The Natural History Museum

I has always loved this statue of Charles Darwin. Seeing him in context here in the Natural History Museum, we realize that this is an monument to his contributions. Those Victorians...they really knew how to built a shrine.

St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Our destination on this long day of wandering about the West End was St. Martin-in-the-Fields church. Here, we saw a find concert of baroque music.

St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden

To the southwest of the main building at Covent Garden stand St. Paul's Church., Yes, there is more than one St. Paul's in London.

Walking to Seven Dials

One the way from Trafalgar to Seven Dials, we pass Cecil Court. This street is filled with little shops selling stuff you rarely see on other streets.

Whitehall

Although Whitehall is a street in Westminster that connects Trafalgar to Parliament Square, it also a metonym for civil service and government. Perhaps this is because the area is filled with white stone buildings that are themselve filled with government offices.

The Embankment

Along the Thames, just south of Trafalgar and Covent Garden, lies the Embankment. Here we find a statue of Robert Raikes. If you ever sat in sunday school bored out of your mind, this is the fellow to blame, apparently.

On the Road Again!

We're headed to London today during a transition between house sits.

Sculpture Park

Not far from our house sit in Farnham is the village of Churt. The major claim to fame here seems to be the Sculpture Park.

Watts Cemetery Chapel

In the small village of Compton, not far from Farnham is the Watts Cemetery Chapel. This chapel and it's associate cemetery was built between 1896-98.

St. Peter's Church, Petersfield, Hampshire

We started out for a walk in the park with our little charge, Paddy, but the weather didn't cooperate so we decided to ride to Petersfield in Hampshire to have a look about and see if we need to spend more time here. Short answer: yes we do.

While here, we walked to the church on the edge of the central square, St. Peter's.

Birdworld

About a 5 minute drive from us here in Farnham, is Birdworld, the largest bird park in the United Kingdom. I stopped by to get a few bird photos, hoping I could see some that are new.

One of the first ones I ran into upon entering the park was the Greater Flamingo, above. I'm always surprised to see how twisted these birds can get their neck.

A Bit of B&W Fun

Seems like a good time to revisit a few recent images and explore them in monochrome. I particularly like the Watercress Line steam engine. The shiny metal surfaces contrast with the diffuse steam to make a vaguely abstract view of the train.

Winchester Cathedral

The cathedral has many of these Chantries. These are small chapels in which some bishop or other wealthy, important person paid to have prayers said over them. A bit like a private church within a church for the deceased to get prayed into heaven.

Winchester Cathedral - Continuing to Look Up

The brick laid out on the ground to one side of the cathedral shows the outline of the Anglo-Saxon church that was here before the Normans began building the impressive cathedral you see today.

Winchester Cathedral

On a dreary day (what? no sun in Britain in the winter?), we headed over to Winchester to have a look at the famous cathedral there. I suppose that I should break into a couple lines of the chorus here:

Winchester Cathedral, you're bringin' me downYou stood and you watched as my baby left town

But I won't.

West Street Cemetery

In Farnham is the West Street Cemetery, a modestly sized place with some of the notably folks from Farnham's history. None of the graves of those folks are presented here. Just regular folks with interesting gravestones.

Waverley Abbey

At the edge of Farnham are the ruins of Waverley Abbey. This is the first abbey founded by the Cistercians in England. It was begun in 1128. Let that sink in for a while.

St. James Church on the Inside

On a day with some bits of sunshine and no wedding, we went back to Shere to see the inside of the St. James Church.

Brookwood Cemetery...a Study in Symbolism

It has been a short while since you've seen a cemetery we've visited. Today, I've got some photos from a place I'm pretty sure that you've never been...a Zoroastrian cemetery.

This is Brookwood Cemetery, the largest cemetery in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. Opened in 1852. I'm quite sure we'll make another visit here since there so much to see.

Watercress Line of the Mid-Hants Railway

We drove across the border (quite close to Farnham) to Hampshire (often shortened to Hants) to Alresford to ride in the trained pulled by a steam engine...the Watercress Line.

St. James Churchyard in Shere

There is a small town in Surrey that is billed as an ancient place and indeed it it filled with ridiculously narrow streets, quaint pubs, thatched roofs, and this small church that dates from the 11th century.

The Marina at Fareham

One of our first outings from Farnham was down to the southern coast near Portsmouth. We stopped at Fareham for a quick leg-stretch with out four-legged charge and had a look about the marina.

Titchfield Abbey

Once we got settled into our new house sit in Farnham, we headed out for a look at Titchfield Abbey. This abbey was first built in the 13th century After Henry VIII confiscated all the church property, he gave this place to Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton who transformed it into a Tudor mansion.

Berwick Upon Tweed

Berwick Upon Tweed is a walled city and from atop the wall, you get a nice view of the River Tweed. Looking upstream, we see the Royal Border Bridge. It was built between 1847 and 1850 and opened by Queen Victoria. It is a railway bridge.

St. Cuthbert's Church

In the village of Norham, are two interesting bits of history. First there is the Norham Castle which we could only see at a modest distance since it is closed during the week this time of year. I fail to see why a place that free to enter should be closed when it is already a ruin!

The other place is St. Cuthbert's church. A building with a curious mixture of very old and just really old...roman and gothic windows. Ecgred of Lindisfarne (or Egfrid) was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 830 until his death in 845 (Wikipedia). He replaced the wooden church on this site with one of stone. With modification and improvements over the centuries, here it is.

Jedburgh Abbey

Jedburgh is another place we've been before, but is was quite a while ago. We came here in 1988 on our first trip overseas. Seemed like time to revisit this place and see what it is up to.

Edinburgh Christmas Market/Carnival

In the center of town,along the sides of the valley where the trains run through Waverly Station, is the Edinburgh Christmas Market spread out in the growling darkness.

Edinburgh

Along the Royal Mile between Holyrood and the castle, we wandered the stores.

St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh

We headed to the Berwick Upon Tweed train station one morning to catch the train to Edinburgh.

Lindisfarne - Holy Island

About a 30 minute drive south from Berwick Upon Tweed lies Lindisfarne. This small island lies close to the coast and only accessible at low tide. I drove out before dawn (remember that is not until about 8:30) and left just before sundown (about 2:30).

On this island are the ruins of an Priory dating from at least the 12th century. This replaced one from the 8th century. St. Aidan and Cuthbert established this place and it was the seat of christianity as it spread into northern England and southern Scotland.