Princess Di Memorial

The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which took an extraordinarily long amount of time to build, is located in Hyde Park. I was in London for 16 hours waiting for my connection flight... so... where would I go but here? This is actually on the very day of the second bombings in London. So you could only go as far as Knighsbridge on the Underground...
It is a very nice fountain, and when you see it you don't really care that it took so long to build. Even though it wasn't a particularly warm day, there were children playing around the fountain. It is a very peaceful place.

Hastings

To me this place just look unreal. The train on the right reminds me of the Hogwarts Express (Harry Potter)... It's a cute little town, wouldn't mind living there!

Town of Battle

My last photo from Battle. Tomorrow I will take you all to Hastings.
From this angle, the Abbey is directly behind me, as is a small restaurant called "Pilgrim's Rest". This is the rest of the town... not very big is it?

From another view....

This is from the tower outside the main abbey that the school has turned into an art studio. Nice place to draw! I liked the view from up here... so here it is! It's one of the only ways you can see nearly the entire building.

Imagine going to school here...

I don't know about you guys, but my school was definitely never this nice... Yes, at this point a part of Battle Abbey is under construction, but I don't think it takes too much away. Imagine learning to use 21st century technology in a building built 10 centuries earlier... Magic, isn't it?

Bloody Lake

Just past these hills there is a small lake (a pond really), the Bloody Lake. It is rumoured that the water turned red during the Battle of Hastings because of all the bodies that fell into it.
I was standing just outside of the Abbey as I took this picture. It is about an hour walk to reach the lake from this point.
The land you see in front of you is the very site of the Battle of Hastings. In fact, the reenactments that are held annually are held at this very spot.
In my personal opinion it is a site too beautiful to be used for such gruesome purposes... but then again so are many other sites that see the same fate.

Seen King Harold?

These are some of the ruins in the grounds of Battle Abbey. It is rumoured that the ghost of Harold II of England dwells in these ruins. Most of the students of Battle, particularly the older girls (the school was actually an all girls school until about 20 years ago) will tell you stories of sightings of a ghost when they walked through this particular ruin...
More to come...
PS. I'm sorry about the delay, we had a storm in Toronto last night that left us without Internet and television. It was a pretty boring night...

Battle Abbey

This is a picture of (a small part of) Battle Abbey. It is a classic, British style boarding school. The town of Battle is located in East Sussex, and it is the location of the the Battle of Hastings.
More pictures and information of this location tomorrow.

Note...

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that during the next week I am packing and moving to a new city. Exciting! I unfortunately will not have time to take picture...
HOWEVER, I will be bringing you some pictures from my last visit to England.
Hope you're all enjoying the weekend!

Red Brick

So there I was, just walking along the street... And then to my surprise, I see this building! I really liked the look of it. The red brick with the green window and door frames made the house look really different than most other houses you see around. Although the dome-type-thing at the top is most definitely the best feature (IMHO). Plus, as a spring bonus, the sky is perfectly blue!
Happy Friday everyone!

Masonic Temple #2

You’re going to have to enlarge the picture to see the “Masonic Temple” Sign on this one. I particularly like this location for two reasons:

1- The temple is now the MTV building. The North American (born in the USA) Music Channel that is often accused of “corrupting minds of children”.

2- It’s located on "Church Street". You can see the street sign on the right of the picture.

It’s all a little Ironic isn’t it?

By the way, even though it was supposed to rain in Toronto yesterday, it was a very beautiful sunny day! Lesson learned: never trust meteorologists.

Masonic Temple #1

Da Vinci Code anyone? Ever since I read that book I have bee noticing a lot of Masonic Temples everywhere... which is strange, as I had never seen any before. This particular one is located in Seattle. I know of one in Toronto as well, and since I am officially back, (if it's not raining tomorrow) I'll bring you a picture of another Masonic Temple tomorrow.
If anyone knows what Masonic Temples are really about please do let me know; the only information I have on them is courtesy of Dan Brown.

Colour n Glass

This is a glass sculpture in a mall in Bellevue, WA. There is a movie theatre in this mall that has leather seats... Yes, leather seats, you read correctly.
Things may make more sense if I tell you that Bill Gates, and many other people who make more money in a day than we make in our life-time, live in this rather picturesque part of the world. Bellevue mixes beautiful, quiet, green suburbs, with large and glamorous malls.
I admit it is a nice place to visit, but I could never live in a city were Jaguars, and Porches are the norm...

English Jr. Botanical Gardens

This is a picture of The Carl S. English Botanical Gardens in Seattle. This is a very small Garden located by the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks; however, whatever it lacks in size, it gains in beauty. Even though it is still not warm enough for all of the flowers to comes out yet, the small signs of Spring existed all around the Garden.
Hope you're all having a good, and sunny, weekend!

Free Library?

Can anyone tell me why some it says "Free Public Library"? I always thought all Public Libraries were free... Hence the word "public".

Spring in Seattle

Luckily, Spring comes much earlier in Seattle than it does in Toronto! Although it can still be a little cold when the wind comes, but the trees are blooming.

Troll from Scandanavia

This nice gentleman was standing at the door of a shop to greet everyone that walked in. I thought it was rather polite.

Spring yet?

Not yet time for flowers to bloom outside, but this lovely plant that I have on a windowsill seems to think it's spring! ...and who am I to disagree?

Gun Shop

As a Canadian, seeing things like this is very strange to me... This is a store in Seattle that I walk by every time I'm there as it's on the way to one of my favourite book shops, The Elliott Bay Book Company. I highly recommend it if you're ever in the city!

Beans?

I thought I would continue with this strange signs thing... I think this one speaks for itself. If you have any idea what "Mexican jumping beans" are, please do tell me, I'm rather curious...

Vintage Volvo

Never knew there were enough Vintage Volvos in a city to fund a specialized mechanic... But apparently I was wrong!

Seattle Library

This is a picture from Seattle's Rem Koolhaas Public Library. It is a modern art-type-building. It's actually really nice... This though, is one particular "art" that I didn't really understand. It's -I think- holograms of faces that are reciting -once again, I think- parts of novels. It's located beside one of the escalators. It scared me quite a bit... What do you guys think?

The Stone Face

So I found this statue near Bay and Bloor, and the face just really grabbed my attention. I highly recommend enlarging the top picture to see the details of the face in full.