London: Part II

When we woke in the morning of our second day, we had only a short while before the complimentary breakfast at the hotel was over. This meant that we all rushed to shower and dress and make it downstairs to breakfast. The hotel could put on quite the spread- coffee and juices, croissants, sausages, scrambled eggs, cereal, pain-au-chocolat, toast, fruit...
This proved to quite a popular option with us- I can honestly say we never missed breakfast while we stayed at the hotel ;)

This was the day we opted to visit 'the churches'. On my list were Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate. I'll explain the significance of the latter later ;)
Our first stop, was the abbey. We got on the tube, and took it all the way out to Westminster. This has the happy chance of allowing you to view St. Stephen's Clock tower, which houses the hour bell, Big Ben. When you come out of the tube station there, it is the first thing you see :)

If you look, you can see the canopy of the tube station AND the sign to the right :)

Unbeknownst to us, we were there on a day that was quite important. There were helicopters flying around filming, protesters on the street, and on the way back, a car with a police escort. That likely means either the Prime Minister or a Cabinet Member. So what was the important day? It was the day that Prime Minister David Cameron and the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, presented their "Spending Review 2010". This was the day they cut £81 billion to the budget... hence the protestors :)

You can see the busy street here- with the marvellous views of the houses of parliament and the London Eye in addition to St. Stephen's Clock Tower. We have just crossed over to the Abbey.

We had no idea how big of a deal it was. Primarily because it was our first full day in London- believe you me, we heard about it afterwards ;)

You can see the tents of protesters on the left here.

Actually, I became rather enamoured of the British news system (again)- I was finally plugged into what was going on world-wide- something I think the news outlets here could do a little more of! There were so many newspapers- and many of those had very in-depth reports on things happening not just in the UK but all over. If I had a favourite in depth paper there- it would be the Independant (the hotel gave us complimentary copies of that, very nice!). The Metro, a free paper available on the tube, was a fun read too. Definitely entertained us while riding around!!

But, we were ignorant at this point, and heading for one of my very favourite churches in the world, the ancient (established in the 10th Century) Westminster Abbey.

I was rather taken with this sundial clock :)

It is very unfortunate that the Abbey does not allow photography inside it's walls. Not that this is unusual in Britain- it is not. You will (if you are a man) be asked to remove your hat still, too. It is a sign of respect.

The Stunning West Gate (I think). The sun was blazing just behind the church as I took the photo, so there is a little glare. Note the perfect green lawns- my kids wondered how they got such lovely grass in England. I told them it just grows that way ;)

Inside are the tombs of Kings and Queens from hundreds of years back- including Elizabeth I. Amazing statuary, glorious stained glass, and the famed Poet's Corner- where there is a memorial to a relative of mine (some sort of distant relative that shared my not-exactly-common maiden name). I was a little surprised to see memorials to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "a tribute by English admirers of an American poet" and Franklin D. Roosevelt. And amazed at the fact that although the coronation chair is undergoing restoration, the restorer is working in a little glass room on display to the world! You can see images inside on the web, but they don't do it justice!

I admired the gifts in the gift shop (where I saw a sketchbook of London and never saw it again!), explained to the kids that grass just grows that green in England, and came out of the wonderful Abbey in a hush. In fact we all did. DS will still tell you he thought it the most beautiful of the sights we saw.

After exiting the abbey, and a brief visit to St. Margaret's Church outside, we took the tube again (get a nice detailed map here) from Westminster to Monument- where we took a LONG walk underground to bank, to get on the central line to St. Paul's.

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

KNOWN AS

ST SEPULCHRE WITHOUT NEWGATE

Built on the site of a Saxon church dedicated to St Edmund the church became known as St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre during the years 1105 to 1173, when it was in the care of Augustinian Canons, who were Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. Later, the name became abbreviated to “St. Sepulchre”.

Rebuilt and much enlarged in 1450, the walls, tower and porch survive from that period. Badly damaged in the Great Fire of 1666, the interior was restored in 1670 and has been much altered since.

Among famous names associated with the church are

John Rogers, Vicar, first Protestant martyr;

Roger Ascham, Tutor of Queen Elizabeth I;

William Harvey, discoverer of the circulation of the blood;

Captain John Smith, first Governor of Virginia and Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Promenade Concertsm whose ashes rest in what is now the Musicians' Chapel, with its many memorials to musicians. The church also contains the Regimental Chapel of the Royal Fusiliers.

We were visiting the Church of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate. It was the church where the colonists took their last communion before coming to Virginia. It was the Church where Captain John Smith was buried, and it was the church where the condemned at Newgate prison would hear their death bell being rung.

Newgate prison was knocked down a while back, and the Old Bailey now stands on the site- right opposite St. Sepulchre's.

You can see the entrance to St. Sepuchre's above, with the wording on the placard.

Having asked permission (and had it granted) I was able to take some photos inside the church :)

Window dedicated to the colonists.

This stained glass window was dedicated to the colonists- paid for by an American biographer of John Smith back in the 60's or 70's- I forget which. It is quite lovely :)

To the living memory of his deceased friend

Captain John Smith

sometime Governour of Virginia,

and Admiral of New England,

who departed this life the 21^st of June 1631

ACCORDIAMUS, VINCERE EST VIVERE.

Here lyes one conquered that hath conquered Kings,

Subdu'd large Territories and done things

Which to the World impossible would seem,

But that the Truth is held in more esteem.

Shall I report his former Service done

In honour of his God and Christendom?

How that he did divide from Pagans three

Their heads and Lives, Types of his Chivalry,

For which great Service in that Climate done,

Brave Sigismundus, Kind of Hungarion,

Did five him as a Coat of Armes to wear,

These Conquered heads got by his Sword and Spear.

Or shall I tell of his Adventures since

Done in Virginia, that large Continent?

How that he subdu'd King unto his Yoke,

And made those heathen flee as Wind doth Smoke:

And made their land, being of so large a Station,

An habitation for our Christian Nation,

Where God is glorify'd, their Wants supply'd;

Which else, for Necessaries must have dy'd,

But wat whails his Conquests, now he lyes

Interr'd in Earth, a Prey to Worms and Flyes?

O! May his Soul in sweet Elysium sleep,

Until the Keeper that all Souls doth keep,

Return to Judgment: and that after thence,

With Angels he may have his Recompence.

The church is currently undergoing a lot of renovations- they have become quite the place for musical performances :) Meanwhile, this plaque to Smith sits on the floor until the renovations are done.

Another thing I admired in the Church, were the beautiful kneelers. In fact, many of the kneelers were memorials to the trip the colonists took to Virginia. I took lots of photos of them- and have placed those below.

All beautifully needlepointed- a rather time consuming craft! But they are very nicely made and very attractive! I suspect the ladies of the church some time ago, made them. Not that I think they are OLD, just about 30-40 years old ;)

For some reason the kids did not want to pose!

There is quite a spectacular view of the Old Bailey from outside the church.

and the famed lady of justice atop of it...

Lovely sky wasn't it?

After visiting the church, we were hungry, and wanted to eat. So we detoured... finding ourselves in Smithfield Market.

She had to try out the phone box- dirty as it was ;)

Finding only a lack of child-friendly restaurants there, we went back to the the hotel, where a lovely Wetherspoon pub called the "Plough and Harrow" was next door. It was the first time we ate there, but not the last. In fact, it became a favourite place to eat- it was relatively cheap, very convenient and ideally located! They have some great British Ales (incidentally those are available as a drink option with your combo instead of soda- I know DH liked this).

Having eaten, we did a little local shopping. I checked out Primark, which became my new favourite place, did a little shopping in Sainsbury's and basically enjoyed the rest of the day.

And that was Day 2 in England :)

London: Part I.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!

It's OK, I have a good excuse :) I was in England (sans computer) for a couple of weeks for my sister's wedding... and then there was the planning before that... blah blah blah.

So what I thought I would do, is spend the next couple of weeks telling you about it and uploading my photos... the decent ones anyway :) Some of the other photos I am hoping to use in my own travel journal. Yes, I know, I should have drawn while over there. If you have young children, you might understand the lack of ability to do this. Although I often wished to get out my sketchbook on the train, I had left it in my hotel to stop it getting beaten up ;)

So, without further ado... my trip to England.

(a few abbreviations have been used here: DD= Darling/Dear Daughter; DS= Darling/Dear Son; DH= Darling/Dear Husband)

DD also took photos. Between the four of us, I have high hopes of a decent selection!

It started on Monday the 18^th October, 2010. We had booked the trip months before, after I finally convinced my sister she had to give me a date so we COULD book a flight.

The morning was spent packing and doing last minute laundry. That is all the stuff we wore the day before ;) before setting out for the airport in the afternoon.

Our first airport is the local one, Richmond. It is perhaps the nicest airport we have been through- a small hub, recently expanded and not very busy. My Permanent Resident status apparently upsets the computer, so we had to check in over the counter- and all of our luggage was well within acceptable limits (phew!). Even better, our luggage was booked in all the way through- so no grabbing the luggage halfway and transporting it through the airport!

From there we go through security- quickly and efficiently handled at Richmond I will add. Of course, for no apparent reason, I am picked to go through the scanner machine. You know- the ones where you hold your arms up and it looks at you. Seriously- I had dressed in very light clothing, I don't think it was necessary!!

Once through THAT, we were into the airport lounges. There we picked up a nice drink (not the Sam Adams bar that was next to our departure lounge, but some iced coffee further down), and waited for a couple of hours. I did draw there!

I learned that a lot of people use computers in airports. And they are rather good as models because they move very little. It is enough to mess you up though...

We got on the plane (on time) and made a short journey to New York (JFK) where we were to change. It was the first time the kids had flown, and they were very excited. Our tiny plane meant that there was one chair on one side and two on the other, so my husband and son sat in the single chairs, while DD and I shared a double seat and peered out of the window. Being as it was daytime, the views were quite spectacular, and the kid's enjoyed cloud spotting and looking at our home from the air!

A little while later we were in New York waiting for the plane to get attached to the building. That took a while, and of course, DD was desperate to use the toilet right now!! Luckily there were some just outside the area where we deplaned, and after a quick potty break, it was time to find where we were due to catch our plane to England. Since we still had a couple of hours, we ate a Burger King meal, and sat. None of the airports had free wifi, so we couldn't surf the web. The kids used their Nintendo DSi to occupy them, and I watched the news.

The gentleman on the bottom had such an expressive face. That was unfortunate because he did change his expression some ;)

Our plane was called, and we boarded. Only to find people in our seats! Luckily the flight attendant sorted it out for us, and we all sat down, ready to go.

I set up DD with Toy Story 3 to watch, but the system was rebooted and we had to start over. She was NOT sleepy at all, and even though she ate the meals, she would NOT sleep. This was, mind you, an overnight flight... my husband and I got very little sleep. The kids managed about 3 hours apiece- DD because I put spa music on her headphones and DS because my husband HELD him!

The arrival into England was beautiful. I watched the sun rise as we began to pass over the land. The familiar patchwork countryside came into view, and we circled Heathrow a few times before landing.

Quickly through customs, we grabbed our bags and headed out to where a driver was supposed to be waiting for us.

He wasn't, and DH had to go looking for him. We eventually found him, and took a relatively quick drive up the A4 to our hotel in Hammersmith, London. Unfortunately, the room was not ready for us, so we dropped our luggage off and went to take a tube train to Piccadilly Circus, where our travelcards and London passes awaited.

We then went back to Hammersmith, ate a little, took a look at the shops some, then went back to the hotel. We had to wait a little in the lobby for our room to be finished with, then we went upstairs (third floor- fourth to Americans) and took over the tiny room that was to be ours for the next twelve days.

A shower and change later, we jumped back on the tube (emailing my parents from the lobby of the hotel), and went to King's Cross St. Pancras, where we took a train to Mum and Dad's house.

DD and my baby Nephew meet and cuddle. He is an extraordinarily happy baby :)

There, the kids and I had a fitting for our wedding outfits, we ate dinner and met my baby nephew and chatted to my siblings (who were all there).

Very tired, we headed back into London (via the express train- how I loved those) and the tubes.

The kids are in constant motion in so many of my photos! We're waiting for the train here, loaded with books and stuff from Mum and Dad :)

And we fell into bed, exhausted, and forced the kids to go to sleep.

It was a very long day (the reason there are few photos is that I was too jet lagged to think about it) but a lot of fun- and it had only just begun!

Win some Wool!!

I have a few things to post... I *have* been creating... but wanted to quickly share a link I think some of you may like!
You can win 4 skeins of Brown Sheep wool over at Knitting with Olof and the contest is open until October 4th... so get yourself over there and enter!!
You have FOUR opportunities to enter- all you have to do is pick your favourite colour of the yarn, and follow one of the four ways to enter :)  ENJOY!!

Some new Creations...

I recently got the book 'Clones Lace' by Máire Treanor in which is a basic beginner's guide to making Clones style Irish Crochet Lace.  It's a fantastic book, filled with the history of the craft as well as some instruction on how to make it.
Learning how to make the Clones knot, was an interesting technique, and I "unvented" a rosary while I was at it :)

I admit, I was extremely disappointed when I discovered that I was not the first person to do it- but my crocheted rosary is completely crochet, unlike the others I saw out there!  It is pretty and rather delicate looking- very much the product of the lace technique I used!
It is so delicate in fact, that it was virtually impossible to get a good photo of it!!

I also finally finished my bonnet.  It was still too big, but my daughter is pleased to own it now. 

Her thoughts were that it was pretty- and lacy- and she wanted it.  She also wanted the rosary!

 I need to iron it some, but otherwise it looks great- (and so pretty on her hair!!)

Colour, Colour, Everywhere...

I learned something new recently. Well I learn some new things almost daily, but this was something I should have known, but didn't.
I learned that colour theory, also applies to dyeing yarns.

Not such a huge leap is it? But it apparently was to my brain :)

I had decided to try my hand at dyeing some of the yarn I was spinning. I had started with a white fleece. Actually it was rather dirty, so not precisely white but close (once I had washed it).

I carded it and spun some on my wheels. It can get rather boring you know- all that white.

So I took the skeins into the kitchen to dye, and using the stuff I normally colour my icing with, I created a handpainted yarn with red and yellow dyes. It was lovely- where the dyes merged, it turned orange, where they were separate was this lovely gradation from red through orange to yellow.

I later decided to try it with the roving I had already carded. This time I accidentally got the colours to mingle more than I liked, but the orange was beautiful, obviously these two primary colours were a perfect match!

It was hard to wait for this roving to dry so I could try spinning such a wonderful colour on my wheel!

Having spun it all, I needed to ply it- this gave a subtly different effect from the yarn I had pre-spun and plied before colouring...  It is a shame that the red/oranges don't photograph well because it means that it is really hard to see those differences.  I'll have to work on my camera tricks ;)

Now all I need to figure out is what to make with it!

Don't worry- I have been drawing too! I drew the orchid that started to bloom in our study. It has been a few years since it bloomed- and we had begun to worry that it would never bloom again- but here it is in all its glory!

It didn't scan well, because I have to use pinks and reds to render it- and they never seem to work well on the scanner!

One last photo- my creation on the needles for my daughter. She and my son are sadly lacking in sweaters/jumpers for our upcoming trip to England. England in October can be chilly!

So here is hers in progress... a lovely Celtic cable up the front! Don't you just love arans?