Packing it all in

Well, we pack on Monday (in 4 days), and this computer -- Frank -- will be sailing home on the slow boat. So, I need to hurry and unload all the photos I have been dumping on here. Also, since our days in England are now numbered (33), we've been trying to cram in as many sight-seeing adventures as possible. Ariel took a day off, and we put our National Trust membership to good use.
The Whipsnade Tree Cathedral sounded like it would be really cool -- a cathedral formed out of trees -- but it was fairly boring. The drive there was exciting though.
Next we went to Ashridge Estate. The giant manor house isn't open to the public, so we were only able to visit the hunting grounds across the way. It was lovely and the sun even came out. And they served lemon Fanta at the tea house. Yummy!
(Below and Opening Shot) Finally, we went to Ascott Manor. Last time Dana was here, she and I went to Waddesdon Manor -- a gorgeous chateau built by the de Rothschild family (very posh). As that house was built to impress, this house was to live in. In fact, the family still lives there. It was terribly mundane compared to Waddesdon.

The cool thing there at Ascott is the topiary sundial (shown below). The numbers are carved from boxwoods as is the quote written around the outer edge: "Light and shade by turn, but love always."


And the flowers there were smashing.