The Winter that Never Was

Last winter, Emily and I checked the weather for London once or twice a week to see what we would be getting ourselves into by moving here.  This winter, we checked it every day because you never quite know what the weather will be like here in London.  Some days have magical symbols that look like this.

If you can tell me what that means, more power to you.  I believe it means "Today it's going to rain, be sunny, be cloudy, and windy all in one (not at the same time, of course, but oddly, sometimes it is all at the same time)".  Needles to say, the weather here is predictably unpredictable.  That means two things...

1. You always don't know what the weather is going to be like because the forecasts are often wrong or change so often and quick that it doesn't even matter.

2. You can safely assume the weather is going to be mild (no hurricane, tornado, blizzard, etc.)

Since we have been having nice weather these past few days (Sunny for at least 4+ hours and above 55°F ) I decided to bring the camera on my walk to school today and take some pictures.  For those of you locked inside because it's frigidly cold outside, enjoy my little album I like to call "The Winter that Never Was."  It never snowed here (yet... last year they said it snowed on Easter, in April).  It never even got below freezing, it rained A LOT and now it is warm, which has caused the flowers to bloom early.  Enjoy.

"In a field of yellow flowers, underneath the sun..."

Waiter, There's a fly in my flower!

Deptford Town Hall, 

1. It stands outside the "city" limits of Deptford.

2. The Metropolitan Borough of Deptford no longer exists.

Because you made it to the end of the post, Thanks for reading and have a great rest of winter... Officially three more weeks

Our Canterbury Tale

The Stover Jr. family recently took a trip to Canterbury, UK over reading week (a week off from school, like spring break).  We spent 2 nights there and saw much of the city.  Canterbury is the setting of Chaucer's 14th Century collection of stories, The Canterbury Tales. This was one of the first books ever published in English.  It describes the pilgrimage many people made from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of a famous Archbishop, after he was murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral in the 1170.

So, of course, we had to visit the Canterbury Cathedral.  It is a beautiful Gothic cathedral, much like Westminster in London, and is a World Heritage Site.  It is also the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican church and home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the principal leader of the Church of England.  We even got to attend a short service of Evensong while there and it was a very lovely and powerful service.  Fun fact: Canterbury was where Christianity was first brought to England!

The Canterbury Cathedral

A selfie in front of the Cathedral

A street in downtown Canterbury, with the cathedral in the background

Since we considered this little trip our Valentine's Day gift to each other we decided to have a fancy dinner out while in Canterbury (this is a big deal for us, since we don't have a lot of money right now, and usually just purchase cheap food...) So we found this nice little restaurant on the river called 'The Old Weaver's House' and had a lovely dinner in a charming historic building.

The quaint restaurant where we had 'Valentine's Dinner'

Canterbury is a rather small town, with cute little boutique shops up and down the main streets.  It is easy to walk through the whole town in a matter of hours, perusing the little shops and historic buildings.  There are also a few museums to check out, such as the Canterbury Roman museum which gives you a look into what the city was like in the Roman period.  The Beany House of Art and Knowledge was another museum we visited, which houses random artifacts and collections from around the world.  Here you can see Emily playing with some dolls, really she just needed a break from walking around!

Emily playing with dolls

Then there are the historic gems that we found in the town - like the ruins of an old castle and the Westgate into the city, which is the largest surviving city gate in England, built around 1379.  While wandering through the streets we ran across this out-of-the-way path that lead to a pretty park. We also walked through an old hospital, but not in the sense that we use the word.  It was actually a place of hospitality for pilgrims to who were coming to Canterbury to visit the cathedral in the 12th Century.  We don't have any good pictures of that, but it was an interesting visit.

Ruins of the Canterbury Castle from 1066

The Westgate into the city

A river running through town

The 'out-of-the-way path' we stumbled upon

While we had a lovely time in Canterbury, it is a place you can see in only one or two days.  It is a quaint little town, that is easily walkable, with many historic buildings and stories.  A worthwhile weekend trip from London!

The Making of Harry Potter (and other things)

Yesterday, the Stovers made a trek out to to boonies of London...Watford Junction which is in zone 9.  London has 6 zones for the tube/overground/DLR trains.  In the far North West of London, they extend the zones to have a special zone 7, 8, & 9.  In other words, it's a long way away from central London.

Why were we out that far you may ask?  The answer to that comes in just two letters.  WB.  The Warner Brothers studio is located in North West London and they have an exhibition on "The Making of Harry Potter".  They had lots of sets from the movie, costumes, props, and videos explaining the making of the movie.  It was very much like the Dr. Who Experience we went to in October in Cardiff.  We walked through the great hall (without it's famous ceiling), walked down Diagon Alley, took a ride on the night bus through Privet Drive (which looks remarkably like the street we live on!), and drank some butterbeer.  This is only a quarter of the pictures we took that day, but take a look at some of the things we saw...

Welcome to the HP Studios!

Harry's cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley Home

The Great Hall

Dumbledore and Snape

Gryffindor costumes, including Daniel Radcliffe's first set of robes on the far left

The Gryffindor boys bedroom

Gryffindor common room

Dumbledore's office

The chamber of secrets door

Enjoying butterbeer in front of the Hogwarts bridge

Butterbeer and the Knight Bus

Diagon Alley

In front of the Hogwarts model

The Hogwarts model covered in snow

In other news, classes are moving right along (already on Week 4!).  We attended 'American Psycho' a brand new musical at the Almeida Theatre featuring Matt Smith (Yes, former Dr. Who Matt Smith). We waited afterwards for an autograph, but he didn't sign any that night as he was meeting a friend for a drink afterwards... oh well.  At least we picked up a prop business card from the show to keep as a souvenir (found it on the ground!).

American Psycho poster

Matt Smith in the musical (pic taken from the internet, as we were not allowed to take any during the performance)

The Stover Sr. family have come back from their trip to Key West and have booked their tickets to come to London so we are busily planning that trip. They will be coming in May.

In a few weeks we head to Canterbury, stay tuned for an update about our trip!