Archive: September, 2010
An English Wedding 10: Eating, Drinking and Navigating
We prefer not to be dependent on restaurants. They serve too much, they cost too much, and they simply are not convenient. Sunday night we got to the Bee at Burnham about half past five. The kitchen was closed. Sundays and holidays do tend to be a problem; we nearly starved to death in Paris…
An English Wedding 9: A Parking Tale
Do you know what happens if you are a little late returning to the car you left in the car park just below Windsor Castle? The warden boots your car–locks on a wheel clamp–and charges you 120£ (125£ if you use a charge card instead of a debit card or cash) to remove it. The…
An English Wedding 8: The English Wedding
It was not that we didn’t have a plan. Rooms at Grovefield House Hotel were booked a year ago. Everyone was up on time, bathed coffeed and nourished. The cars were loaded with wedding attire and other necessities. Only one run back in to close windows was necessary. Directions to the hotel were in every…
An English Wedding 7: Homewood and Our History
An evening at Homewood is incontrovertible evidence that time has passed. Samantha was my classmate at Princess Helena College in Hertfordshire. The original Queen Anne building was enlarged by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) in 1908. In 1935 the house and estate of Temple Dinsley were taken over by the school when it moved…
An English Wedding 6: The Butler and I
It was in Bath that we changed Nüvi’s voice from Daniel to Serena. I had favored Daniel, English-accented and resonant; besides, I am sentimentally attached to the name. Serena, we had heard was the best voice, the most audible and the most authentically human. It’s true. Her voice is pleasant in pitch, cuts through noises…
An English Wedding 5: Yet More Postcards
It rained during the night. Boughs bow in the colorless light, the flagstones and rock walls are damp and the lawn glows that brilliant, peculiarly English, green. It is our last day at New Cottage and this is a lovely morning. There is, as usual, too much left in the refrigerator of some things and…
An English Wedding 4: Days of Wine and Romance
Nüvi: “In 0.6 miles turn right on road.” Nüvi: “In 1.3 miles turn left on road.” Left to our own devices, we would never have headed down an unnamed macadam track even if we thought that Kelmscott Manor was somewhere in that general direction. Left to a GPS device, we did not hesitate. And in…
An English Wedding 3: Attar of Roses
Blenheim Castle is a much slicker operation than the last time I was there, and much more costly. It would be. I haven’t been there since 1975. From New Cottage, Blenheim is a hop, skip and jump down Woodstock Road. My Dear One had never been; this was my third visit. Blenheim is, of course,…
An English Wedding 2: Settling In
It takes a day or two to settle in. Saturday afternoon, jet-lagged and disoriented, we set out in search of food. A map kindly provided by our host located essential resources in the area and Sainsbury’s seemed like the best choice for basic shopping. We fed the store’s coordinates into Nuvi, our GPS, and followed…
An English Wedding 1: Toast and Tea
Outside the little flagstoned-floor solarium in this thatched cottage, one of three surviving buildings of the catastrophic fire of 1793, the last of the freesias and dahlias and hollyhocks sway under soft clouds and glimpses of pale blue sky. It is quiet. I hear to occasional coo of a dove and the quiet gusts the…
