Taking a punt on Cambridge, England

Cambridge was a lovely tranquil place to be after the insanity of London. (Don't get me started! The airport. Ughh! I'm going everywhere by boat from now on. But luckily we were there before the riots.) What does the above photo remind you of? Well it reminds me of Harry Potter but I'm sure I've seen King's College, Cambridge many times in various tv shows over the years so that as you're walking past it you feel like you're dreaming. It's just another world. This kind of gothic architecture evokes for me the same kind of awe and wonder you get looking at stalagmites in caves. It's like it's not built by men but grew somehow. As an aside the large square of grass in front of it was used by Roger Waters from Pink Floyd as inspiration for their song 'Brain Damage'! Yes the same guy who created 'The Wall'. Didn't like school obviously.

Punting around the canals in Cambridge was popular in spite of the weather. Punts are flat bottomed boats with a square cut bow. They use them in smaller rivers or shallow water. This was a funny minor collision between a few punts no doubt from the umbrellas blocking the view. It was always cloudy in England when we were there. I don't know how they can stand it. And I suppose a lot can't stand it as plenty of people from the UK (around 20,000 each year) go to live in Australia.

Strolling along the Kings Parade, the main street where all the colleges of Cambridge University are. Sir Isaac Newton went to Trinity College and I was listening recently to an internet radio talk by British author Lucy Wyatt. She thinks Isaac Newton was an secret 'alchemist' who perhaps owed some of his discoveries to the 'ancients' secret knowledge of light and gravity. Interesting. Supposedly on his bookshelves when he died were many books on alchemy. Who knows?

The incredible Kings College Chapel. Started in 1446 by Henry VI and which took over a century to build. Cambridge is pretty old. Well not by Australian aboriginal standards but there were people settled around Cambridge since before the Roman Empire. The Romans developed it as a military outpost in about AD40.

Little old church cemetery. Sometimes as we were walking around the streets of Cambridge surrounded by piles of very old stone and bricks I had the occasional thought of feeling suffocated with it all. Would it be such a bad thing to knock some of it down?

A pair of stony-faced stone lions out the front of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Yes turning patchy grey can make you feel like that.

Virtual tour of Kings College Chapel 

Choir of King's College singing Handel's 'Hallelujah' on You Tube.
Visit Cambridge

Flowers for Friends

With all the horrors going on in the world today I thought something completely the opposite might be in order. Flowers. They make you feel that little bit better about the world. That little bit more emotionally balanced which is their true purpose.

Timeless beautiful (and sometimes strange) flowers that give so much and ask for so little. Just some water and fertilizer occasionally. Except if you live in a drought stricken country like Australia. Planting a rose garden is considered by some there to be almost a treasonable offence. I’d say almost no rose gardens are now created by anybody in Australia, except a few die-hards willing to put up with raised eyebrows. Quite a few beautiful old rose gardens have been dug out and planted with native plants (that use less water) supposedly because of the drought. But I think they’re just on a vendetta against beauty. Flagstaff Gardens in Melbourne, one of the oldest, is one that had the most romantic rose gardens and bower in spring. No more. Everybody needs romance. Even aussies.

Not so in Sweden. During summer here there is an outpouring of colour from all the flowers considered sacrilege in Australia. You’ve never seen such perfect daisies, daffodils, petunias, roses, tulips, pansies, geraniums and pelargoniums. And all the rest that I don’t know. Here’s just a few.

Nearly everyone has pots of flowers hanging outside their windows here in Sweden. It's a bit of a competition who's got the best display.

The lovely daisy. Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love was also known as the goddess of flowers. 

This is a local community garden. Inspiring. Of course for a lot of the year it's too cold and snowy for gardening but then spring comes and everyone gets into it.

Let yourself be saturated by the colour. It's deeply healing.

I went to a garden party.

According to Hiie this is phlox. Hadn't heard of it myself but a very pretty flower.

Every house has some daffodils in their spring garden. They're scattered around roadways and parks too. In no particular order. It looks like they've just grown there but people must've planted them. But you never see anyone planting anything. It's like the fairies have done it. 

Tiptoeing through the tulips. Remember Tiny Tim anyone?

Trumpets of colour. Petunias are one of my favourite flowers. What's yours?

Millesgården in bloom.