Fairy elves, Whose midnight revels by a forest side

Let me try to wrap up the rest of my UK holiday in July, what parts I can still remember at least. So Monday, July 9: J and I went to St Albans after getting the kids off to school (which was complicated by the enterprise scheme for T, who had to take tons of supplies for making toasties with some other girls). When we were over there in January it was cold and we ran out of time for seeing the Roman ruins. This time we headed straight for the Roman theatre ruins http://www.romantheatre.co.uk/. This was very interesting for me. Then we strolled over to the Roman wall and also went into the hypocaust building to see the mosaic floor. http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/hypocaust.htm After seeing plenty of old stuff (no, I wasn't using a mirror, hah hah) we found a pub for lunch, then popped in and out of shops. I found a set of hedgehog salt and pepper shakers! Extremely cute.


We had to get back to J's house before the kids were out of school. We went in to check on the enterprise scheme and I bought a lovely ham and cheese toastie from T and her friends. It was really nice to see the inside of a little British school and the kids looked adorable in their blue uniforms. I so wish we could require uniforms at our school.


Later that afternoon J, T, and I took Ammy for a walk through the park. Ammy is sooo sweet and happy, such a pleasure to be with. It was really nice to be in a place where one can go for a walk in July without risking heat stroke. I especially enjoyed seeing the canal boats along the way. So quaint. It'd be fun for me and T to take a bit of a trip in one, I think..

On Tuesday, M took the day off work and he drove me and J to the Buckinghamshire town of Chalfont St Giles where we toured Milton's Cottage http://www.miltonscottage.org/aboutmiltonscottage.htm. This was very interesting and really sort of amazing to me, to be wandering around in a cottage that had been used by such a famous and important poet. He lived there while he was completing Paradise Lost. There are various editions of Milton's works on display.

After the cottage, we went to the town duck pond and had a picnic lunch. I love having little picnics in England.

On Wednesday morning I was set to fly home early, so poor Mike had to get up before dawn and drive me over to Heathrow. When I went to check in for my flight, I was informed that it had been cancelled. ARGH! They had switched me to a later flight, so I (and Mike) could have slept later. Oh well. I don't mind hanging around a decent airport for a while.

It was a lovely trip for me all around. My friends there are such kind and generous people, and the children are cute and polite and funny and the family dog is perfection. Oh, not to mention the desserts. YUM. Sticky toffee pudding on my last night there.