Holiday Memories 3

We knew we were close to Chicago when we noticed that the bridges were clearly marked with their clearance heights.

The architecture in the city was so varied.  These are just a few of the photographs I took and it seemed that the architects had managed to make each building look so different.

An interesting roofline on one of the older buildings spotted on our first drive through the city

View over Millenium Park from a staircase window in the

 Art Institute

A Street View

Buildings surrounding and reflected in 'The Bean'

We stayed with some of B's friends who made us very welcome into their home - thank you C and RA.  We travelled into town each morning on the Metra, taking about an hour for the journey from University Park into the centre of Chicago.  Double Decker seating was a new experience.

There is plenty of plant life and insect life in the centre of the city.  Islands of flowers, in the centre of roads, Millenium Park and Lurie Gardens - the local insects seem to thrive and B's shoulder was a good place to rest for this dragonfly.  He was not at all alarmed by the attention he was receiving from the photographer.

The Mighty Bean  - the area was crowded - we still managed to take pictures.

The photographer as well as the photographed!

This is one of the stained glass windows we saw when we visited the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, situated on the Navy Pier.  We had a meal at an Italian restaurant and before we left the pier we bought popcorn from the Garrett popcorn shop - the queue for popcorn was long, but it was well worth the wait.
We spent a whole day at the Art Institute of Chicago.  As we waited in the queue to get into the museum we enjoyed the music provided by these ladies who were collecting money for a children's charity.  they were talented players - I could imagine that they played professionally.

We stayed in the museum until it closed, and then spent time in the museum shop selecting souvenirs of the memorable day.  In the morning we spent time in the glass paperweights gallery and there were hundreds to look at, then took a general walk around the galleries.  We lunched in a gallery cafe (the food was excellent) and then spent the afternoon following the guide brochure for the twelve 'must see items' if you have only one hour .....  We found that it took far longer than one hour to get to the different parts of the gallery to see the specified items, but we managed all twelve items.
It is permitted to take photographs throughout the galleries as long as you do not use flash.  Here are just three items.

I would give this table lamp house room

One of the twelve 'must see' items - an African mask

Another of the twelve items - my first view of this picture in real life - from Picasso's blue period.

When time came to leave Chicago and head back to Ohio, B suggested we try a meal break in Toledo. Unfortunately for our meal plans, Toledo had had to shut down all its food outlets because of a problem with the town water supply.  We went to a supermarket and bought food so that we could picnic on the way back.  The supermarket limited bottled water to four cases per customer - we managed .

B and B at the checkout.

A couple of hours later, we were nearing home when we had to stop for this freight train to get over the crossing.  When it was well on the way, another freight train  came from the opposite direction.

I decided that I would take a video of the trains passing - after eight minutes my camera battery ran out of power - it seemed a good idea to video the event at the time but it is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

Holiday Memories 2

The journey to Oshkosh started early on Sunday morning and we spent most of the day travelling.  We knew we were heading in the right direction when we spotted this car and trailer in the fast lane.

After we had travelled about half the distance we arrived in Chicago where we got caught up in lots of traffic - I'm glad that B was doing the driving,

Further along on our journey we made a bathroom stop.  This creature went into one of the waste bins and found something to his taste - then he posed long enough on the lid for me to take this photo.
We arrived at Oshkosh in the early evening and G and F guided us onto the camp site so that we didn't need to wait in a long queue.  Over the next few days we were very busy taking part in some of the many activities at the airshow.  My shots of the aicraft were less than worth looking at so below are just a few of the things we did.

F and B were persuaded to pose for this.

International visitors were well looked after.
Mid week, there were three identical  celebration cakes and we ended up eating more than one slice.  On Friday evening they provided a very good buffet meal and drinks for international visitors.

B chose her next car

We visited the icecream kiosk more than once.  From this seat we had a good view of the afternooon airshows.

On Wednesday evening there was a late airshow.  I tried to take photos of the aircraft with their colourful lights and fireworks but my camera did not want to work, so I gave up and enjoyed the spectacle instead.  This was followed by a magnificent firework display that lasted for fiteen minutes.  As we were about to leave, it was announced that there would be a wall of fire to finish off the evening.  Even though we were quite a way from the front of the airstrip the heat suddenly arrived  and I was relieved not to be any closer to the front.

The next day the ladies in the party left the gentlemen to enjoy the rest of the week at Oshkosh while they travelled to Chicago to stay with some of B's friends and to enjoy some of the sites.

Holiday Memories 1

We’ve been back home from our long vacation  for more than a fortnight and I haven’t found time yet to sort through the 2500+ photos I took and share the ones that have the best memories.  If I still snapped my photos using film then I’m sure I wouldn’t have had so many to sort through.  The other members of the family took plenty of pictures as well.

We arrived in Ohio and spent time in Homerville before we travelled to Oshkosh in Wisconsin for the air show at the beginning of August.

The photos will say far more than words.

The grass was cut by the visitors - a chore that B would manage all by herself.

 

F’s new hat got mowed!

 

 

The ATV needed some attention – G has a great future with the AA should he ever be looking for work in the UK.

All that effort required a break 

 

On the 25th we remembered A with a photograph and a candle – 

                                        has it really been twelve months ago.

 

                    Before we went to Oshkosh we met up with S's Mum and Dad

  

On Saturday, F and G set off for Oshkosh to get things ready before the rest of the party arrived.

More than five hundred miles of journey on two wheels - OUCH! 

 

The rest of the party followed the next day travelling by car.

When a gardener takes a long holiday…

Recently having spent 23 days away from the UK and the few days before getting things ready, and after the holiday, putting things back in order  - well the garden, at the height of the growing season has been neglected.

When we arrived back home, the lawn was covered with windfall apples, many of them rotting. 

 

  

They had to be raked up and sorted.  I’ve started to freeze some of the Bramley cooking apples.

 

Between the fallen apples were lots of bright yellow flowers of the lawn weed variety – if you cut the grass regularly they do not show up – they had to be picked before they produced their seeds for next year’s display.

The early peas, which were starting to produce a crop before we went away, had produced their crop, ensuring next year’s plants and had died down.  The pods were almost completely dried out.  But an internet search gave the solution – pick the pods, let them dry out thoroughly, then shell, storing the dried peas to use in winter soups.

 

Some creature had decided it was fun to dig in the soil that was banked around the potatoes.  Soil was scattered over the slabs around that part of the veg patch and there looked to be too much for it to be a blackbird.  Perhaps we have hedgehogs returned, but they wouldn’t be attracted by potatoes, so there must have been something in the soil for them to eat.  The potato plants at the edge had died down so they needed digging up.  I have ended up with a bag of  three different varieties of potato from these plants – but this year I didn’t buy any seed potatoes, I used up the potatoes left over from last year’s crop and as they were quite small and had chitted they were ideal.  This mix of varieties has seemed to be happy to grow together – I’m hoping the rest of the crop will do as well. 

 

The tall peas had grown to a height of about five feet, last year they grew to about eight feet, but I was at home to water them.   Still - no shortage of pods looking as though they were full of very large peas.  B. picked them for me and we have been eating them.  In spite of their large size, they were very sweet and full of flavour.  Perhaps Magnum Bonum peas are meant to be left to grow fat.

The runner bean plants had set lots of beans, but they will need another few weeks before they reach the size they need to be for picking. Fingers crossed for lots of sunshine and showers.  My neighbour, who gave me the bean seeds earlier this year, presented me with some runner beans to keep us going until our own crop gets to edible size.  They have been eaten up already and they were delicious.

And finally, the courgettes – or rather courgette (note the ruler for scale).  The plant has produced one giant, and this has taken all the goodness away from any other courgettes that were competing for food.  It has been picked, cooked and eaten.  Treated like a marrow and stuffed with minced lamb/Quorn (for the vegetarian option) it has been the main part of dinner for two days.   I’m hoping to get some more courgettes on the plant so that we can try out B’s courgette muffin recipe. 

I listen to a gardening programme on the radio, and gardening guru Bob Flowerdew stated that UK gardeners should take their holidays in January.  Perhaps he was right.

A Memorable Visit

The Member of Parliament for Stafford, Mr Jeremy Lefroy, has been arranging visits to the Houses of Parliament for those of his constituents who would like to be shown around.   A coach was organised by his office staff so that the visit started and ended up in the middle of Stafford and we just needed to pay for our seats on the coach and be at the departure site in good time.

Last Friday was the hottest day of the year so far and the air conditioning on the coach gave a false impression of outside conditions.  We stepped out of the coach in London at a building called Portcullis House, situated on the other side of the road from the Palace of Westminster, and found that it was a very hot day - blue skies, brilliant sunshine and crowds of tourists.

Big Ben - now called the Elizabeth Tower - just visible over the top of Portcullis House

 As we had time to spare before we met up with our MP, we went to a café situated in the Palace of Westminster, next to Westminster Hall. 

The stained glass window, presented in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and situated in Westminster Hall.

In order to get into the building we had to go through ‘airport type security’, and then we were given day passes.  After we had lunched we needed to move from the Jubilee Café to another building, Portcullis House, where we would meet up with our MP.  The only way to get from one place to the other was to leave the grounds of the parliament building, and walk along the public roads.

So, when we arrived at Portcullis House we had to go through the security procedure again, and I now had two day passes.  We met with Jeremy in a meeting room and he gave a talk about the day to day procedures of Parliament, and then he invited questions.  I asked how he could persuade a standard rate tax payer to vote for politicians who gave a ten per cent tax cut to the top tax band and no reduction to the lower tax bands (austere times – we’re all in it together!!)  I got a politician’s answer so I am no wiser.

After the question and answer session it was time to tour the Palace of Westminster  which we reached by going through a tunnel which went under the road, linking Portcullis House to the main buildings – so we avoided another security check.

Our guide, gave an informative and entertaining talk as we moved from Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the building, through St Stephen’s Hall and the central lobby and then into the House of Common’s debating chamber.  We finished our tour by visiting the gift shop and then a refreshment break before we had to start on the journey back to Stafford.

There was so much to see and we could only scratch the surface, so we hope to visit again and perhaps the next time, see the debating chamber of the House of Lords, listen in on a debate, and perhaps go into the Elizabeth Tower (formerly Big Ben), and climb to the top.

A good time was had by all – thank you Jeremy Lefroy. 

Not a part of the visit, but we saw the London Eye from where the coach was parked - Happy Days