THE ENGLISH GARDEN - Photos from my trip to England.
The English Garden is legendary! Need I say more?
My friend, Jan, gave me a journal soon after I returned from my visit to England, probably for my birthday, because it was right after I got back home. I used it to record my memories of my travels and experiences of that summer trip abroad. I kept a journal while I was there, so most of this was written while still very fresh in my mind. Most of these writings will be just musings; some funny, some meant to be funny, but maybe lost something in the translation, as it were. If the latter is the case, well, then, I guess ya hadda be there!
Lawn Daisies
July 1991
Like far away stars against the night sky
tiny white daisies dot mossy green lawns.
They are very lovely to me.
I wish I had them in MY yard.
Oh, no! The English gardener does not want to hear that!
Daisies to them are unwelcome little things
As dandelions are to us in our US lawns!
Poor little Compositae! I will always love daisies!
Monica snapped this picture of Beth, me and Lisa in the car park at the Wiggin Tree at Parbold.
The Wigan parish church tower could be seen across the valley from here.
Here's Monica fixing her breakfast in Lisa's sunny kitchen. I wish MY kitchen was so user-friendly! We all helped with the daily washing up, and we all became accustomed to putting the kettle on for tea, as soon as we returned from anywhere!
Beth is relaxing in Lisa's lounge with The Wigan Observer.
This is the view of the patio and back garden at Lisa's.
Rufford Old Hall, Lancashire. We toured this old Lancashire home and had lemonade in the tea shop afterward. It was here in the gift shop that I bought a bird spotting book at a bargain price!
I loved this stick fence at Rufford Old Hall. THE BMP FILE DID NOT TRANSLATE TO JPG FILE, SO I HAVE TO DO THIS ONE AGAIN. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME.
COME BACK LATER TO SEE IF IT'S HERE!
I still have a lot of work to do, but you can look at the 'pichurs!'
LIVERPOOL
Beth, Lisa & Yvette at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.
These are the BEATLES' boyhood homes!
Paul's family home at 21 Forthlin
Just think! Paul probably at some time, stood, right here, across from his house, maybe in a group of school friends, or with John and George. What a pretty place it is, with lace curtains at the windows, and roses in the garden. Paul's boyhood home, like himself, is the best looking of the lot!
John's family home on Menlove Ave., "Mendips"
My thoughts are of John's younger sisters, Jacqie and Julia in the front garden, there behind the wall; of Mimi watching them from the window, and of John, ducking round, outside the wall, to perhaps meet a girl. As Lisa stood in the driveway,
I thought of how pleased John might have been to see her standing there, if the year was in the early 1960s, before Beatle fame had spread worldwide. But Lisa would probably have been too shy to stand there at that time in history. Now, bold
as the sun on a hot summer day, there she was photographing Mendips, John's boyhood home.
10 Admiral Grove
This is one of two addresses we had for Ringo's house. It turns out, we chose the better one! I did not see the other one while in Liverpool, but I did see it on Ringo's Coming Home presentation on TV!
This pub at the end of Admiral Grove, was named The Empress. Other signs on the building, boast John/Paul and George/Ringo That is the only reason for this photo!
Here's Bobby standing on the corner, across from The Empress
25 Upton Green
This is where George is supposed to have lived. I have a picture in a magazine which shows a different dwelling in the same row. This neighborhood looked pretty rough when we were there, as it might well have been while the Harrisons still resided here.
The wall, which you can see in the right foreground of this photo, was a formidable threat to anyone who might contemplate scaling it. Stuck in dried concrete along the top if it, were menacing little shards of
broken glass.
Quarry Bank High School
22 July 1991
From outside the wall, once again, I imagined John running round outside the wall, but this time with Paul.
They might have leaned against it, and lit up a smoke, out of sight of school authorities. Perhaps during
the time before classes, they waited there, trading jabs and jokes with their mates as they arrived for school.
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
22 July 1991
A man-made mountain, to be seen from anywhere in the city, it looms ever greater up close.
A plaque near the front entrance, memorializes lives senselessly lost at a tragic 1989 soccer event. Once inside, the sheer vastness is overwhelming. Everything seems a rosy gold color. It was like being in a huge cepiatone 3-D photograph!
A few weeks before we came to England, I saw Paul McCartney on the TV evening news, showing the taping of the Liverpool Oratorio. I try to imagine the echoing sound of that oratorio in the immense spaciousness.
Beyond these thoughts, I try to think of all that could be told if these walls could talk. Having been here for ages, they'd have seen people and events come and go with much pomp and circumstance!
The graveyards outside have other stories, which I do not know. I do not even know their ages, but their black headstones tell me they are ages old, and the stories paradoxically timeless.
The LAKE DISTRICT and other sites
When I got out of the car at Blea Tarn, I felt that I fully understood why William Wordsworth and other poets were so inspired
by this beautiful countryside. I had hoped to spend enough time there to compose a poem on the spot. But as time did not permit, I
must rely on my mental and photographic pictures for such inspiration:
Langdale
24 July 1991
Mountains rising through the mist
Touching the sky, stealing a kiss.
I have stumbled upon this blessed tryst
Where earth and sky are one in bliss.
Here I am with Monica climbing over a stile from a pasture to the Crummock Water.
The stoney beach of the Crummock Water held quite a cache of good skipping stones. That's what we
spent most of our time here doing--skipping stones across the Crummock Water.
Monica is standing in front of the Badger Bar at Rydal, where we stopped for a few pints. Among the
hotel's former guests, were Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, who stayed there with other cast and crew members while
the film, The French Lieutenant's Wife was being shot.
We made a stop at Castlerigg ancient stone circle on our drive through the Lake District.
That's Monica and Lisa at Lingholm Gardens. We had a nice leisurely walk through many gardens on the grounds, and then had tea
in the refeshment center there, where plants could also be bought.
This is Castle Crag.
Here I am with Lisa at the top of Castle Crag. It was a rough climb, and we were jubilant to have made it! I did not find out until
we got back to Lisa's, that it was a 980 ft. climb! No wonder our legs felt like rubber by the time we got up there! The hardest part, though
was a slate deposit, where the slate we stepped on would slide down over the slate stacked under it! That's the Derwent Water behind us in the
distance below.
WALES
Soon you will see our pictures from our rainy day in Wales, one of my ancestral homelands;
where it broke my heart to be treated so rudely, and where we had the worst restaurant service
& meal of my entire life!
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