tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18283526.post482153826480773939..comments2024-03-27T14:03:14.775+00:00Comments on Captain JP's log: Growltiger’s Last StandJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09475536270807856327noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18283526.post-17591601158937457322009-06-15T09:02:24.440+00:002009-06-15T09:02:24.440+00:00Yes, back when I was there, visitors could walk am...Yes, back when I was there, visitors could walk among the stones. It was awesome, especially on that very rainy day when only a very few people chose to get out of their cars and motor coaches.<br /><br />I suppose Stonehenge is one of those places that is being loved to death -- the sheer numbers of visitors mean that people have to be fenced out, and therefore nobody can get the full experience anymore.<br /><br />Yes, the boyfriend's Mum was a heavy-duty member and supporter of the National Trust. One thing I admire about the British is the value placed on preserving the past; whether it's a 10-year-old car, or a 100-year-old railroad locomotive, or a 400-year-old castle, if it's still got life in it, it should not be thrown out. Americans don't seem to have that sort of thrift, except for a very few people who tend to be regarded as eccentrics.Carol Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18283526.post-50379088007368633782009-06-14T20:10:58.659+00:002009-06-14T20:10:58.659+00:00Cool, a year in merry old England :)
Lots of love...Cool, a year in merry old England :)<br /><br />Lots of lovely posh National Trust like houses up the Thames valley<br /><br />I love Stonehenge and remember a long time ago how you could walk around the stones.<br /><br />Now adays tourists are kept well away, though there are plans to improve the site my moving one of the roads.<br /><br />http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/8047968.stmJPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10749223049615363296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18283526.post-53225815093033261102009-06-14T05:49:09.878+00:002009-06-14T05:49:09.878+00:00T.S. Eliot is probably my favorite poet. I once wr...T.S. Eliot is probably my favorite poet. I once wrote a term paper analising "Rhapsody on a Windy Night", which Andrew Lloyd Weber adapted very well into the song "Memory".<br /><br />I found all of the place names in "Growltiger's Last Stand" fun, because the year I lived in England, I was in Didcot and went to school in Wallingford (on the Thames), and the school always had a crew in the Henley regatta, and my dad's boss (whose name was, appropriately, Rowe) had, in his spare time, invented a new-and-improved way of rigging oars on racing sculls, and on weekends and holidays, my boyfriend and I would go on drives all over that part of the country seeing things. He had just gotten his driving licence, and he liked having an excuse to go places -- must show the American all of the sights!<br /><br />I remember being caught in a downpour in Fairford and being unable to decipher the accent of an old farmer who took shelter in the same doorway we did; seeing lots of extremely grand old houses (sometimes we were with his parents, and his Mum was especially fond of extremely grand old houses); lunch at a pub in Greenwich where the venison sausages were especially great; Stonehenge, three times (the best of which was a chilly, rainy day when the tourists mostly remained huddled in their motor-coaches); and probably my favorite, although I can't figure out why, Winchester Cathedral. Maybe the Magna Carta was putting out vibes.<br /><br />I wonder, if the barge races come back, will they have Rowe rigging? Or will the class rules forbid anything invented after the 18th century?Carol Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07201269435839112134noreply@blogger.com