Flowers of Britain

In my undying quest to make Iain a gardener (or, at least, appreciative of gardening), I try to expose him to flowers wherever possible. Here, he studies an old garden rose at King John's Lodge.


Pretty...

Here's a closeup. I love this kind of rose so much. Cabbage-shaped, many petaled, grown in sprays, tons of flowers - what's not to love?


A more modern rose, in the formal gardens at KJL:


But flowers of great beauty appear everywhere in Britain, not just in big, expertly-tended gardens. Here, growing by the side of Bart and Tony's driveway, was a lovely little flower growing against a blue/lavender background shrub. Gorgeous.


And when we ventured around Cambridge, Charles found this lavender hedge along the side of an entrance at Queen's.


Back in Milton Keynes, we toured a park devoted to peace, including a Buddhist pavilion and a Japanese Buddhist temple. More on that later. But in the garden there was this sweet Asiatic lily.

In some ways, England is just one big garden. Everywhere you go, you find flowers offering shape, color, and fragrance to brighten the lush green of the parks and hedges.

Venue #3

While Miriam's weddings took place in Royal Tunbridge Wells and Sandhurst, her reception and the multi-day party took place at King John's Lodge near Ticehurst.

Here' s a view of Charles and Iain through one of the leaded windows upstairs in the Lodge:


The Lodge has the most spectacular gardens you can imagine. Secret gardens, wild gardens, rose gardens and fairy gardens - you name it. Apple-munching sheep? Check!

Here's the tiny pond that you can cross with an even tinier wooden bridge onto the tiniest of islands:


Here's the entrance to the Wild Garden. Iain saw the statues and said, "Doggie!"


In the Wild Garden, rambling roses provide an object lesson in the difference between climbing and rambling in the rose world.


Here's a side view of the Lodge itself. Imagine taking your tea here, watching the sun set and smelling the roses.


This is a Ha-Ha. It's a sort of water barrier, with stepping pads for crossing. At least 4 people fell in the Ha-Ha over the weekend, including Little Eddie, who fell in twice. I hear that his mother used to fall in as well, so it's a family tradition well preserved. Good work, little man.


The Lodge in all its glory:

And the Ha-Ha with pear trees and beautiful, fluffy clouds. Truly, a perfect place to enjoy the best of English weather, gardening, and hospitality. I loved it.

Toast, waffles, biscuits, muffins, croissants, rolls, breadsticks...what's left?

That Maddie girl loves her carbs. As does Iain. In the last 2 weeks, he's become The World's Number One Fan of croissants. Maddie, meanwhile, experimented with a product known as "pancakes."

She gives it two thumbs up. Way up.

Go Fly A Kite

On one of our last days in Milton Keynes, the boys took us to a beautiful park next to the historic village of Stony Stratford* for some fun with wind.

Here are Tony and Charles playing with the lines, and below the two of them plus Tony's brother Mick. See that blue thing on the upper right? That's an enormous kite, as big as two men. It has to be launched into the air by one person while the other battles the wind using long handles.

Tony has mad skills with the kite. Charles was learning to fly, and though he learned fast and had a great time, he also experienced the joy of being dragged across a field by an enormous sail. Then I experienced the pleasure of rubbing hydrogen peroxide into his abrasions. Good times.


Tony's brother Mick came by to play, give Charles some pointers, and generally enjoy the weather. I don't know what happened to the England we met in 2007. This time, the sun shone nearly every day and it hardly rained at all. We brought rain jackets, umbrellas and rain-proof shoes, so that probably guaranteed sunshine.

That's Mick, below, looking all nonchalant and cool like he does.



*No, really. When Eleanor, wife of Edward I, died, her body traveled slowly through England in state. Everywhere that the cortege stopped, Edward erected a memorial cross. Stony Stratford had one.

But wait, there's more! Remember the Princes in the Tower? The ones who disappeared under Richard III's watch? The elder, Edward V, was captured by his uncle in Stony Stratford, and from there conveyed under guard to the Tower...never to be seen again.

So it's really historic. Like, really. Even by English standards.

Bum Bum Reaction

Told ya he loves it!

Venue #2, Wedding #1

Get ready, kiddies. We got a lot of photos here, mostly of people. Miriam and Will went all British on us and had a double-decker wedding. The first part occurred at the Mansion House in Royal Tunbridge Wells. It's a pretty Georgian building with the usual large, airy rooms of that period.

So Miriam and will married legally in the way so many Yur-peans do: with a representative of the state and a series of Important Documents to sign. Here they are, afterwards, sitting as man and wife for the first time:

Many members of both families came for the ceremony. Miriam's great-aunt Matie, for example, traveled from Kentucky to be there. She stayed in the Hot Ladies Plus Iain and Charles suite at the B&B, serving as a chaperone and voice of wisdom for us all. She also generously shared her mirror when we were all running around trying to brush our hair and slather on eye makeup. Love her.

Younger members of the family attended, as well. Here are two of Miriam's neices and her new nephew signing the decorative certificate of marriage. Kudos to Zack, who solemnized the marriage and who, when asked by Oscar if he could sign as a witness, came up with this solution.

Will's other nephew was a ball of insane, explosive firecracker-ness. Here he is, cuddling with his dad. Don't be fooled. This child is destined to become a skydiving, acrobatic, sword-swallowing professional assassin. No lie.

Friends in attendance included one of Miriam's oldest girlfriends, Michelle. Soon to be a bride herself, Michelle brought a little touch of Texas to the party by wearing awesome cowboy boots. Can I just take this opportunity, since we're on the subject, to point out that an outstanding pair of boots need not be made of lizard, hand-embroidered with dragons, or otherwise tacky? Simple can be excellent, as you see here. Also, how cute is that haircut??

Miriam's sisters are kind of a problem. You're thinking, "Oh, Caroline is so lovely." and then in comes Rebecca, looking even prettier. But wait, who's that in the blue dress? Prettier still, and with fabulous shoes! It's frustrating. I like families where you know who's the smart one, who's the pretty one, and who's the one likely to put an M-80 down the toilet. Simpler that way.

Anyway, here is Rebecca and her husband, Dave. He's a peach - definitely a keeper. They're newlyweds.

There's that girl in blue! The bride was remarkably calm before the ceremony. Those are her great-grandmother's lace gloves, by the way. Something old, brought all the way from Kentucky by Matie. And the sweet peas in her bouquet came from a local garden. Also in the bouquet was Sweet William, an especially apt choice for this particular wedding. The mothers of bride and groom arranged the flowers themselves.


Here's the bride and her cousin Diane. Loved her, primarily because she's a bit sardonic.

You'd never know, looking at the Mother of the Bride, that there were any nerves this weekend. Even though the logistics of the two weddings, multiple parties, tourism events, extended families, friends, band, lunch dinner and breakfast would have broken a lesser will, Miriam's Mommy powered through like a champ.

She had help, of course, from Miriam's Daddy. More on that later. NO, just wait. All I'll say now is that you really shouldn't dance when I have my camera handy. I've said too much. Just hold your horses.

Whatever they say about England's weather, the last few weeks have been glorious. For Miriam's first Big Day, the sun shone brightly on everyone, including Will's father Edward. Though I don't have pictures of it, Edward would go on from this moment to provide perhaps the funniest Father-of-the-Groom toast I've ever heard. And that was after making everyone choke on laughter at the rehearsal dinner.

Will's mother gave no speeches, but her touch shaped the wedding profoundly. She and Miriam's Mommy picked the flowers for the bouquets and vases, she made the wedding bands by hand (she's a silversmith), and she provided a pleasant touch of no-nonsense calm to everything. She even brought a gorgeous spray of rare lilies down from Edinburgh for the reception.

After the civil ceremony, we all repaired to the Pantiles (an area of shops in Tunbridge Wells) for lunch. The kids table (shown below) included the groom, who wants you to see his new ring.

And, of course, the lovely bride. She needed a pint, don't you think? Luckily, in England one is spoiled for choice when it comes to yummy fizzy drinks with just enough alcohol to help you take that deep, deep breath you've been holding for the last 9 months.

Next stop? More wedding. Wedding, wedding, nothing but wedding. Stay tuned...

New Places

Iain loves Aunt Miriam's house. There are stairs to climb (check out that diaper butt), rugs to examine, a dangerous kitty to antagonize, and a Roomba to activate and then hide from.

Miriam's house is a wonderland of gardening pleasures, too. Check out the tiny, tiny, tiny pinecones on this tree:


And, inside, this sweet African Violet has been blooming for weeks.

Iain's not the only one having adventures, of course. Just yesterday, Miriam, Charles, Will and I played "Where's Fiona's Handbag?"

Miriam and I left the house around 8:30 to walk down to the DMV in Georgetown. Miriam wants to start her married life ASAP (!!) by getting her name-change documents in order. So we walked to the DMV, where she learned that she must visit the Social Security people first. Fine. Two croissants and an OJ later (we needed a snack), we started walking back. Uphill.

Halfway up (this is a 45 minute walk, one way. So we're talking about 45 minutes uphill, which is bupkus for Jen Yu, who climbs mountains before breakfast, but fairly strenuous for me, especially with the sun shining and the mercury rising to 90F), I said to Miriam "Where's my handbag?"

Uh, oh. Not on stroller. Not in stroller. Not on arm, not anywhere. My cell phone was in my pocket, but everything else was...gone.

Miriam hustled Iain back up the hill to the house, while I flew down the hill to the mall, hoping to see my sad little purse laying on the pavement somewhere. In my heart, though, I thought it had been stolen, and that at that very moment it was warming the cockles of some thieving (but fashionable) little jerk. I was also trying to remember the contents of my bag, with mixed success. Was my Ann Taylor card in there? Do I still have an Ann Taylor card?

The croissant lady hadn't seen it. The concierge hadn't seen it. NO one had seen it. I called the house so Miriam and Will could come rescue me from further sunburn and sweat.

As we pulled into their street, though, the phone rang. It was Charles. He'd had a call from John B., of Lexington, who is in Connecticut. Someone found my bag, and she called John because his cell is in my wallet (carpool emergency info). John called Charles, etc. etc.

We turned right 'round and drove back down to Georgetown Electrolysis, where the lovely lady handed over my perfectly intact handbag (she found it in the street where I apparently DROPPED IT) and I handed her the bottle of wine Will grabbed from the house. I was so relieved. We hugged it out.

Back at the house, two minutes before noon, I clutched my bag (no more going to Georgetown for you!) and - naturally - asked about lunch. Some things never change.