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curiouswombatI 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!
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!
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no subject
Date: 30/04/2006 09:06 am (UTC)In Europe they are made in Sunderland - a former ship-building city in the North East of England, and they are very similar in size, shape etc to out Octavia.
Most American cars look highly inefficient to Europeans - when we see them on TV, or in the flesh, they don't seem to have any more cabin space than our category 'family car' (the Octavia is officially a small family car), nor any more boot (trunk) space - the boot on the Octavia is so big that I can't actually reach the back of it without either a stick in my hand, or my feet off the ground. So all we can assume is that they have lots of spare outside and engine compartment - a sort of phallic thing!
The road tests on the c3 suggest I'll get about 47mpg. Of course we pay something like $8 a gallon for petrol.
Sentra-Primera
Date: 30/04/2006 09:18 am (UTC)Yes, I think "phallic thing" might explain America's love affair with our big, fast, gas guzzling cars. To me a car is just a tool to get from one place to another, but many others would rather lose a limb than part with their baby.
Frankly, I think it's a good thing that the price of gas here is going up. We've needed to get serious about conservation and new technology for a long time, but only some serious pain is going to finally get our attention. (the idea of $8 a gallon would cause some heart attacks around here.)