England 2009

O, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!


Courtesy of Robert Browning, poem Home thoughts, from abroad

And indeed, in England to be... after a zillion years, the whole McKeowns + a few Chetwoods, Neales and MacLeods united to celebrate mum's birthday, yay! It was really nice to see cousins, aunts, uncles etc, not to mention mo and bro... The family had not met in its entirety for about 7 years at least, and I not having been back for almost 4 years (wow.. how time flies) there was some stuff to catch up on, new family members to meet, etc..

England is so very green and surprisingly lush in April, I just couldn't get over seeing so many flowers!

First stop with my Uncle Paul in an interesting zen garden ("for adults".. zen porn?)

Naaaa, it's just some artsy place, but also very nice.

A pub in Ilkeston. Not very interesting except it makes me laugh, ´cause the English language being true to itself, you don't pronounce that "earwash" but "errywash" :o)

On that subject..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzDbNFDdP4

On another subject... An interesting guitar found in a shop in Derby. The ultimate would be if siamese quintuplets walked in looking for a guitar they could play together.. I've heard of stranger stuff happening.. :Þ

House in Derby

Still in Derbyshire near Ilkeston, in a park. Some artist carves faces on the stumps of trees that have been felled. Looks slightly eerie with a druidic touch :o)

My brother can be such a playboy... :D

Farmhouse with a wicked roof and tower..

And a rather interesting weather-vane..

Little brother with his big sister (cough)

There are 13 years between us, and someone ACTUALLY did think Benjamin was my older brother.. haha. I know I was IDed twice just before I turned 30, but it's fun to hear someone claim they believe you're 16 when you're almost twice the age. I wonder if I'll look 45 when I'm 90? Oh well, I'll probably still act like 12 anyway :Þ

Chesterfield church spire.

Was it the same guy who designed the weather-vane?

Is there something in Derbyshire water that in*spire*s people so?

Canal in Ilkeston

Apple blossom

I quite liked that signpost, it's rather random.. In fact it does give a direction, to the edge of a cliff overlooking thisThe Chechshire plain (I think) (and gosh what a difficult word to write)

Before catching the plane back to the rock, I spent a day in Stockport (above, the tower of the old hat factory, which is now a very interesting museum about the hatting industry in the Stockport area in the 18-19th Century. I also visited the Stockport Air Raid Shelters, which were equally interesting.. Several miles of tunnels underground, built from 1938 onwards and which at the height of their use could shelter up to about 6000 people at a time.. crazy..)

It was over 20 degrees today in England, really hot along my current standards, clear blue sky, really summery..A 15th Century house in Stockport. Of course, it has to be a bank now.It was 4 degrees celsius and raining sleet when I got back to the rock (so what's new)

And now as I'm typing, it's not quite 5 am and I can already see the contours of Esjan getting lighter in the rising sun. Another week gone, 50 more minutes' sun...