(taking a break from montauk stories for an overseas story) at san's

chanda took many pictures with my cell phone while she was traveling. unfortunately, she didn't take one picture of san's house, or of san and her family!

!!!

after my disappointment had dissipated (it took a few days), i finally managed to peruse what she had taken. 

this pic, and the one above, are taken on her way north up to lancashire country. she said it was very beautiful, sprinkled with farmland and houses, and some industry too.

she also says she kept shooting with the cell phone camera at horses, but by the time the camera snapped, the horses had slipped past (she says they are hiding behind the bushes in the right side of the picture).

these pictures are just as i imagined the english countryside would look.

the maritime museum was the subject of choice. here is pip dressed up as a sailor. when i first saw the pic, i thought she was a pirate and the striped shirt was a costume from the museum. however, pip is wearing her striped raincoat as it had started raining during breakfast and didn't let up until the afternoon.

pip is putting together a boat on a magnet board.

lancaster was a wealthy shipping town in the 1700's. the merchants liked owning their own ships as they could set their own agenda. however, they had to protect themselves from pirates. if they weren't armed and prepared to fight on their own, they then had to sail in convoys with warships, which put the goods at a lower price when landing at port.

lancaster is situated on the river lune, on morecambe bay, which is off the irish sea. it's one of the most important estuaries for several species of birds in the british isles. it can support such a large population because the sand silt flats are rich in food. the oyster catcher eats mussels and cockles, and the ternsturn enjoys morsels of shrimps by turning over stones, and the eurasian wigeon (anas penelope - seen above) grazes on plant material and nests on the ground (migrating to southern africa and asia in the winter).

here's a diagram measuring the lengths of beaks for the different species of birds.

many types of invertebrate fauna are living in the sands and silts of the bay where they are food for the waders and flat fish throughout the year. the birds poke down into the sands, turn over stones and scoop the water for morsels to eat.

various dried specimens of sea plants . . 

sea lavender, a picture taken especially for me, c says.

a close-up of the sea lavender . . 

the flowers and grasses grow at three different levels on the coastline. they are covered by salt water daily, and often beaten by stormy seas. they have fleshy stems, small leaves and strong roots to cope with these conditions. the three levels are: the pioneer zone (lowest level) with plants that are covered by salt water at every tide; the low marsh zone (second level) with sea purslane, sea plantain, sea-spurrey and sea lavender (these are not always covered with salt water); and the high marsh level (third zone) where the most common grasses are red fescue and creeping bent. it appears that sheep graze on the grass at this level which turns it into "short dense turf" which is then dug up and used for high quality sports turf. hmm. i guess they don't use astroturf in britain? maybe this is for the polo games.

i thought chanda was also wearing a long sleeved costume here, but it's just the vest and hat that are costumes. the shirt she's wearing is san's raincoat. c thinks they are dressed as oil workers.

the countryside rolling by on the train ride back to london. chanda traveled with sara and her fiance.

it was a crowded train as the commonwealth games had been going on in glasgow (of course i've never heard of these games before, and i'm going to enjoy quizzing everyone i know to see who has heard of them here in the states), and the three travelers sat on suitcases on the floor. here are tom and chanda, photo courtesy of sara. (thank you, sara!) for san's version of chanda's visit, you can click here. (i do have two things to add: one is that chanda has gone on and on about how delicious san's meals were, and we now have out from the library the river cottage every day cookbook which she has been combing through for recipes to make; the second thing to add is that rooming at the ballet camp was not easy for chanda and she wasn't the happiest of campers - however that changed at san's where she was welcomed with much warmth and joy and where she felt very much at home. thank you san and family for showering her with true english cheer. )

 

oh, and this is the finished bracelet chanda was working on with san and pip.