Pictures from Thursday and Friday

It took so much time to load these pictures last night that I didn't have the energy to write about any of them.

The day was cold and rainy, and we waited ever so long for the buses to bring us back to our B&B (The Lawns). The bus dropped us in the center of Sandown, our town, and we went to the restaurant next to the one we went to the day before for dinner. Julia again had chicken korma (and I just better learn to make it) and I had a bowl of mussels -- have not had them like that in years -- of course, we live in the middle of a continent. I first had them on my wedding trip, in LeHavre, France. There it was a big glass bowl of mussels with the move delicious wine based liquid that those mussels were steamed in. Just the nostalgia alone added flavor to last night's feast.

Beer again last night and a good night's sleep. Finally, dreaming, nothing at all of consequence, accept for a short dream in which Julia and I were looking at an interesting apartment.

Julia sitting on a reproduction of a giant shell (of a nautilus, I think) which was found on the Isle. I was rather unimpressed with the dinosaur museum on the Isle generally, but it was very nice to see things that were found right here. We've seen a lot the last few years -- always searching for what is in a new place and also starting out in Indy where the kids museum has an incredible exhibit. Maybe my standards are too high. Julia had a good time although we had to leave the museum and find a drug store to buy ear plugs and then go back. The great think about this situation was that it provided an example of a challenge and a solution. Julia needs to learn that challenges are not unsolvable which is where she is most of the time. It took time and we had to ask for an exception at the museum to leave and return, but it was all possible.
Julia Dinosaur through the teeth of a carnivore.
Julia Dinosaur and a new friend. At the moment, as she watches me type she is not sure but thinks this is a Toodon that roars.
I have not at all written about the gardens in St Albans or on the Isle. I am always impressed by the ingunity of gardeners. Give a soil worker a few square feet -- and it can be just a precious few -- and a miracle appears. Lots of hydrangea on the Isle -- all colors, all leaf patterns. So much bigger than anything I usually see back home. I store them up inside my head to take out when winter comes.
Osborn House: Once built for and occupied by Victoria, Albert, and their gaggle of kids, now totally under the control of one Julia Dinosaur. The house was crowded -- tourist season and a wicked day outside -- and much of the house is closed off to tourists, but it was so interesting wandering the rooms. Most that we saw, were opulent and filled with paintings and sculpture, but also homey. We saw a little of downstairs where the servants worked -- it was amazing the difference a doorway makes. Obviously, equality was not on those servants' minds. There were place settings for 70-100 depending on the china pattern, not quite what we would regard as roughing it. The family was at Osborn House at least four times a year -- I am sure I have read this somewhere, but had no idea of what it meant. This was a place where they could be a family and where the queen and her consort could be alone and with each other. I saw a grand house, but it is nothing like a palace, and I could almost hear the echos of children running through long halls.

Albert died when Victoria was 44. Victoria's relationship to the house changed, but she still enjoyed spending time there. Small memorials to Albert and little bits of information were not lost on me.
This is part of the garden beds right outside the house. A formal backyard that could be seen from many bedroom windows.
We have no idea who this dog is, but there were a number of dog statues throughout the house and grounds. There is no picture taking inside the house and so no pictures. What follows is a few more shots of garden beds. I have more but I will refrain from posting them.


Back again, to finish writing on these photos. Did I say that we were not allowed to take photos inside the house? I suspected that the gift shop would be full of pictures and postcards, but there was nary a one -- apart from a few of Victoria. I would have liked a few pictures, especially of The Dunbar Room in the newer addition to the house. This is the only picture I can find quickly (http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/south+east/brighton+%2526+hove/art29098). Victoria's complicated relationship with India is very evident -- something i will have to read more about. Apparently, The Dunbar Room and other parts of the house can be rented to parties. What a venue that would make!
The walled garden, however, was available for many pictures. And I took them. Julia ran on the rolled stone pathways flanked on both sides with the most beautiful lavender plants in full bloom. It was a garden of the colors that I love the most -- purples, blues, light yellows, and a few pinks. I could not take in enough of it.Yes, it was raining when we were in the garden, but that only meant that we had the place to ourselves. It was more than lovely!
One of the walls with espalier fruit trees. Julia was very tickled to see apples, pears, peaches, and a few other fruits growing like that. She wanted to pick some.
Julia running to me.
On one wall of the square garden (1 acre is total) there are two long narrow green houses used to winter some plants, to prepare plants for the house, etc. I liked the doors upon doors. It has some meaning to me right now.
After the tours, we sat in a lovely tea room for lunch. Julia immediately got out her sketch book and started drawing -- hoop skirts on dinosaurs. I wonder how Victoria would feel about that?

And it was at Osborne House that Julia found the souvenir that she wanted to bring home. I have been trying to keep her from buying another dinosaur, like the many, many that she has, but I was resigned to letting her pick one out from a shop in Shanklin that we had found. However, in the gift shop there was a display of women's little boxes and wallets with an adaptation of the material used at the Osborne House in victoria's bedroom and apparently also somewhere in Buckingham Palace. One of the item was a pin cushion made in the shape of the feinting couch in Victoria's bedroom. Well, it was the perfect size for a dinosaur couch. And that is what Julia chose! The dinosaurs like it.