Friday Outings

I liked seeing the gardeners in the gardens. I didn't get to see the maze gardens because we ran out of time (due to the traffic on the way there). Sorry about this font, I don't understand what's just happened. I did get a book about Henry VIII and his wives, like I wanted:) Oh, and Happy Birthday, Mom.

This one is for Kristin.

At the back of the Palace - looking much more Classical and less pre-Restoration.

A dragon of the castle.

We went to Hampton Court Palace today - standing in front of it are my new friends Kim and Marinda, along with my old friend Justine. People who lived in this palace include: Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Katherine of Aragon, Katherine Howard, William and Mary, George and Caroline and their kids, and many others. It was amazing. Couldn't take pictures inside (sadly).

This is a bad picture of the lovely meadow with lanterns we walk through - you can see Justine in the background - and a daredevil cyclist...those bicycles clip past us at every turn. If something were to kill us in Oxford it would be either a bus or a bicycle. Or the floods.

This is the cutest skinniest house. I think a giraffe lives inside with a ladder...that's about all that fits...

This is another street we walk down. I took a picture of it because it's so quintessentially British and it makes me happy. Everything so cute and squashed and seventies...Little mini Coopers everywhere...climbing vines and hydranges in the gardens - these people LOVE their gardens...

This is the beginning of the way of the forty minute walk to Wycliff we do at least twice a day from the Vines. Isn't it beautifully green? That's because of the rain. At least three times a day. It's the wettest summer since like 1846 apparently. Oh, our Climate Change. I am wearing my new Oxford zip-up and I am very proud of it. It is fleecy. Of course I look like a dorky tourist in Oxford - which is currently entirely populated by American teenagers (to my consternation). Anyway...the walk to town begins...