Kentish Relic

I should have blogged this a few weeks ago. While in Kent we visited Ightham Mote. This building is the antedote to Japanese building practice, where everything is completely torn down and rebuilt when changes are required. Ightham Mote has been around since the 14th century, being gradually added to and diddled with by successions of not particularly famous owners. Recently it has undergone a 10 million pound restoration.

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Bee

British insects are small and docile. Photographically these two things counteract each other, making them just as difficult to focus on. This one isn't far off, but the picture is heavily cropped which is, of course, cheating.

[Photo taken in Clare Fellows' Garden]

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Views from the back of the tandem

Cambridgeshire is topographically uninspiring, but interesting things can occasionally be spotted peeking up through the crops.

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Corpus Christi College, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Last night I exorcised my dining rites at Corpus. I took my husband with me, and luckily, this time he did not commit any politically incorrect faux pas. We discovered another dramatic change in British culture. During the long evening drinking bottle after bottle of fortified wines, we found that cigars we not available. Instead we were offered snuff. Yes. Really. Snuff! ..and I'd thought it was only Japan that was culturally still in the 18th century.

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Newton's ghost

The ghost of Isaac Newton haunts Cambridge, and Trinity College in particular, where all students unwise enough to enter the chapel will get the opportunity to be made to feel small by his overbearing statue. Meanwhile Cambridge fellows wring their hands and question why Cambridge has never produced another Newton.

A more interesting question might be, did he actually eat the apple after it had fallen from the tree?

This apple was photographed in Clare College Fellows' Garden. These fallen apples were being eaten only by moorhens, but they were far to clever to allow themselves to be photographed in the act.

I wonder if it is all this pressure to be brilliant that has pushed Cambers back to the top of the World Rankings. I suspect it may have more to do with the brilliance of Alison Richards, who has done an amazing job of screwing simply huge amounts of cash out of us all over the last few years. We even met her in Tokyo!

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streets of Ayr #2, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

The ghost of commerce past.

Actually I thought Ayr was looking a lot happier than when we last visited 1.75 years ago. Back then there was the depression of almost every shop being in a state of closing down bankruptcy. The still open cafes served recession specials and the remaining shops had special recession deals. Now all that has gone and one notices more the signs of carpentry indicating new shops about to open.

This street down by the harbour though was another story... I think only one establishment was still in business, and it was closing down.

I've not noticed recession elsewhere - not in Glasgow 1.75 years ago, nor Cambridge now. Glasgow is far shinier than it ever was and Cambridge about the same, although the roads are busier.

The house prices everywhere are unbelievably enormous. Clearly, when we retire, we will all go and live with our parents.

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streets of Ayr #1, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

More cultural change over the last decade. Horrible dog shit replaced by horrible signs.

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beach #1, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Ayr beach again. One way in which Scotland is superior to Japan is that when the sun does eventually shine the light quality is never far from "Golden Hour".

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flower, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

Mother-in-Law is very proud of the herd of these purple flowers that she nurtures in pots in her tropical Scottish garden. Luckily she did not excommunicate me from the clan when I asked if they weren't a kind of onion and mentioned that they grow as weeds in Japan.

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beach etiquette

In Scotland it is important that your overcoat, which is worn every day of the year, is the same colour as your dog.

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