Monday, August 13, 2012

Monday, August 13, 2012

Tonight's picture features Mattie doing one of his favorite things. He loved toys in which an object was buried in a block of clay or hard packed sand, and then he had to use tools to excavate it out. As you can see, all his chipping away revealed a green colored dinosaur. We then had a book that would help Mattie classify what type of dinosaur he dug up. He loved the whole process!


Fact about Southampton: Southampton has a range of cultures and ethnic groups, which make up the estimated 228,600 people living within the city boundary. There is a large Polish population in the city, with estimates as high as 20,000, or 1 in every 11 of the total population. Southampton also has large Asian and Irish communities.

NOTE: I am having a great deal of difficulty connecting with the internet to post this blog. Therefore, tonight I have been unable to upload any pictures of our day. I am hoping tomorrow will be different. I realize that it will be hard to read this blog without having the companion pictures.

This morning we took a short walk around Southampton before boarding the Caribbean Princess cruise ship. Along our journey, we snapped some lovely pictures and reminders of our time here. I am so happy I had the opportunity to visit this port town, and to learn firsthand how the lives of the people living here were impacted by the Titanic and continue to be influenced by the sea.


Each day in our hotel, I was treated to the wonderful fragrance of lilies, which were arranged simply yet elegantly on a lovely round table in the middle of the lobby. Before departing this morning, I took a picture of this wonderful arrangement and had wanted to share it with you.

We saw some wonderful things along our short walk. The first was a fascinating crow. One like I have never seen before because it looked just like an “Oreo” in the shape of a crow!

I am a zinnia fan, and when we passed a small park, I peeked into it to check on the flowers. I was NOT disappointed. The English have a magnificent way with flowers and gardens. In fact, we concluded that one doesn’t need a large space to have an amazing garden. It is how you creativity utilize the space that matters. 

On one of the cobble stone streets, I was captured by what to me looked like a sewer cover. However, as I approached the cover, it seemed to have elf feet, with a saying upon it. I love the clever sign embedded into the pavement which encourages visitors to walk the paths of the Southampton Walls.

Peter, my mom, and I climbed one of the walls this morning. The City is no longer surrounded by the impressive medieval limestone walls. Nonetheless, many of the walls remain intact and serve to tell a story about a time gone by, a time in which Southampton needed to protect itself from France.

When we think of bars in America, not the best vision comes to mind. In England it is quite different. Here pubs have a great deal of charm, a charm that captures your eyes first and foremost. I spotted the Duke of Wellington pub from blocks away because of the colorful flowers and the wonderful composition it made against the white walls and wooden beams. The flowers drew me in and it was wonderful to see the pub’s owner outside and tending to this garden herself.

Today was a cool and rainy day in Southampton. The Caribbean Princess has set sail for Guernsey, England at 5pm (this is London Time, which is five hours ahead of the East Coast of the US) today. The Ship’s Captain gave us quite a greeting. He is preparing us for bad weather, low visibility, and basically said if any of his passengers are “inclined” to get motion sick, now would be a good time to put on wrist bands and “pop pills.” This is a FIRST for me, I never had a captain provide us with such a disclaimer before the ship even began to sail. So I can only imagine what is in store for us as we cross the English Channel, and then eventually continue on with our journey. Our Captain is from England, and I must admit that despite us both speaking English, I missed about 25% of the content he was delivering. That is because he shared several English expressions with us to help describe the weather and conditions we would be encountering. Expressions in which Peter and I had no understanding, but we had a jolly old time laughing about such words as “hither and thither,” and not to mention that we are going to make a fast run with “full clappers." God only knows what that means!

As we were sailing away, we snapped several pictures of what we were seeing. I wanted to share five of these pictures with you, but unfortunately an unable to at the moment (they were pictures of leaving Southampton, the oil refinery, a magnificent castle by the water, and a church over looking the harbor). I look forward to seeing Guernsey tomorrow, especially after reading the book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I have an image in my head of Guernsey from the book and will see how it compares with what I actually see.