My English-Appalachian connection

aster, in England

post #44   

        England is one of the places besides Appalachia where I love to take photos.  It is where my step-mother lives, in the Cotswolds, near Stratford-on-Avon; she is English.  Various ones of our family try to get over there when possible, and I am going this week.  So I figure today I now have a great excuse to post some photos I have taken on earlier visits.  Next Sunday, or after I return home, I will hope to add some from this upcoming visit.  It all depends on the light, which is usually fantastic.  One bonus is that, of course, this time of year, daylight lasts longer there than it does here since all of England is way farther north than we are in Kentucky.

out the third floor bedroom window, VERY early in the morning

                       same view, more zoom in my lens, 1 or 2 hours later, different light.                               Note: very nice for photo taking to have NO wires or poles along the streets.  Bravo for town planning, 80 years ago.

            Though these photos were taken last September, there are plenty of flowers in every garden and everywhere else.

a gate between two sections of a garden!

in town, along the main street (High Street)

in the town, waiting, without "whining...."

not in town, but nearby, at Hidcote Gardens

While looking through the birches toward the kitchen window, I "saw" that there would be a much better photo with them at a different time of day.

I went back to the birches, early the next morning with its even light. This time my back was to the kitchen window.  I left for the airport soon after taking this photo. 

I thank all those English gardeners for their hard work and love of beauty! I try to remember this when the skies can be gray, day after day, and when English life seems eternally damp.  BUT what great weather for the plants.