop at in England.

The state welcome center in Wyoming. Not quite as commercial as many we stop at in England.

And, at least out west, there were very few commercial rest stops like we see all the time in England.

A shop near our hotel in Glacier National Park, which had mostly camping supplies, postcards and t-shirts.

A shop near our hotel in Glacier National Park, which had mostly camping supplies, postcards and t-shirts.

The motor stops in England remind me more of what I used to see on the Northeast corridor of I-95 in the United States.

Laundry

In either country, clothes get dirty, and there is no way you can pack enough for 4 weeks without doing wash.  In the United States we are lucky enough to find coin operated laundry facilities in the chain hotels we stay at often enough that we don’t need to go out and hunt for a laundrette like we do in England.  But laundry still gets done on the road. And in England, finding a laundrette in the village means getting to meet the residents and get a better sense of what the local culture is like.

A laundrette in England

A laundrette in England

Petrol

As I mentioned before, the price of gas, although rising in the U.S., cannot compare to the high cost of petrol in England.  Maybe it is because they don’t need to drive so far!

The people

In both countries, something we notice over and over again, is that although there are cultural and regional idiosyncrasies peculiar to each local area…people are people. Certain areas do seem to have a population with their own personality traits that predominate and at times confound us. But really, we love meeting a variety of people on the road. And we are continually astounded by the diversity.

We were two among many waiting for Old Faithful to erupt in Yellowstone

We were two among many waiting for Old Faithful to erupt in Yellowstone

Old Faithful…I can't imagine how crowded it would be in high season. We went late spring, and the crowds were very manageable.

Old Faithful…I can’t imagine how crowded it would be in high season. We went late spring, and the crowds were very manageable

We still love traveling, and although at times, changing hotels every night and repacking luggage each morning can get tiresome,  the positives still outweigh the negatives. And I am very happy that we can continue to explore both countries.  It would be too hard to choose between the two.

So, happy summer and happy travels!  I will take a brief holiday from the blog for the summer while I catch up on my painting in the studio.

Enjoy your holidays!

 

 

Greenwich and the Meridian Line

10 Tuesday Jun 2014

Posted by pat in entertainment, History, London, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Greenwich, Maritime Museum, The Greenwich Observatory, The Meridian Line, The Old Royal Naval College

On our first day staying in London together last year, My Beloved Brit and I decided to explore Greenwich where the Naval College, The Observatory, The National Maritime Museum and the Meridian Line are.

Kate, The Duchess of Cambridge, attended a breakfast reception there this morning at the National Maritime Museum to meet a number of people supporting the bid to launch a British team in the America’s Cup. I thought this made it an appropriate time to revisit our visit to this incredible site.

As we came off the train and in to Greenwich, we saw bustling town on the edge of the Thames. Photo by me.

As we came off the train and in to Greenwich, we saw bustling town on the edge of the Thames. Photo by me.

Walking down the street towards the Thames, we saw the masts of the Cutty Sark rising above the shoreline.

The masts of the Cutty Sark now on dry land on the edge of Greenwich. Photo by me.

The masts of the Cutty Sark now on dry land on the edge of Greenwich. Photo by me.

We bypassed the ship tour and headed over to The Old Royal Naval College. Very impressive.  It is across the Thames from London and Canary Wharf.

The Old Royal Naval College. Photo by me.

The Old Royal Naval College. Photo by me.

We went through the chapel on the grounds of the college, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The chapel is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, both of whom have connections to the sea. The chapel is filled with naval symbols.

The Chapel at The Old Royal Naval College. Photo by me.

The Chapel at The Old Royal Naval College. Photo by me.

Then walked through the portico…

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

…to the Painted Hall.  Incredibly beautiful. It is often described as the finest dining hall in Europe, and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor.  It was originally intended for the naval veterans who lived here at the Royal Hospital for Seamen, but was later used for the National Gallery of Naval Art. As of 1939, it was used for dining by the officers of the Royal Naval College, and many grand banquets. The paintings by Sir James Thornhill pay tribute to British maritime power.

The Painted Hall. Photo by me.

The Painted Hall. Photo by me.

Lord Nelson was very attached to the College, and you can see references to him everywhere.

Lord Nelson Photo by me.

Lord Nelson Photo by me.

We cut back through the edge of Greenwich to head over to the Maritime Museum.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

I knew this was something My Beloved Brit would love.  The whole complex at Greenwich Park was wonderful.

The Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Photo by me

The Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Photo by me

The entrance just screamed boating, naval tradition, and the sea.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

When we saw this information, we knew it was going to be a good morning.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

We spent time looking at exhibits on Nelson, arctic convoys during WWII, and all sorts of seafaring memorabilia and displays.

Figure Heads in the museum. Photo by me.

Figure Heads in the museum. Photo by me.

After a time, we went outside and sat down trying to decide whether or not to hike the hill to the Royal Observatory and the Meridian Line.

The Naval College and the Thames behind us. Photo by me.

The Naval College and the Thames behind us. Photo by me.

The Observatory at the top of the hill in front of us. Photo by me.

The Observatory at the top of the hill in front of us. Photo by me.

The views were worth the climb.

The view from The Observatory. Photo by me.

The view from The Observatory. That’s the Royal Naval College down the hill. Photo by me.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich is home of Greenwich Mean Time and the Prime Meridian of the World–Longitude 0. On one side is the Eastern Hemisphere, and on the other the West, just as the equator divides the northern and southern hemispheres. Every place on earth is measured in terms of its distance east or west from the Greenwich Meridian. The Observatory is also home to London’s only planetarium, the Harrison timekeepers and the UK’s largest refracting telescope.

The City of London in the distance. Photo by me.

The City of London in the distance. Photo by me.

After a full morning we decided to head back to London on the Thames by boat.

We take off from the Greenwich dock. Photo by me.

We take off from the Greenwich dock with The Naval College behind us. Photo by me.

It was about a forty-five minute ride back to the Embankment in London Center.

Past Canary Wharf and East London. Photo by me.

Past Canary Wharf and East London. Photo by me.

under the Tower Bridge. Photo by me.

Under the Tower Bridge. Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Leaving The Tower on London behind. Photo by me.

Photo by me.

St. Paul’s in the background. Photo by me.

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The new Shard on the South Bank. Photo by me.

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Another way to see the river. Our ferry was not nearly so flash. Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Leaving the east end of the Thames River behind. Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Finally. Docking at the Embankment stop. Photo by me.

What a great morning.  The weather was gorgeous, the company entertaining…it couldn’t have been a better day.  After a trip on The Underground back to our room, we decided it was a full day. And a wonderful one.

Heading back to the hotel from the Picadilly underground. Photo by me.

Heading back to the hotel from the Piccadilly underground. Photo by me.

Our biggest challenge of the late afternoon was to decide where to eat.  I love London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dylan Thomas

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by pat in sketching, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Dylan Thomas, Laugharne, Wales

This year is the centenary year of the poet Dylan Thomas’s birth.  The Welsh poet lived his last 4 years in Laugharne, Wales before he died in 1953 at the young age of 37. The author of “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”, the work he was probably most known for, walked the coastal paths of Wales often in his lifetime. He was also a fairly good amateur painter.

Paths follow the coastline in Wales.

Paths follow the coastline in Wales.

Last summer we visited this part of Wales, and I walked the coastal paths that Thomas so eloquently wrote about.  His themes of life vs. death, our desire to stop time, and nature as an expression of our internal world all are vividly evident in this dramatic countryside.

"Coastal Path", pastel drawing by me from  my walk in Wales

“Coastal Path”, pastel drawing by me from my walk in Wales

I tend to have a cheerier view of Wales (and life) than he did.  The sunny lanes and cool breezes off the sea were invigorating and delightful for a fair weather traveler.

Entering Wales.

Entering Wales.

But the isolated area must have given Thomas many hours of deep reflection about our desire to slow the progression of time, and contemplation of the idyllic vs. reality.

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Wales may just be the place to have these monumental conversations with ourselves.

 

Tetbury, The Cotswolds

22 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by pat in Shopping, Travel, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

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Cotswolds, Tetbury

Last summer we decided to try a new area in the Cotswolds, and because we were gong to visit Highgrove Gardens, Prince Charles’ home, we decided to stay near Tetbury. It did not disappoint.

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It was not quite as quaint and perfect as the village of Broadway, where we usually stay in the Cotswolds.  But it had a real charm all its own.

IMG_8939The main streets were filled with all sorts of shops, and it is known for its antiques.

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It was interesting.  Very classic in style, and obviously an upscale market.  The shops were varied and seemed to cater to a country set.

IMG_8942There were also flowers everywhere…

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…for sale or just to make you feel good.

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A beautiful town with lots of character and…

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…full of surprises. I could walk from window to window and be impressed with the varied displays.

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A perfect morning in town strolling and window shopping before retiring to our Country Inn.

 

Cambridge

03 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by pat in England, Travel, United Kingdom

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Cambridge, The River Cam, University of Cambridge

This is the first year we got around to visiting Cambridge, and I fell in love with it.

Cambridge is surrounded by green fields and parkland. Photo by me

Cambridge is surrounded by green fields, rivers and parkland. Photo by me

As we drove into the area, we saw parks and fields and cows right up to the city center.

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And then it is all there, a great big university town located in Cambridgeshire, England 50 miles north of London on the River Cam.

The River Cam flows right through the middle of Cambridge. Photo by me.

The River Cam flows right through the middle of Cambridge. Photo by me.

Within a relatively small area, there are these beautiful classic buildings of the various colleges and churches and shops.

The main streets of Cambridge lined with scholastic buildings of the various colleges. Photo by me.

The main streets of Cambridge lined with scholastic buildings of the various colleges. Photo by me.

We came in early after flying all night from the states, so to stay awake we wandered the streets.

Red and gold brick and stone everywhere.  The city is stunning. Photo by me.

Red and gold brick and stone everywhere. The city is stunning. Photo by me.

I couldn’t think of a better place to get over jet lag than Cambridge.

Even the tea shops look astoundingly grand. Photo by me.

Even the tea shops look astoundingly grand. Photo by me.

Around each corner there was something else to see, and the shops were attention grabbing.

A book shop in Cambridge. Photo by me.

A book shop in Cambridge. Photo by me.

Many of the university and college grounds were admissible by ticket only, but we were just as happy this day to wander and look in from the main streets.

Photo by me.

King’s College Chapel. Photo by me.

There was plenty to see just wandering around aimlessly.

Photo by me.

Photo by me.

Word has it that Cambridge was founded by disgruntled scholars from Oxford who didn’t get along with the educators there.  I think they founded a mighty fine alternative. And the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209 is consistently ranked as one of the top five universities in the world.  The city is flooded with tourists and students (there are over 24,000 students in Cambridge), even in August.

Bicycles everywhere.  The center is closed to b=vehicular traffic. Photo by me.

Bicycles everywhere. The center is closed to b=vehicular traffic. Photo by me.

We ended the day perfectly for a first day in Britain…dinner in a Cambridge pub.

The Miter was perfect for a light meal before bed. Photo by me.

The Miter was perfect for a light meal before bed. Photo by me.

We decided then and there to return towards the end of our trip, and explore this magnificent city in more detail.

 

 

 

 

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