31 October 2014 ~ Hobgloblin

Listening to: Ray Charles & Norah Jones ~ Here We Go Again


In honor of Halloween, here is a photo I took one night in London near St. Pancreas train station.

And one of the beers I tried, Hobglobin.

30 October 2014 ~ Hampton Court Tennis

Listening to: Wilco ~ What Light


The first tennis court was built at Hampton Court between 1526 and 1529.

As a young man, Henry VIII was a keen and talented tennis player, spending hours on court. My friend Robert really wants to play!

This is an indoor game. three of these walls are 17th-century.

One of the first English guides to tennis claimed in 1153 that this game has been created for a good purpose, namely, to keep our bodies health, to make our young men stronger and more robust, chasing idleness, virtue's mortal enemy.

25 October 2015 ~ Marty Stuart

Listening to: Sara Rachele ~ Don't Give Me Hell

Although Marty Stuart may not be my preferred genre of music, I did find his show entertaining. And I actually recognized two of his songs (one was a Johnny Cash song and one was a Merle Haggard song).

These were taken with my cell phone, so the quality is bad due the lighting, but you get the idea.


The rhinestone pants and shirts of his band the Fabulous Superlatives were quite flashy.

And to prove I was actually there.

Classic country...that's about all I can say.

23 October 2014 ~ Happy Birthday Skye!

Listening to: Marty Stuart ~ I Run To You

Off to see Marty Stuart at the Freight & Salvage.

21 October 2014 ~ Henry VIII's Kitchens

Listening to: Ben Howard ~ In Dreams

These kitchens are the largest surviving Renaissance kitchens in Europe; a vast food factory that once served the Tudor court with 1200 meals a day!

The Fish Court was a central set of store rooms in the middle of the complex allowing for the storage of raw ingredients. The space is narrow, running north to south, so the sun does not shine here but open to the air so that the stones stay nice and cool.

They even provided "fish aroma" to make the scene more realistic. Yuck!

A range of charcoal stoves was used as well for boiling and poaching mostly. A bread oven is in the corner but cut off from view.

Here is a Tudor roasting fire in full swing. Most of the heat goes up the chimney and the man responsible for turning the spit had to be paid.

A sample serving. At the end of the kitchen are hatches through which the finished dishes passed. Another army of servants carried the food to the Great Hall and other chambers. Clerks from the nearby office kept a close eye on the proceedings, counting the dishes that passed out, and ensuring that the valuable pewter serving dishes, cups and bowls all came back again.

And finally, the wine cellar. Six hundred meals twice a day is a lot of thirsty people! To keep the court in beer, wine and ale (water, although safe to drink, was not very popular) barrels of drink would be delivered to the palace and rolled into the cellars.

From here it was poured into jugs to be served at table.

14 October 2014 ~ The Wives of Henry VIII and the Courtyard

Listening to: Leftover Salmon ~ Lonesome Road

Hampton Court entrance includes a brief history, including Tudor and Baroque Palace style construction. King Henry VIII had six wives. There is a rhyme to remember their fate: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. This is represented on the lower-right placard.

Wife number one, Katherine of Aragon, was Henry's consort for over two decades, but she could not give him the son and dynastic security he craved and was discarded.

Wife number two was Anne Boleyn, but was executed on charges of adultery and providing a daughter.

Jane Seymour took her place and left a son but died soon after childbirth.

Anne of Cleves become wife number four. She was followed by the teenage Catherine Howard, but also arrested for adultery and taken away for execution.

Finally, Kateryn Parr became King Henry's final wife and outlived her husband.

Passing over the moat bridge, his "king's beasts" keep watch (below).

Then one arrives at the Great Gate House.

The wine fountain is a recreation of the one built for Henry in 1520.

The clock incorporate a great bell inherited from the late-medieval manor house that once stood on the site. The stationary outer ring shows the hours of the day. The outer dial rotates annually. It shows the days of the year, the position of the sun in the zodiac, and the date. The middle solar dial and pointer rotate daily, telling the time. The inner lunar dial rotates monthly, indicating the phase and visible portion of the moon.

8 October 2014 ~ Turk Launches

Listening to: Burning Spear ~ People Get Ready (Burlington, VT, 10-23-1986)


Last week Saturday after brunch of eggs benedict (served the English way on white bread toast and ham) and Bloody Mary's (which I'm not sure even included vodka) I took the Turk Launch boat to Hampton Court.

The pier is directly across the river from my lodgings.

The ride was 35 minutes and quite relaxing.

This classic car was spotted parked along the river bank. Also interesting was that tents were put up and people were apparently just camping willy-nilly. I guess because it's truly "public" land.

 

 First glimpses the court, although this is not the main castle which was the destination.

Here is the classic façade of Hampton Court, where you get two palaces for the price of one. The rose red brick Tudor palace is indelibly associated with Henry VIII (king of England starting in April 1509). The baroque palace, first occupied in 1700, has some great gardens around it.

I had just watched a PBS special on Hampton Court about 2 months ago, and could not pass up this opportunity since it was in the neighborhood.

More to come on Hampton Court and King Henry VIII.

7 October 2014 ~ The Swan

Listening to:  Doug Seegers ~ Going Down to the River

Yesterday morning on the way to work crossing the bridge over the River Thames,  a swan was in the road surrounded by traffic. One man got out of his car to shoo the swan to the side. One lady was trying to usher the swan to safety when I came along.

The swan kept looking through the bridge side at the water; so close yet so far away. So as the lady warned the dog walkers to keep their dogs close by, I started to guide the swan towards the end of the bridge.

The swan did not want to go, as we had to go past the view of the water. The hardest part was keeping the swan from running into the traffic.

Finally, we go to the end of the bridge in a grassy area and we jogged together towards the water. It was quite humorous and the lady and I kept talking to the swan like it would understand us. "The waters just ahead, you will see it soon." "No this way, just a bit further."

It was worth being a few minutes late to work to know we helped the swan reach the river.

Swans are often a symbol of love or fidelity because of their long-lasting, monogamous relationships.

This picture are swan photos from the Wikipedia site.

5 October 2014 ~ Old London Road

Listening to:  Leon Russell ~ Back to the Island


Old London Road is located near the Kingston Train and Bus Stations and has quaint and eclectic shops.

One of the more unusual sights in Kingston is several disused red telephone boxes that have been tipped up to lean against one another in an arrangement resembling dominoes. The sculpture by David Mach was commissioned in 1988 and is called Out of Order, and was described by the author as "anti-minimalist".

Last Saturday was a boat race in Richmond, and this boat happened to wonder down to Kingston.

Quite ornate decorations.

And the boat master was fiddling with his camera, but did wave tot he crowd every so often.