Norfolk & Cambridgeshire

The pictures from my first three days in England are all above. I'm using Marilyn's computer on which the cut and paste mechanism does not seem to work (at least as I know how to use it). Therefore, all the pictures are at the top of this post.

From top to bottom:

Ivan Purdy and me in his garden at Twin Mills (name of house), Cawston, Norfolk.

Ivan, Sally, and Victor Purdy with me at lunch at The Plough in Marsham.

Norman White and Heather Hart in their back garden.

Marilyn Boswell and Vic Owlett dwarfed by Ely Cathedral.

Marilyn and Vic closer up.

Backtracking a bit -- The plane from Reykjavik (can still spell it!) arrived on time at Heathrow. I took the tube from the airport to Liverpool Street Station and the train to Norwich where friend Norman White picked me up. I had forgotten how unfriendly English tube and railroads can be for the handicapped, elderly, or those hauling suitcases. It was an effort; several very nice people stopped to help me as I struggled up stairs. One of them, hefting my overpacked/heavy suitcase, looked at me and asked: "Are you emigrating?"

I had met Norman on my first Parish Holiday (I think it was 1994) as he was the coordinator and took me around to many of the sights in the area around Cawston, Norfolk. He and his partner Heather provided me with two lovely dinners and nights of lodgings as well as transportation first to Cawston and then to Ely.

In Cawston it was great to see Ivan Purdy. I had stayed with him and his wife May, who died several years ago, on that first Parish Holiday. Now almost 90 he lives alone, has a busy social life, does a lot of beautiful woodworking, and maintains the beautiful gardens begun by May. He, his son Victor, Victor's wife Sally, and I went out for a wonderful lunch at The Plough in Marsham (really sounds English, doesn't it?).

On Sunday Norman and Heather drove me to the Ely area to the home of my friend (met in the late '90s in Cumbria -- the Lake District) Marilyn Boswell where I met her fiance Vic for the first time. We went to an Evensong in Ely Cathedral which was beautiful and had a delicious dinner at their home in Witchford, an Ely "suburb." It's from there that I'm writing this, although struggling with a different computer.

Tomorrow I'll take the train to Long Eaton; nearby I get the canal boat to begin that part of my trip which will last 8 days. I have no idea whether I'll have any computer access during that period. So there may be nothing posted for a while. I hope that I'll again have some access when I reach my Parish Holiday location in Sherfield English, Hampshire, but we'll see.