UK trip 1

There are hundreds of photos of our recent holiday on my phone.  Sorting, editing and getting them onto the blog is time consuming and to be honest, not my first priority in life!

We sent the first ten days in London and at a friends farm in England.  London was great, doing all the tourist hot spots, but I let our boys (10 and 12) set the agenda and No 1 Son wanted to go to the Natural History Museum.  As a quilter, you tend to see the world a little differently LOL!

Honestly I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did....these are the mosaic floors.  But the ceilings, walls, exterior....I could go on and on!  It is the most beautiful building and the displays were fantastic.  Possibly my favorite was the moving display (with sound effects) simulating being in a shop building during an earthquake!  It was fun and scary....way better then a carnival ride!

And the afternoon tea was divine.  My oldest son has been a sucker for scones, jam and cream since he was 2 and ate my afternoon tea when I was in hospital having our second son.  So scones, jam and cream was the afternoon or morning tea treat he had, every chance he got!

We cruised the Thames river, walked the streets of London, hopped on and off buses and the train - both above and underground.  Oh and yes we saw it all from the sky in the London Eye!

These are door hinges in a gate at Windsor Castle.  The Queen was home, but she had a cold so missed her official duties.  Honestly, I read this in the paper!

This is a post box, built into the building wall in the grounds of Windsor Castle. It was worth seeing Windsor as the buildings are so beautiful. Hubby hadn't been so keen (as we made the trek once already to go to Legoland) but as you pull into the Windsor station you can see the castle, and he changed his mind, as it is so impressive...and did not involve getting on the local bus - which was unreliable!  Legoland was great - perfect time to take the kids, as any older and they would have been too old to enjoy it I think...however I enjoyed it immensely as well!

I visited Kensington Palace and saw the display for Lady Di's frocks, which was fantastic.  And the sunken gardens next door was beautiful.  We also toured Lords Cricket Club, Wimbledon tennis museum (courts were closed as they were setting up), Science Museum and saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  

Then we escaped London to enjoy the rolling hills of Nottinghamshire to stay on my friend Jim's family farm.  I stayed with the family 20 years ago and it was very special to come back,  

The rest of the family live in village, and the farm sheds are there too, but they were in the process of converting barns into houses, so his parents didn't have to deal with stairs.  This is Jim's house up on the hill, the other side of the farm.  In Australia the farm houses are isolated like this also, so its interesting to see the farm buildings in the little villages.  The crops were only weeks off being harvested and it was lovely to see England in the summer time, especially as the weather was so good/warm!  

The only quilt I saw, through the window of a Royal railway carriage at the York Train Museum. This was the queens bed (not the current queen, think her mother or grandmother's) and the beautiful quilting would have been nice to see in its entirety....but it was a train museum!  There was/is a quilt museum in York, so dreadfully frustrating to not be able to go...they only open a couple of weekends a year and I had missed out by weeks.  Next time I will check their schedule before I book our flights!

Happy quilting Sue.