Brighton

I took a lovely day trip down to Brighton yesterday - it's only an hour from London by train and sit on the southern coast of England.  It became a big beach town when (then Prince Regent) King George IV built the Royal Pavilion and traveled down to 'take the waters' - because who doesn't know that drinking sea water cures all? ;-)

The day started off quite blustery and overcast, but some bits of sun came out over the afternoon and overall it was a great day.  Brighton is a really nice little city with plenty of cute little side streets for shopping, sitting in cafes and generally wandering.

GreenMan!

I stayed in lovely Wales last weekend for a classic British experience - the festival weekend.  It seems to be a big summer tradition here (seriously, everyone I talk to attends at least one!)  It's a weekend of camping (tent or camper vans are quite big here), music, food and general merriment.  We started out with quite a bit of rain (as you can see by the picture of my friends Helen and Dave below) but by Sunday the sun decided to pay us a visit.

My favorite parts of the weekend? 1. The Tea&Toast van - which literally just served a selection of hot teas 24x7 and toast with your choice of jam, butters, marmite, nutella, etc.  2. The drive back to Cardiff - I know that's a weird one, but the weather was gorgeous and views...just spectacular as I drove through Brecon National Park.

For my Mom...

Because the minute I saw this I thought of you laughing ;-)

Richmond Park

I took a lovely trip out to Richmond over the weekend - taking advantage of the intervals of sunlight.  Richmond Park (not surprisingly in Richmond, west side of London) is the largest royal park in London and is famous for wild deer (they belong to the Queen of course).  We were lucky enough for not just great weather - but saw quite a few wild deer roaming around!

Look at the deer!