february flowers

I really love that we have three day weekends over here.  I'm not sure how well I'm going to adjust to having classes on Friday when I get back. It will be an interesting (and very depressing) when I go back to Denison and can't have weekends devoted to traveling and seeing new sights.  I still have that dreaded science GE to look forward to... But anyways, on to my day.  Today we went to the Cotswold's--a hilly and (supposedly) gorgeous part of England. Yes, yes, it was truly beautiful; the "supposedly" is added on account of we could not see more than ten feet in front of us due to the fog.  However, that did not stop me from imagining I was Miss Eliza Bennet traipsing to Netherfield.  In fact, one of my most favorite pastimes here has become traveling on a bus looking at the countryside whilst listening to the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack and pretending I am wandering through the country just waiting to run into Mr. Darcy.  It is a fabulous way to spend otherwise car sickening bus rides.

You'd think I'd learn from our last trip to Stonehenge to bring a hat and a hair tie and extra layers.  But oh, no.  That was not on the docket for me. So my hair once again looks like it is about ready to fly off my head in all my pictures.  Plus (and this might be toeing the line as to what is appropriate to write on a public blog), I had a spicy bean burger for dinner last night.  Consequently, my stomach felt like lead all day today.  Not one of my better decisions.  Even still, the day was fine, the conversation lively, and the food fabulous.
      We started our day off going to the Broadway Tower: a folly on top of the second highest point in the Cotswolds.  We learned from the man working the gift shop that the definition of a "folly" is a completely pointless and useless building.  I'm not making this up, PS.  Apparently, ancient Lords and Dukes and the like would make these useless buildings just to prove their wealth, and also to prove their love to the women in their lives.  One guy built a cone shaped folly because he had wanted to see a church steeple from his house, and he could not.  So he built a steeple house, basically.  But this is all ancient history.  What happened today was that there were stairs that only went up and stairs that only went down (which was very reminiscent of St. Ignatius), and it was superbly blustery on top of the castle folly thing.  We were supposed to be able to see four different countries.  We only saw four different sides of the fog that was eating us. However, I am now aware of which direction Hugh Grant lives through the fog.  So, very exciting.

We then had the opportunity to go on what I'm going to call a Jane Austen walk.  We hiked over a mile (down hill, thank goodness) in the mud.  We got to walk over stiles (which are basically rudimentary ladders built to help you over gates) and take a few pictures with a bunch of English cows.  It was a great walk and the countryside looked very much like Pride and Prejudice or at least Sense and Sensibility.  It was gorgeous, even with the fog (I was very glad to be wearing my wellies).  We then reached the town, which we were unfortunately not allowed to stay in for lunch.  Instead, we went to Bourton-on-the-Water where we stopped at this cute little place called "The Mad Hatter."

The Picture on the wall next to us at the Mad Hatter

Now, the food here was delicious--I had meat lasagna--but it took such a long time for it to be ready that we didn't have anytime to look around the town (or have any of the Lumpy Bumpy chocolate cake). Which was highly unfortunate because it was so quaint and I fell in love with it immediately.  I swear to God I could have picked up a duck if I had wanted to to.  (I didn't want to.  Well, I kind of did.  But I didn't.)  We then loaded back onto the bus and went to the Rococco Gardens, which were filled with amazingly beautiful Snowdrop flowers. I enjoyed taking a bunch of pictures of very close up flowers with blurry in the background.  They were truly gorgeous, and there was a bush maze, and a few pools, and a scarecrow, and a tree that was being used as barbed wire. Very intriguing.  There was even a pink gazebo (although it might have been more akin to a vestibule.  I feel like it was a vestibule.).

We were then given tickets to get free tea and cakes, which was a beautiful addition to the day.  I have to say, tea time is an amazing invention.  We should have this in the US.  Just sitting down for an hour to have tea and Zucchini cake (with a delicious lemon frosting) is one of the few ultimate pleasures in life.  Especially if the room you're in is nice and toasty and the day you're having is cold and foggy.

Anyways, that was my day. Apart from the fact that I'm now more than halfway through Northern Lights (The Golden Compass).  Honestly, sometimes when I'm reading this book, I feel really in tune with my inner Daemon.  I know these books are very far from being comparable (really WOW they are very different), but I feel like what she was talking about in the more spiritual section of Eat, Pray, Love is very akin to what Pullman talks about with the Daemons.  Each of us has a voice inside of us that keeps us going and peps us up when we're down.  Maybe this voice doesn't take a visible form of an animal, but it's there in all of us.  Pushing us on and comforting us when we feeling depressed.  (I had a lot of alone time today to think about this on the bus.)

We then had a rest before going out again. It was fun, mostly because I was able to meet up with Jon again, who is becoming more and more interesting the more I talk with him.  Anyways, that was my day.  It was quite fabulous.  I miss and love you all more than seconds I spent on the bus today!

Sunshine, Daisies, and Buttermellow,


L Pro