Well I jinxed the weather after our gorgeous Cambridge day. Today the heavens opened. Cambridge in particular is severelyurl=http://http//www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/houses-evacuated-as-cambridgeshire-norfolk-and-lincolnshire-hit-by-flooding-9658595.html flooded with homes evacuated. Fortunately we left Cambridge early after farewelling Raphael, and spent most of the day driving to the Lakes District. En route we stopped at Studley Park Royal, in Yorkshire, a world heritage site of magnificent proportions. Danny was cowered by the rain and stayed in the cafe but I wasn't going to miss out so wrapped up and ventured across the park. I'm so glad I did! The main feature is a stunning 800-year old Cistercian monastery, the most intact in England. Nestled in the lush green, it reminded me of the toy castle in the dragon set Raphael had when he was little. When Henry VIII d... read more

Our morning and afternoon activities were a sharp contrast in style, values and historical period. This morning we strolled around the gorgeous 18th Century Stowe gardens with its artificial lakes, temples and follies. The landscaping is gloriously extravagant including a Temple of British worthies, a Chinese house and a Gothic castle. We also toured Stowe House, now part of Stowe Grammar, which includes a vast elliptical hall and a magnificent library. This afternoon we visited Bletchley Park Museum, where British code breakers cracked the Nazi enigma code in WWII. It's a monument to ingenuity and also to the power of the outsider - three quarters of the BP code breakers were women and many others - including the brilliant Alan Turing (tragically persecuted for being homosexual) were outsiders whose value to the society was never appreciated. ... read more

Today can be summarised with a list of words and phrases familiar from nursery rhymes and novels: hedgerows, meadows, stiles, thatched cottages, bridle ways, rambling, cobblestones, churchyards, village green, hollyhocks, cowslips, old mill, old schoolhouse, Bakewell tart, light ale, Eton mess. We hired a car in Oxford and spent the day driving and walking among the evocatively-named pretty villages of Chipping Norten, Stow-on-the-Wold, Bourton-on-the-water and the Slaughters (Upper and Lower). Highlights were the gorgeous cottages decorated with overflowing hanging baskets,the extraordinary ornate Bliss Mill from the industrial revolution, the ramble from Bourton to the Slaughters across a field of black-faced sheep and along Wardens Way and eating our picnic lunch overlooking the little river next to the Old Mill in Lower Slaughter watching local riders take their horses swimming. W... read more

Raphael joined us from Israel last night and of course it is wonderful to be with him. He is obviously thriving. Today we met up with some friends of his from northern hemisphere Shnat. Helen joined us on a literary walking tour of London including places occupied by Virginia Wolf, T.S Eliot and Charles Dickens. We saw the building on which Orwell based the Ministry of Truth in 1984 and had lunch in Russell Square just opposite the Russell Hotel referenced in Cats. An added literary pleasure is the series of benches currently featured around London including a Shakespeare bench and , today's find, The Importance of Being Earnest. After lunch we were joined by Fran and Simon at the British Museum where Danny and I enjoyed the delightful netsuke, popularised in The Hare with Amber ... read more