Kenilworth Castle I

First stop, Kenilworth Castle. Anna and Rob try to sneak in the back way. Kidding, kidding. [Shown is Lunn's Tower, part of the outer fortifications.] Kenilworth is one of the largest ruined castles in the UK, and was a royal castle for most of it's history. It's considered one of the great historical sites of the UK.



Another view of Lunn's Tower. Love the textures.



View of the ruins from the main entrance. The castle--actually composed of three buildings--sits atop a sandstone hill. This allowed King John in the 13th century to build a dam creating a great lake that became part of the castle's defenses [good enough to withstand a major seige in 1266]. The low lying area to the left was all once water. In the fore right is part of Mortimer's Tower, one of the gatehouses and part of the stone defenses of the castle. Orignally, it would have stood two stories tall.


A painting of the castle as it would have appeared in 1620 [from a copy of a 17th century painting.] Notice the large lake, which was called a mere.



The main approach to the castle across the dam. Which was widened in the 1500s some time to become a 'tiltyard' or where they would have held jousting tournaments.



Close up of Mortimer's Tower.


Anna and Rob ponder adding a new stone feature to their garden.



The main castle grounds. On the left is the first building--The Keep--built in the 1120s [although the hill had long been used as a fortified high ground] by Geoffrey de Clinton. In the center back is The Great Hall built around 1373 by John of Guant. On the right is the most recent structure Leicester's Building, biult in 1571 for Elizabeth I and her servants to use as accommodations on her visits.

Rob & Anna & Tamworth

In London primarily for the Online Bingo Summit [whoohoo!] I was invited by my lovely friends and crack exhibition stand designers and builders Anna and Rob Laight to visit them and tour the Midlands. We left London Wed eve. after the stand broke down. Tamworth is a little over 2 hours [barring traffic] from London.



The morning started with a delicious breakfast of porridge looking out at Anna and Rob's lovely and immaculate garden. [Anna and Rob pictured.] The weather was absolutely smashing. Periodically sunny, 68 or so, breezy.



More of the lovely garden....




They have a really charming summer house, which I failed to get a good picture of. You'll see in this picture and the next blurry spots. I dropped my lens on the ground and didn't realize it wasn't completely dry. I was also operating under some sleep deprivation, having stayed up talking to Anna until 2am, then up at 7am. Some photographer I am.

I had problems adjusting to the length of day in England. England is approximately the same latitude as northern Canada--approaching 20 hour long days in June. The first morning in London I thought, oh, I'll just leave the curtains open and get up with the sun. The sun rises. I get up. I shower. I feel like HELL. I look at the clock. It's bloody 4am. Aggghhh! And then in the evenings I'd be working or reading and look at the clock and it's freakin' 10pm and still light out and I've not had dinner and I'm nowhere near ready to sleep. So...not so much sleep this trip. But like I said earlier, weather: flat out gorgeous and such a relief after Florida's steamy summer.



Front of the house with two blurry people. Sigh.


First stop Kenilworth Castle approx 45 mins away.

Spawn of Sparky

I don't know if he's actually related to Sparky or not, of course. But I like the alliteration. [The cats bring in a lot of anoles and I'm always catching them and taking them back outside.]

View of a generous world

It's finally rained
the rich air vibrates with life
each breath tastes of green

Snuggly Cat Belly #2

A sweet puzzle, this--
skittish wild kitty sleeps with
such wild abandon

Yardlong Bean

A variety of Yardlong bean [3 feet plus, white bean? Can't remember]

Do they get to be a yard long? Pretty close. I often see them at 30 inches or so.
Love the Florida summer. Maybe 60 days to flowering? I started these in March.

Prolific as hell. Two plants, about one week.
That's a regular sized dinner plate, sports fans.

***
Yardlong beans for dinner
Yardlong beans for lunch
Covered in roast onion and tarragon pesto
I'll even have them for brunch

***
Yardlong beans on the grill
Yardlong beans with tofu
Yardlong beans in stir fry
A lot of yardlong beans to go thru

***

Florida. Summer.
Watching the yardlong beans grow
a sweet recompense

You can get seeds at Evergreen Seeds.
That's a lot of beans for $4.50 worth of seeds.

Spring Blanket

thickly-coated cat
any downwind petting mom
wears his shedded hair

Sons & Daughters

It's May and the blue jays
are learning to fly
still partly gray
awkward adolescent heads
they make flying leaps of
10 feet, then 15, then 30
hopping and cheeping around the yard
somebody's blue jay daughters
somebody's blue jay sons.

Photo courtesy of Ralph Deeds

Morning

faint light and birdsong

killer Haley finds fortress

behind my curved legs

Great Egret

So I'm taking a shovel back to the tool corral [where Stephen is supposed to keep his mes, um tools corraled] and I notice something new to the yard....


It's a great egret! It's big! It's after the fish in our fish pond! It does not want to go away! We finally had to build a mesh cage to put over the pond. It remains optimistic about its chances though. We see it all the time.



Awfully pretty though. And kind of wonderous to have in your yard in downtown Snorasota. Florida is amazingly fecund.

glowing in sunlight
thinly bound by gravity
hope stands on stilt legs

Common Yellowthroat Warbler

So I'm on my front porch reading and I hear this 'tchat.' [srsly, that's what they sound like, you can listen here. an added advantage is if you have cats, they'll run around like crazy looking for the bird. Haley was convinced it was inside the printer.] Tchat, tchat. I look around and see this teensy bird hopping from bush to tree, perching on the plant stakes, looking at the peppers and broccoli. Cute!



He flies over to the bird bath [which hardly anyone uses as a bath, it's mostly too deep but lots of them drink from it] and hops around on the edges. Hop, tchat, hop, tchat. It starts to jump inside the bath-whoa I think--it's actually going swimming? Jumps in, jumps out.

Jumps in, jumps out. Does not want to go swimming. That's when I realize the water is too low for it to reach, and it's thirsty! I fill it up of course, but fully expect that I've scared it off. But no! It only waits until I'm back on the porch and comes and drinks and drinks and drinks. Yeah teensy bird!


It hangs around and sings a bit. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. then leaves.


I love my front porch.I'm so happy, I sing too. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty. wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty, wich-i-ty.

I think I'll call him Sparky

The cats bring in lots of anoles [nope, the lizards you see for the most part in South Florida aren't geckos].

screen clinging lizard
is no match for my technique
of catch and release.