This Week

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1-5. On the way home from one of Fran's interview's, a sign read "Jane Austen's House" and this is the sort of thing that makes England so very exciting. Things of greatness are just around the corner and one doesn't have to look very hard, or at all, to find something worth while.  Such a great amount of history concentrated in such a small(ish) amount of land.  So we stopped and looked, even though it was closed, we peeked at the garden, and found neither of us had a desire to go inside.

6. A night with friends.

7-12. A birthday in Kent. We camped outside in the spectacular weather.  The hosts threw an amazing cook-out of mackerel they had caught themselves. Just wow. We played badminton, herded their free-range chickens, and pitched tents.  Later that night, we went on a walk in the dark through fields to the local pub.  Little did we know that the fields we walked through were full of horses, and they galloped up to us in the inky night and surveyed us from their fence.  Startled, but then delighted, we fed them grass and looked upon their magnificence and found ourselves slightly awed.  It was one of those rare nights with a clear sky full of stars.  I discovered the big dipper is called "the plough" here. The north star still points north, even in a different country, and I walked home full of thoughts of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railway, and what it must be like to walk in the dark all the time without light pollution.  We walked and whistled, and once back, built a bonfire, a great big one of all the discarded limbs of ash trees. 

This week has been one of just working away and preparing for the Regatta this weekend. The theme is "London through the Ages" and while I can't yet disclose the float's design, it looks phenomenal. More to come soon.