More pic spam - and a new family member is expected very soon!

[curiouswombat]

I am pic-spamming again – under the cut are more pictures of our trip to London – actually more of Hampton Court, because it is enormous, and beautiful, and we couldn’t resist the gardens.




Firstly a couple more of the actual palace – part of the original Tudor buildings – the clock is on the gateway between an outer and inner courtyard



And this is the later Stuart courtyard.





Now a series of the main formal gardens – these are designed to be viewed from the state apartments in the part of the palace built by William and Mary.

As you can see the weather was dry, but slightly overcast. The yew trees are ancient and wonderful.





















This is what the house looks like from the gardens for a change! The scaffolding on the roof is because they had a leak only a couple of weeks before we were there – water came in during a heavy downpour, and soaked the top of one of the great state beds. The ‘emergency team’ had swung into action, the bed was covered then dried out without any sign of damage – but the roof was taking a little longer!




and finally two pictures of the ‘pond gardens’ at the side of the palace, which at one time were used as private gardens by some of the Grace and Favour residents, but have now been restored to something closer to the way they looked in Stuart times.







I do have a few more pictures – they are of lesser known memorials – I will probably put them onto my journal sometime next week – apart from anything else it is a good back-up for me!


In other news, I have bought a car! Currently I use S2C’s Octavia more than he does, for running around, going to work, shopping etc., and have a government owned Corsa which I must use for my work visits. D-d is learning to drive, and is finding the Octavia too big for her, and of course she is not allowed to drive the Corsa – it is actually parked at my work when I come home.

So I decided to buy her and me a little car to share. I can take it to work, so if S2C actually does want to use his car he can, D-d can do ‘learner miles’ between her formal lessons, and when she passes her test she can use it to go visit friends etc.

The plan was to get a Micra, or a Corsa, maybe a Ford Ka, or a Seat Arosa like her instructor’s. But I was passing a local second-hand car dealers on Thursday, and decided to see what he had – and fell in love. We are going to share a cute little white Citroen C3. It is 3 years old, and really has had one lady driver – who only did 17,000 miles in those 3 years! How neat is that? I can bring it home as soon as I can sort out the insurance.

I am warning you – there will be pictures!

Comments

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Very cool trees-- they remind me of The Magician's Nephew.

And congratulations on the new car!

[gillo]

These pics bring back so many happy memories. I love those little sunken gardens to the side of the palace too.

Yay for the new car. Though presumably you'd have to work pretty hard to build up a high mileage on a car that doesn't leave the Island?

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

A Citroen? Is that not the car of one Mr. Rupert Giles?
Lovely photos btw.

[averageshmoe.livejournal.com]

Lovely set of pictures, thanks for sharing.

Closing in on the first year anniversary of getting my 'new' used car. Such a good thing that I had done the amateur film, seen myself in the dailies and gone on a diet or I never would have been able to fit in the darn thing.

pgavigan

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

A strange sign of our cultural differences; I'd never heard of any of those cars you mentioned, except for the Citroen -- and I'm not sure I've ever seen one of those.

A lot of the many, MANY people around here who own great big pickups and SUV's are starting to look a little longingly at my little, fuel effecient Nissan ... I have a feeling we're on the verge of a vehicle revolution in the USA. Finally.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

The yew trees are fantastic. The gardens are sigh-worthy.

As we are an agricultural state and have traditionally depended on farm children to drive vehicles to the grain elevators, etc., they learn to drive young. Our children got their instruction permits at the tender age of 14 (which allows them to drive with a licensed person 18 years of age or older), their restricted at 15 (which allows them to drive to school or work alone), and their regular license at 16. Our state is spread out with a great deal of distance between destinations, so we rely on our cars to get from place to place. There is practically no public transportation, except in Kansas City and Wichita.

How large is your island? Do you have public transportation?

[peabodyblue.livejournal.com]

I love the pictures! Someday! I hope to see all of these things someday! :)

And congratulations on the new car. I'm sure you'll both enjoy it!

[jerusha]

Those pictures are amazing! And congratulations on the car. I can't wait to see pictures. :)

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

More great pics, I love the yew trees - such wonderful shapes. I know I've a photo somewhere of that clock in your first pic, taken on a school trip about 25 years ago.

Yay! for your new car. My aunt and cousin both have C3s and love them (in fact they are on their second one each).

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Really nice pictures of the gardens, especially of the yew trees.

As many of the comments from my fellow Americans showed, on this side of the pond small gas-efficient cars are not very much appreciated. May Americans like the vehicles that do 10 miles/gallon, at least until gasoline tops $3.00/gallon. Then there is outrage!

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

I'm still catching up from being away from the computer for four days last month (!). Your London pictures have all been lovely. Hopefully I'll get to see these places myself some day.

Looking forward to car photos....