In south-west England, large swaths of chalkstone lie under the soil. For millenia, people have cut out large figures by digging trenches to reveal the underlying chalk. The chalk contrasts with the surrounding grass, which makes the figures stand out. Because they’re cut into the hillsides, these figures are difficult to see from the ground, …
Fawlty Towers was born of a bad hotel experience. The Pythons booked into a hotel in Cornwall owned by a man who was “the most wonderfully rude man” that John Cleese had ever met. After filming, the other Pythons moved on. Seeing the comic potential, Cleese and his wife at the time, Connie Booth, stayed, …
Elaine was right — there are adders in England! Although the grumpy farmers may pose more of a threat to users of public footpaths:
Tonight is the summer solstice. Other years I might not have noticed, but this year we visited Avebury, a World Heritage Site that rivals Stonehenge for its standing stones. What makes Avebury unique is that the standing stones are in a village. For generations, farmers found them inconvenient. They dug them up and broke them …
The first part of this trip has taken us to a few of the places that my ancestors lived. I mentioned in an earlier post that two of my great-grandparents were born in Norfolk, one on each side of my family. Both were born at a time when rural labourers worked on large farms that …
We first came to Norfolk a couple of years ago because 2 of my 8 great-grandparents were born here. 25 % of my genes! Julian also remembered his father speaking fondly of sailing in an area of Norfolk called the Broads. The Broads is an area of shallow lakes and rivers. People used to believe …
We spent our first week in England in the county of Norfolk, which is on the south-east coast, bordering the North Sea. Norfolk is a predominantly rural county, and our reason for coming here was to walk. At first, the weather wasn’t auspicious for walking. When we stopped for lunch in the town of Ely …
By popular demand: the story of the snake gaiters. One of the things that I love about travel is the novelty. The taste of the food, the sounds of the language, the smells and noise of the streets, everything is different in a way that enchants me. The other side of this coin is the …
So we decided to drive south in search of warm weather. Well, it turns out that we just needed to drive east because Alberta and Saskatchewan have had glorious weather for the past two weeks. This being our first trip of this kind in a new trailer, we’ve learned a lot of useful things, including: …