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| The Old, Winchester Cathedral |
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| The New, Hummingbird Nest |
She said:
Pre-Blast-Off:
Worth mentioning - a hummingbird couple has built their half-dollar sized nest in a low hanging branch in the tree right outside our kitchen window. We watched them working at it last week, and this week they take turns sitting on one teeny, tiny egg (the size of a very small jelly bean.)
They are not bothered one bit by us walking by. Hope all is well while we are gone and they successfully hatch a bouncing baby hummingbird.
Winchester, UK
First day of travel is often a doozy:
Rough start in Palo Alto - smacked my (normally very hard) head on the bedroom doorknob (my pants were stuck to my compression socks and I was trying to unstick them) and have been a bit addled ever since.
Ate everything in sight on the plane and slept pretty well.
Note: no Chardonnay on the plane, only crappy Sauvignon Blanc - so it begins.
A new experience getting to Winchester. Normally, we Heathrow Express it into London and make our train connections there. This year, we took a bus right from the airport terminal to Winchester and walked the 4 blocks to our excellent inn, The Old Vine. Rain on and off. Bus ride easy and relaxing (except for the stupid gum that was stuck to my armrest and then got stuck to my arm - spent half an hour on arrival at The Old Vine freezing it with ice cubes and coaxing it clean. Sigh.)
No matter - the rain stopped and we walked happily to our inn.
As many of you know, we live in a mid-century modern Eichler, so The Old Vine is a bit of a departure - antiques galore and uneven floors and winding staircases. Good, Olde England-y atmosphere.
Leveled out and headed out to Sainsbury's (like Safeway) for dinner supplies. Delicious, fresh salads, Cadbury pudding(!), decent Chardonnay (anyone ever hear of Gray Fox Vineyards? It's supposed to be from CA.), then a walk past Winchester Cathedral on our way back to the inn and a great meal in.
The Old Vine is also a local pub and restaurant and the barroom looks like every pub room you have ever seen on KQED British TV imports, which is to say, fabulous. I'm sure that at some point tomorrow we will be sitting at the bar with local pints amazed at our good fortune.
Touring Winchester planned for Sunday and Monday - looking forward to history, clotted cream, quaint as hell alleys and some lousy food -
ah...England!
He said:
She said it all.
We just arrived here in Winchester safe and sound after the long flight and a multi-stop bus ride. We are staying at an old Inn about 250 yards from the famous Winchester Cathedral located in the small, old part of town. We went out and found a grocery store before it closed and on the way dodged an energetic downpour that no other people seemed to notice. We grabbed the makings of a salad, and then we strolled around the cathedral before heading back to our room. When I say salad, I mean lettuce, tomato, carrots, cucumber, etc… whereas in England, salad generally just means lettuce.
I'm surprised that Winchester is such a small town, at least at its center. Part of that impression could be the fact that we are on foot, I'm sure the town is surrounded by newer houses, flats, and allocations. Winchester sits in a river valley, and is outlined by gentle slopes which used to be planted with crops centuries ago. The river Itchen is at the center of Winchester life, or at least used to be; providing irrigation, power for the mills, and clean water coming down from chalk slopes.
The weather forecast is for 6 consecutive days of rain... no sign of a drought here.
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