Lucky

I hope everyone's hometown has something about it that induces moments you just want to pinch yourself and say, "I can't believe I'm so lucky that I get to live here." In Seattle one is driving along on a sunny day and reaching a spot where you can see the snow-capped Olympics on one side, the Cascade range on the other, majestic Mount Rainier in front of you, with a smattering of sparkling lakes  and evergreens thrown in for good measure. Of course in San Diego it's walking along the beach on yet another day of perfect weather. Nantes was all about the food - the bakery, the patisserie, the market. Some places I've lived I'd have to reach a little farther than others, but everyplace I've been lucky enough to live has something special.

In Cambridge, I have two almost daily experiences that just make me smile to myself and wonder how it is possible that I can possibly get to live here. 

One is the the bike route that Anya and I take to get to and from her school. It's just so perfect that I'm thankful for it almost every day. I say "almost," because if I'm being honest, there's been one or two days of cold, wind, and torrential rain where I don't think I paused to be grateful. Just about every other day though, it's such a pleasure. 

This picture was taken back last fall. 

It even has cows grazing along the way! I just think when I'm back in my suburban Californian town and looking back on this life I'm going to be amazed that our commute involved paths running through cow pastures. These are actually cows in a field across town, but the cows we pass look just as happy and picturesque. 

My other moment of almost daily happiness is walking down streets like this to do my errands. I have a chore to do, like going to the market or the library, and this is how I get there! One time with Anya I was in the middle of a little rhapsody on the beauty of Cambridge streets when she expressed her preference for California highways and SUVs. To each her own I suppose. What's special for you about where you get to live?

Yellow: What I'm Seeing Now

Everywhere you go in England in April and May- well, everywhere I've gone - the countryside is a patchwork of green and yellow. The yellow is a crop called oilseed rape.

I've heard it described as a "love it or you hate it" plant. I love yellow, so I like seeing the squares of yellow fields all over. I'm not sure why people hate it. Allergies? Don't like yellow? Don't want the landscape of green fields interrupted? 

I just thought I'd share what England looks like right now from the train window or driving down the dual carriageway (that's "highway" for you American folks).

London in the Springtime

There's a concentration of official holidays in England in April and May. For the latest one we headed to London again to right a wrong: we had not yet taken our kids to see the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

Some people call this experience overrated - too much waiting, too many crowds. And it's true you won't be the only one there. 

But where else can you find such a concentration of English pomp and circumstance in such a short amount of time? And for free? There's the uniforms, the horses, the music, the guards calling out, the marching - all with Buckingham Palace with its famous balcony for a backdrop.

I didn't know what my kids would think, because they're not fond of crowds and waiting, but they loved it. Not in any particular order, here's what they've loved in London: Tower of London, open-top bus tour (Camille), checking out the street performers around Covent Garden (Anya), Harrods browsing and ice cream, seeing London musicals, riding the London Eye and Changing of the Guard. If you count the Harry Potter WB Tour as being in London, then that would definitely be on the list too. And getting American fast food, but that's just kind of sad.

Is there anything nicer to do on a warm, springy day than sit in the sun in a park eating ice cream? Green Park is right next to Buckingham Palace.

Next, I decided it was the perfect day to check out Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens is huge. We walked miles just seeing a small part of it. The top thing I wanted to see was the treetop walkway. It's 118 steps up into the treetops.

Besides being up in the trees, there's pretty views toward the greenhouse and other parts of the gardens.

Anya loves thrills and heights. Camille, not so much. She still enjoyed the treetop walk though, even with the feel of the walkway swaying lightly in the wind.

I always pictured Kew Gardens as very structured, English-style walled gardens. It's possible there's parts that are like that, but not the parts we saw. Despite that I'm sure it was all planned, it feels like wandering in a beautiful, natural wilderness.

My girls would have liked to make it to Pisa to see the Leaning Tower. That isn't going to happen, so as a consolation prize Mike had Camille take this silly picture at Kew (instead of the traditional holding up the Leaning Tower picture that everyone takes in Pisa).

The traditional "fighting over not letting my sister give me bunny ears" pose. What age do kids outgrow that? We have a version of this picture at about every place we've ever been.

Just more pretty garden scenes.

The famous saying about London is, "Tired of London, tired of life." It's so true! There's endless things to do in London. With all our time there, I'll still open guide books and find we haven't even seen everything on the must-see in London list. We had a great day checking out two more experiences though.

Kenwood

Many historical homes, grounds, or archeological sites in England are owned by either the National Trust or English Heritage. Each of the organizations has a yearly pass that allows admittance to all their sites, which is a good deal when you're planning on doing a lot of travel and seeing as much as possible. Of course, just about every site has a gift shop and the first one we entered Anya spotted this Monopoly: English Heritage game. I groaned inside and steered her away from it, because Monopoly is not my favorite game in the world. She did not forget it though, and ended up buying it with her own money a few trips later. I'm actually so glad she did. I still don't like Monopoly, but what I do like is that each of the properties is an English Heritage site. It's gotten her excited about outings so much more than talk of beautiful grounds or historically significant houses ever could.  

This is all just to say that Anya was actually the instigator of this little outing to Kenwood House. It's a beautiful country home on beautiful grounds just outside London. It would be a great outing for someone traveling to only London who wanted to get an idea of the English country estate experience.  

This was one of our favorite country estate outings. I'm not sure if it's because the grounds and estate are qualitatively better than others, or if it's because my girls were happy to be along, it was a beautiful spring day and the weather was perfect. 

From the house there's a slope of grass that leads down to a little lake. From there, there's all kinds of walking trails to explore.

We encountered a cute little bird family and this unusual bird. Some kind of a fancy duck?

There's lots of great places for lounging on the grass on a sunny day.

Flowers were blooming all over the grounds, especially the rhododendrons and azaleas - reminding me of my home town Seattle. Kenwood House was a great way to spend a sunny Bank Holiday in April.

Walking at Wimpole Hall

Things are a little bit quiet at our place at present. Our big excitement lately is finding new places to walk. When people talk about great places to walk in England, places like the Lake District, the Peak District and the Dales come up. Definitely not flat, flat Cambridgeshire. So it's especially rewarding to find great walks close to home, like the other week when we went back to Wimpole Hall for a walk and found it as beautiful of a place as you could hope for. 

From the parking lot at Wimpole Hall, we crossed by the front of the house and walked to the edge of the property, then followed the walking paths that lead through the cow pastures towards the lake.

The path slopes down toward the lake, where there is a bridge that takes you to the folly.

Up close, we started to question whether it really is a folly, it looks so much like the real ruins we've seen around the country. But I've confirmed it really is a folly, built purposely as a ruin to look pretty from the manner house across the lake.

Heading back across the lake, the path leads through a field of grazing sheep.

We were lucky enough to go when the lambs were still young, leaping and running around the field.

Here is the back view of the Hall, which I think is even prettier than the front. One of the things we liked best about this walk is the rolling hills, which are a bit rare here in Cambridgeshire.

I'm enjoying our quiet weekends with not much on the agenda besides finding a new walk.