St. George's Day

For those of you who don't live in the UK, or any of the other countries that honour Saint George, April 23rd was St. George's Day in the UK. There's too much on the Wikipedia page about him and why they (we?) honour him, but have a read here if you so choose.

Basically this year they decided for the first time in a long time to parade a guy around London dressed as Saint George to celebrate him. People turned out covered in flags to shout and holler at him, and a good time was had by all.

I also got a lovely chance to snap some more reflection photos like the ones I did in Berlin. If you look carefully you can see me in the reflection!

Town of Berkhamstead & St. Peters Church

This is St. Peters Church in Berkhamstead. It was consecrated in 1222, although parts of the church are believed to be older than that.

The inside was very lovely - empty and warm. There were several brass etchings around the church, most dating from the 1300s and 1400s.

At the rear of the church lies this tomb of a man and a woman. It is thought to be Henry of Berkhamstead, who was one of the Black Prince's lieutenants in the battle of Crecy, which took place in 1346.

The rest of the city is lovely and quaint and every thing you would expect from a little English town.

Berkhamsted was the terminating point of the Norman invasion of 1066. Having defeated Harold II and the English at Hastings, William the Conqueror led the Norman invading army to circle London crossing the Thames at Wallingford making for Berkhamsted. Here he accepted the surrender of Edgar Aetheling (the English heir to the throne), the Archbishop Aldred, the Earl Edwin and the Earl Morcar. They swore loyalty to William and thus in Berkhamsted William of Normandy became William the Conqueror. However, he declined to accept the crown in Berkhamsted saying he would receive the keys to London in Berkhamsted and would have the crown in London. However, following the Norman Conquest Berkhamsted Castle became a favourite country retreat for the Norman and Plantagenet dynasties.

That was a mouthful.

There is an authentic Canadian totem pole there, but I am unsure why. I do remember reading about it somewhere, but cannot locate the information again. But yep, a little bit of Canada tucked right into the English countryside for you.

Berkhamstead Castle

Thought it was about time to post all the photos I took on my trip to Berkhamstead a couple weeks ago. I first noticed Berkhamstead as my friend Tissa and I were returning to London from Milton Keynes and I saw what I now know is Berkhamstead castle fly by the window. I decided to make note of the station and return one day. Little did I know the castle ruins are HUGE and the rest of the city houses some lovely other things. We'll start with the castle for now.

The original fort dates back to Saxon times, and the work on the Norman structure of the castle began in 1066 by William the Conqueror.

This lovely little house was built in the 18th Century, and is still lived in! What a view!

During the 12th Century the castle was home to Thomas Becket, Chancellor of England.

During the 14th Century the castle was home to Edward the Black Prince.

The castle is a standard Motte & Bailey castle. This is the mound on the right. You can read about Motte & Bailey type castles on Wikipedia here.

The mound offered a wonderful view of the grounds. There is a .pdf version of a map of the grounds here, if you want to see which part is which.

The castle is owned by English Heritage, and has its own website here. There is still a remarkable amount of ruins and stones left, as well as an extensive path around the grounds. Admission is free, which is always a bonus!

There was little information about which parts of the castle were build when and by whom, but these bricks appear to be Roman in nature, and most likely were part of a fireplace / oven.

One last panorama of the grounds from the inside. It's a lovely castle and well worth a visit.

Vintage Letters Part 2

Here's the second letter. Dated New Years Eve, 1942. Damn.

Yup. 1942. That is one old piece of paper you're looking at. And a little sad they weren't together for New Years.

Hogmany, or Hogmanay, is the Scottish word for the last day of the year, as told by Wikipedia.

I love all the little 'x's at the end. So very sweet.

And again, here's the whole letter, should you want a read:

Miss J. Duncan

6/0 10 Victoria Street

Carnoustie

Angus

Scotland

1015644 LAC Hunter
603 Squadron
R.A.F. M.E.F.
31.12.42

My Darling Jean,

Well darling here I am writing again, you see I just had to do this on Hogmanay. No doubt you will be making preparations for the New Year as I am writing this letter, I wish I was with you, for this night would have meant a lot for us. It would be great making out New Years resolutions together instead of many miles apart. Never mind, I have chosen a few good ones, but you will know about them soon.

I have been receiving your letters much better now darling and I must tell you I chase our postman something terrible to get your letter with the much familiar handwriting and I just have to look at the bottom of you air-graph for the words that say you still love me. Then I know there could be no luckier fellow in the world than me with a girl so lovely that she could never be a second to any other even when we look back at the old family album I will still tell you that.

I have written to Edie a few days ago as a matter of fact it was just a couple of hours after I received her air-graph you see we have been moving about a little that’s why it took so long she was getting on about the twins that she is till waiting for so I replied and told her that she had better bring in a lodger for Bill is no use. I was just wondering if someone will ever tell you that I recon darling that would be pretty drastic. Still it still remains to be seen.

Well dear I am going to town tonight with the boys to help them celebrate New Year coming in so I will better get cleaned up. But don’t worry there will be no dashing maidens as you put it as there is only one girl for me and I know I have the right one. But before I close I have to tell you there is a little present well on its way to you. It’s not what I would really have wished to send, as that will have to wait but I fancied you would like it.

I will close now give my love to all at home and that I wish as much as them that I could be home now. Cheerio my darling for the present.

All my love is yours,

Fred xxxxxx

It's an awfully romanticized time-period, though of course it wasn't that kind of reality I imagine. I hope he came home and they got together in the end. Who knows - they may still be together now? Hard to say.

Real pictures coming soon, I promise.

Vintage Letters Part 1

Hello again. While I'm currently being a slacker and sitting on all the photos I took in Berkhamstead, I thought it was about time I posted something else. A couple weeks ago I went with a friend to Newport Pagnell to get some paperwork processed and then to walk around. In doing so we stumbled across a lovely little shop that sold all sorts of antique and vintage paper things.

I stumbled across a set of letters written from an R.A.F. solider to his girlfriend during WW2. The letters are dated 1942 and 1943, respectively. I only purchased two, since they were pricey, although there was a whole stack of them. They are sweet and adorable and funny and everything you'd want in a letter from the 1940's.

Unfortunately I haven't yet been able to track down any information about this couple - because it would be lovely to know what happened to them - if he came home, if they got married, etc. I'm sure with some more careful digging I'll be able to find something out.

The letters contain a censor stamp, too, as obviously they were checked over for any sensitive information that couldn't be shared during the war.

Awww. How romantic.

Since it can be hard to read it in the images, here's the entire letter, should you be interested:

Miss J. Duncan

6/0 10 Victoria Street

Carnoustie

Angus

Scotland

1015644 LAC Hunter
603 Squadron
R.A.F. M.E.F.
29.7.43

My Dearest Jean,

Well darling the mail has been messed about again and therefore I haven’t had any news for about a week. We have just been threatening our ‘postie’ that is he doesn’t bring any tomorrow that we will be putting in an ‘incident’ for another corporal to take over as his days hence forth will be finished.

I don’t know quite how to make up this letter as I have been waiting eagerly to hear how you got on with your fortnights holiday and also how you behaved yourself. So until then I will have to try and make it up with pieces I may have missed in letters previous oh there is one questions I want to as you as I am inclined to be of the jealous type. You mentioned you may got to Glasgow for a few days. Well I don’t mind that but when you went a few years ago now I heard something about a sailor. Is an aunty you are seeing this time? Now don’t just jump off the handle and sit down to write a stiff letter, because of what I had been told at the time and I do know after knowing you all this time that my trust is with you implicitly. It was just how you wrote it, and being a kind of fed up out here I just wanted to know.

This is siesta hour again and although we are still having very hot weather a sand storm has been blowing very strong and it is quite a job to keep your stuff clear of sand. I have to keep blowing it off this letter, it all comes to try you.

I just wrote a letter to Edie as she has been due on for a long time. It was a green envelope I don’t suppose she will let you see it but you need not worry as I have to be giving her a teaming up about Bill being too slow. I do hope Edie has got over her loss as I think the best thing to go in these cases it to get away somewhere and try and forget.

Well at last I have come to the end of this letter. I hope something comes next day so I can really write you a letter and give my opinion of the home news also your latest adventures, but most of all that little piece at the end of the letter that gives me plenty of inspiration my love.

Here is my love and my heart, yours for ever,

xxxxx Fred

And that's that. I'll post the second letter now.

Berkhamstead

Just got home from a lovely day in Berkhamstead. Saw castle ruins, an old street, some Roman stuff, and a church. Am now having dinner and sorting through photos, so expect more later!

Stuffed Chicken for Dinner!

Last night I decided to be a bit adventurous and try stuffing a chicken breast! Having never done it before it was a bit of a 'wing-it' situation, but I'm pleased to say it worked remarkably well!

Here is the meal before-hand. I grilled the portobello mushrooms and bacon before stuffing the chicken with it to keep it crisp, then wrapped up the chicken in bacon to keep it all together, before tossing all that in a pan with baby potatos and left-over veggies.

One and a half hours of roasting and the meal was complete!

And I've got to say the stuffing worked really really well! The chicken was a tad overcooked, mainly because I had no idea how long it would take to cook it. Next time I'll know. But either way, I'm going to be trying to stuff chickens with a lot more things from now on!

Changing of the Guard and Camden Market

Last week Amanda, Tamryn and I took the trip into Central London to see something none of us had ever seen - the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

To be absolutely blunt, it's not exciting. At all. It's crowded and the actual Changing of the Guard 'performance' is short and, well, lame. I've seen many more exciting performances than this, I'm afraid. Though I'm glad I went - one more thing ticked off that list.

Here's Tamryn and Amanda waiting patiently for the 'show' to start. Look at all those people!

Afterwards we walked through the park, and saw this sneaky little squirrel enjoying a Pringle!

Some goofing around in the park began almost immediately...

Again, the flowers were beautiful.

After the park trip, we took a quick trip to Camden Market to walk along the canal.

And Amanda snapped this picture of me! We were lucky to have wonderful weather again for this trip, and hopefully this will hold true of the rest of the summer!