On the move

If you could move to any location on the planet, where would you go and why?

I spent a good number of years dreaming of retiring to the Cotswolds town of Morton-in-Marsh. If I could move anywhere that would still be high on my list of choices. However if money is no object I might consider a location in central London within view of one of the beautiful parks. If I did so I would enjoy the lovely flower gardens without having to labor, I would visit museums, attend concerts and theatre. And when I needed an escape from the urban hustle and bustle I would take a train out to the countryside.

Travel Tuesday – Longing for London

For a 10 year plus period, starting in 1998,  I was lucky enough to fly into Heathrow once or twice a year spending some time in London and other parts of England or Scotland.   Watching the Olympic coverage is making me miss my favorite destination, so I am sharing some more London scrap-book pages.    These snap shots  were taken on Christmas Day 2005 during a lunch cruise on the Thames.

 

Music Monday # 23 — Elgar and Royal Pomp

Yesterday I set my DVR to record the BBC America coverage of the Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant.   I watched the program just before calling it a day last night. The final music barge carried members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir, directed by Thomas Blunt,.  It stopped next to the royal barge for a short performance including Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory.    I have included a BBC clip of yesterday’s performance, which may or not be active when you view this post:  (BBC – Musical Finale of Diamond Jubilee Thames Pageant .   I am not finding any video that I find to be an adequate replacement if the link above fails, although you can go to YouTube for versions from “The Last Night of the Proms” concerts.  And the LPO does have a recording on sale at http://www.lpo.org.uk/jubilee/

A little history–     Edward Elgar wrote two Pomp and Circumstance Marches in 1901.  “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D Major” was so admired by Queen Victoria’s son, Edward VII, that he commissioned Elgar to compose a work for his coronation.  The song “Land of Hope and Glory” was the result of Elgar reworking that 1^st march and adding words written by Arthur C. Benson  to the trio section of the march.  It was part of the commissioned ‘Coronation Ode” that earned Elgar a knighthood, and the title Sir, in 1904.

Travel Tuesday # 5 – Regent’s Park, London

This photo of a lovely formal floral display was taken in 1998 during by very first trip to London.  I really wanted to walk through Regent’s Park because it is the setting for part of Virgina Woolf‘s novel Mrs. Dalloway.  It did not disappoint me.  I think it is still my favorite of the Royal Parks in London.

An End but also a Beginning

So this is it, the last post for 2011, but I have a new plan in place for 2012 and I am excited to get started posting on new topics.  I am proud that I made at least 365 posts in 2011, but I am pleased that I am not committing to 7 posts a week in 2012.

Thanks to the people who have visited my site this year.  I hope many of you will keep checking in either as a follower or as an occasional visitor.

The 52 preset topics for Wednesdays & Thursdays are available as pages by clicking under the napping cat header.  Some Mondays I’ll make a post involving music.  Tuesdays I will continue sharing travel photos, especially scanning in photos from trips taken before my first digital camera purchase.  And Fridays will be for food, in any form that takes my fancy.

I decided to use a photo from my first hop across the pond, in 1998, for this final 2011 posting.  It is from Regents Park in London.  May your path be long even if not so straight and formal.  Farewell 2011 – Hello 2012.

Word for 12/2 – Champion

Sam Wanamaker was the champion of “The Bard” who  founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust to rebuild the Globe Theatre in London.  He was instrumental in raising over ten million dollars to realize the project.

Our tour guide stood with her toes pointing to the plaza tile of his name:  

The guide also pointed out the tile with his daughter’s name.

Word for 11/17 – Tremble

A little snow is no reason to tremble where I live.  In fact the economy is helped by a good ski season.  But in the U.K. a little snow, like that pictured below, causes much of normal activity to grind to a halt.  They are not set up to deal with below freezing temperatures.  The train signals may fail.  So on the trip when I took this photo, near Rochester, England in late December we made just a quick visit to the Cathedral & headed right back to the train station to make it back to London where we were staying.

Word for 11/16 – Distill

I have yet to view the inside of a distillery.  On a trip to Scotland we took a train from Glasgow to  Dalwhinnie.  We walked from the train station to the distillery only to find that they were closed to visitors that day.  This is something that never, I mean never, happens to us because my husband does his research well and double checks or triple checks things.  But this time it happened.  So I can not give you a first hand account of how they distill the Dalwhinnie Scotch.   When we got back to the unattended station  plenty of trains went by but we had to wait hours & hours for a train that actually stopped in Dalwhinnie and that would take us back to Glasgow.  So there was a whole day shot.  And it was a cold damp day in the Highlands waiting.

I know I took pictures that day but those files are not showing up so I’ll show you a living example of the symbol of another distilled beverage:                   A Beefeater at the Tower of London, the symbol of Beefeater Gin.

Word for 11/9 – Detect

In 2005 while walking around a section of  Dulwich, London, England
my husband was able to detect a connection between these 2 street names:     

One is the title of a novel, the other  is part of the title of a novel & the surname of the main character,  but both relate to the same author.  Hint:  This author wrote under a pen name & is buried in Highgate Cemetery, Highgate, London in an area reserved for religious dissenters or agnostics.

Can you detect who the author is?   I’ll leave the answer under comments.

words for 10/2 – Aboard

We enjoyed Christmas lunch aboard a City Cruise boat in London, England back on December 25, 2005. 

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