England, Part 2

The morning after my arrival was gray and there was a ever so slight drizzle falling from the sky. Still, it might as well have been sunny to me. Surprising the weather did not effect me the way it does when it rains here in Italy. I did not find gray England dreary at all. Mornings were always slow for the family. Friday was the first day of "bank holiday" where all of the banks and post offices are closed for the Easter weekend. People did not start working until the following Tuesday. So, everyone woke up somewhere around eight or eight thirty. Lynne was always up before I was and the moment I walk into the kitchen, the first place I thought of every morning, she would make me a fresh cup of tea. In England people use electric tea kettles. I told her I was surprised to see such a think since we have always had a kettle that you place on the stove. She looked at me with a little shock, and told me that no one has used that kind of kettle for ages and that most all Englanders use an electric kettle now. When I came back from England I started researching electric tea kettles and found that the reason why most people use them is because they filter out excess lime (which is a big problem here in Italy) and they heat up faster as well as conserve more of your water. I am planning on going to look for one in Siena on Monday, I just hope they are not outrageously expensive.

Tea was always the first thing you made yourself in the morning. About an hour after you had two cups of tea, Lynne would come back into the kitchen and make breakfast for everyone. We had poached eggs that morning, and almost every morning there after. I would always ask for two poached eggs and three slices of toast. She opened this fabulous bottle of fig jam while I was there and one of my favorite breakfast things was a slice of toast covered in melted butter with the sweet fig jam on top. Of course we had some more tea or juice with our breakfast. Afterwards, we all changed clothes, cleaned up the kitchen and left for Newcastle-under-Lyme. The people of the area just call it Newcastle for short, but if you say "Newcastle" to someone from another area, they will think you mean the large city that is much further north.

In Newcastle Lynne bought a gift for her sister-in-law as it was her birthday the following day, and then we went to a local jewelery pawn shop where I exchanged 100 euros for pounds. We took a quick walk around the city, just window shopping mainly, and then decided to stop in a local tea shop for a rest and a bit of tea. I posted a picture of this tea in my last post.


I loved the name and look of this building.


A view of the tea room in Newcastle where I had my first English tea time.


The public garden in Newcastle.


A statue of the queen in the Newcastle gardens.


One of the main streets in Newcastle.


The "Womble In"


The "Golden Lion"


Another main street in Newcastle.


A tulip blooming at the first sign of spring


A final view of the Newcastle gardens.

It was not the prettiest of days, but I was so excited just to be in England that it didn't matter. After we exchanged my money, we headed off to the grocery store where we bought the essentials, including freshly baked Hot Cross Buns. They are a traditional Good friday treat, and so we bought enough for snack time as well as for the next morning for breakfast. I was in love with the grocery store. It was just like back home. You could get anything you might ever want, including pancake mix, and made up meals sold by the grocery. Lynne bought the things to make "bangers and mash" as well as some Cadburry Cream Egg Ice Cream.

By the time we got home we were hungry and decided to make some tea and toast the hot cross buns. Lynne toasted mine for me and then told me to just cut it in half. Now, if you have never seen a hot cross bun before, it is basically in the shape of a dinner roll and has to white perpendicular lines across it. I thought, when she told me to cut it in half, that she ment for me to cut the bun in half along the line. So, that's exactly what I did. Lynne turned around, she had gone back to the oven for the rest of the buns, and for the briefest of moments, had a look of terror in her eyes. "Oh, you cut it the wrong way" she told me. I was really confused at this point and said "How do you know which way you are suppose to cut it" I asked her, thinking she meant I was suppose to cut down the other line. Then I see her slice her own like a bagel, and I understand what she means. We all had a little laught and Lynne assured me that there was no wrong way to eat it, and that I could eat mine however I liked.

After our buns Lynne and I decided to take a walk. Since they live in the country, there are all these hidden walking trails that many people seem to use whenever it is not raining outside. Even if there is a threat of rain, people will still walk if they think they can get out and back in before the rains come. It was pretty muddy when Lynne and I first took off. We headed down a trail that was behind her house, out to the main road and then off behind an old farm that someone had converted into a large home. Unfortunately, it was a little more wet that we anticipated and my feet sunk in the mud at the end of the dell. The good part is that I only got a little of one shoe wet so, I was able to keep going. We walked for two hours that day. The country side can be vast, but they were not at all disconnect from the main cities. It was nice because they got the chance to walk everyday and still could work close by.

Photos of the Loggerheads Country Side:


A baby fern slowly opeing its leaves.


The old farm house I was talking about that was converted to a modern home.


Flowers in the dell.


That's Lynne just ahead of me.

















One thing that I was really struck by was the design of the homes. Lynne's home was built in the 80s and still it was a great design. All of the windows are deeply set into the walls. In the Living room there was a bay window with a little curtain that fitted directly over it. Then there was another curtain David and Lynne had hung which would cover the whole area of the bay window on nights when it was really cold. Of course there was no ventiallation system in the home because people do not have air conditioning. Lynne said they only turn the heat off from May to mid-September. Also, when Lynne had her kitchen redone, she installed heated tile flooring so that it was always pleasant on your feet in the morning. The ceilings were low, more characteristic of older homes, but still in a place that is so cold, you want your ceilings to be lower. Still, the house never felt or looked cramped. It was so comfortable that even though it got down to the 30s at night, I could still sit in the living room with wet hair and be perfectly comfortable. The one thing I thought odd was that no one had mail boxes. You have to go to a post box to mail your letters. Although everyone has a mail slot in their door so the mail does atlease come to you.

And finally, there was Sky TV. Oh bless you! I got to watch American Idol for the first time since I left the states, and it was wonderful. Sky TV is like a form of cable television where you get all sorts of channels in all sorts of languages. American Idol is so popular even in Britain, that the BBC airs each new episode every Thursday, and the results show on Fridays. That night we ate "bangers and mash", aka 'sausage and mashed potatoes' with brown sauce (like a vinegary ketchup) in front of the TV while watching American Idol. To finish it all off, we each had a bowl of Cadburry Cream Egg Ice Cream.

Now, some people might ask why I did not go to London. Well, the truth of the matter is, no one knew how expensive the tickets were going to be until we started looking it up. It was going to cost us almost 100 pounds for a roundtrip train ticket to London. We were all so astounded, and agreed that it would be something to do next time I came to visit them.

It was a wonderful day. Relaxing, pleasant, and I even got a little exercise in. I was so happy.