England! Part 1

Yes, in the Finally Department!  A few pix:

We made Mum get in a wheel chair so we could have preferential treatment. 

You prolly can't read this, but this guy is waiting for Willy Wonka.

 We landed in London, rented a car and Brother Atlasta drove us to Nottingham:

FOG in England?!  Get. Out.

 We got a v. nice European diesel Volvo, very sporty. Atlasta kept saying, "No speed limits!" before passing another car. I thought we were going to die.

 I'm going to apologize because I left my fancy-pants-big-girl-camera at home. I know, right? So I just had the li'l point 'n' shoot. Which did OK.

Except when it didn't. We saw a lot of sheep. And fields. Very green. 

"Give Way" is British for "Yield."

I just took pix of things that you wouldn't see in the U.S.  Like this:

And I had a gazillion pix of this because my camera was POSSESSED & would automatically take photos:

Hehhhhhh . . . . 

 This was a sign in a bathroom:

KILL IT!

 This was a sign on the door of a bathroom stall:

Took these pix for chiro-sis:

Cool, mid-century modern building:

Starting to be autumn.

This leaf stands out. 

I saw a Rowan tree, so I had to get a photo!

Brother Atlasta with the Rowan tree.

Rowan berries.

Heart shape!

This was a revelation:

I had hot mushy peas (not spicy), without the mint sauce at every opportunity! They're kind of like split peas, only whole, larger peas. 

In the pub, holding a copy of the Nottingham Drinker magazine.

 And then I saw another Rowan tree!

The one Ruth planted in honour of Rowan is a TWIG compared to these!

Outside of pub where I had mushy peas. Is  this too much like a boring slide show from the 60's?

Old churches everywhere.

Ruddington was outside Bradmore, where Mum grew up. 

At this point, perhaps you're feeling like you've been on the trip with me.

Into Bradmore. 

I finally got OUT of the car to take a photo:

I won't show pix of my cousin's daughter's wedding, but here's their rescue dog, Oscar:

Former street dog. He's actually gained weight since they got him.

 This is just not something you'd see in America:

Written October 25, 1898.

The local pub. A bit of a low ceiling.

 Walking back to our cottage:

See the hedge on the right? The Brits are mad about their hedges!

We passed a sign on the road that said "historic Petersborough." Atlasta said, "Isn't every town pretty much 'historic'?" We don't have the same sense of history in America. There are so many buildings in the U.K. that are centuries old. We don't have anything that compares. 

I have so many photos that I'm going to do a few different posts. More to come!