Notes About England

After a spring break trekking through England, I began to compare how my ideal of England found in books turned out in reality:

-milk: people to do get milk delivered right to their door a couple mornings a week! It can even come in glass bottles and you do leave them out the night before he comes, so he can recycle them.

-horses: I used to think Kentucky the Mecca for all horse lovers. Never before have I seen so many fields and fields of horses. Driving along, I found dozens of horse farms, and fields filled with more than a dozen horses! This is so rare to the ocassional one in a field on my drives back home. [This makes the rules and numbers of cow poker a little more difficult! We've had to adjust them...]

-fields: the Jane Austen films of Elizabeth trekking through fields to Netherfield? true! farmers have paths just cut right through their fields open to the public and one can trek at leisure. Sometimes there areeven cows or sheep in the fields. I found that cows are curious and tend to follow the trekker, which can be daunting, making your way with a herd of cows behind you!

-shillings and farthings: sadly false

-bowler hats and gloves and queen hats: not so much. Only on special occasions have I seen ladies wear those sorts of hats. Though men do tend to wear cufflinks much more than I've seen in the US

-social cues: tend to be more implicit than explicit. For example, 'would you like the butter?' actually means 'please have some and pass it.'

-greet adults by kissing them on the cheek (if they initiate!): I would go for the hug, they would go for the kiss, awkward moment ensues...

-parish churches: true! the vicar stands at the front, in white robes, greeting all who come. They do live in a vicarage, but unlike Miss Marple stories, do not tend to get involved in nasty murders