Bath, England has a rather nice city centre that is walkable. Several streets across from the train station are closed to most vehicle traffic. There are a lot of restaurants, shops, and pubs. One thing they do is decorate the telephone boxes and streets in the shopping area. Below are just a few of the Bath telephone booths that are decorated.
Bath Telephone Booths – This one is next to the train station. Warning this one was hard to get a picture by itself on a Saturday. It seems to have a full schedule of photoshoots with Instagrammers.Bath Telephone Booths – An artist had fun with this telephone booth.
The photos above and below are made of Cotswold stone. Bath is at the edge of the Cotswolds.
Bath Telephone Booths
The British love flowers. I love it when towns do something different to spuce up their city centres. What do you think? Do you have a favourite?
You could not miss this coyote. It walked across a busy road. It looked like it was following after something, but I never saw what that was. No, this is not in England. I took this tonight on my way home.
Coyote- Nice enough to pose for a couple of shots
It is not the best image. It was at night after a rain storm in low light. I had my camera in its bag in the back seat. I had to pull off and take it out. I saw the coyote go into a business parking lot, so this is where it is in this image. Note to self: I need to have my camera in the front seat readily available.
The coyote looks very scruffy. Could this be the result of a disease? May it be the battle scars of fights with other animals? It did not look to weary of people. It actually left a popular rail trail and was in a business parking lot. It stood there letting me take a couple of pictures. Sometimes I wonder what tales an animal could tell. If I had known it was going to do that I would have set my camera to a 1/800 of a second instead of 1/2000. What do you think it’s story would be?
What name tops the list for most popular names in England for pubs? The Red Lion does The origins of this pub name may have started in the 14th century. John, a son of King Edward III was fighting with his nephew who later became King Richard II. John added a red lion into his coat of arms while the symbol that represented Richard was a white heart. Pubs that supported John displayed a red lion while those who supported Richard displayed a white heart.
The Red Lion Pub Sign
Lions are said to have represented the monarchy in England dating back to the 1100s. Animal names are the most popular theme for a pub. Have a great week!
I was fortunate enough to see some gray herons at different Royal Parks in London. It turns out these places are great places to bird watch.
Gray herons are similar in appearance to great blue herons, but are smaller in size. All About Birds has the length of the gray heron being between 35.4-38.6 inches, while the great blue heron is between 38.2-53.9 inches in length.
Gray Heron – Adult
The above pictures appears to be an adult. It has the pronounced black stipe on its head and the beak is lighter. During peak breeding season its beak can be orange.
Gray Heron – Juvenile?
I am guessing this image may be a juvenile gray heron. It does not have the pronounced black and white colours on its head and its beak is darker.
I highly recommend visiting the Royal Parks in London. It is a great way to get in some steps in while being nature in the heart of London.
“In every walk in nature, one receives far more than he seeks.”
In England it is not uncommon for people to name their houses. This custom started with gentry naming their castles and manors. Later the common folk would adopt the practice. Rye is close to the sea, so words related to ships and the ocean are popular to use. These are just some of the house signs in Rye.
House Signs of Rye – Landgate Cottage
One way people may name their house is by what is on the property or near the house. This one is close to Landgate in Rye so hence the name.
House Signs of Rye – Arbella House
This house may have been named after the Arbella that was one of the first ships that carried about 20,000 English to New England between 1630 and 1640. The Arbella traveled from Southhampton, England to Salem between March 22 and June 12, 1630. The ship was named for a prominent puritan, Lady Arabella Johnson, who was on the ship traveling with her husband.
House Signs of Rye – Neptune CottageHouse Signs of Rye – Smuggler’s Cottage
Smuggler’s Cottage may have been the site of a smuggling operation or it could just be a name that was picked years ago.
House Signs of Rye – Old Stable
Some houses are named after what the former purpose of the building was. This one is named Old Stable so it may have been a stable converted into a house. The name Stables is in the top 50 names of houses in England with 549 houses using that name.
House Signs of Rye – Quaker House
This house was most likely old meeting house of the quakers. The Old Rectory, The Old Vicarage are two of the top 50 names in England of houses.
Are there any of these names or signs you like the best? Would you name your house if you had the option to do so?
One of the little towns I visited in England on this trip was Rye. One of the things that stood out for me was some of the windows. Below are some of them.
Windows of Rye
I love this curved window. It seems a great place to display something like this vase.
Windows of Rye
One of two windows I tok photos of that had sailboats in them.
Windows of Rye
I love inside shutters. When I stayed at Oxford University they had something that closed on the inside as well instead of blinds.
Windows of Rye
The second window displaying a sailboat.
Windows of Rye
This one was just an interesting shape.
I love the architecture of windows and doors that are older. They seem to have more character. Which one do you like best?
One of the more iconic things in England is the post box. These boxes are usually red in colour. The cipher on the box tells who was the king or queen when the box was added to service. You can still find post boxes dating back to Queen Victoria actively being used.
Edward VIII Post Box
This box is one of the more difficult ones to find. The cipher says EVIIIR. The king at the time this box was placed on the street was Edward VIII. R stands for the latin word for king, Rex. It is rare because Edward (1894-1972) was only king between 20 January to 10 December 1936, so less than a year. He is the only British king to resign or abdicate. He did so to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee.
Edward was a controversial figure to say the least. After he abdicated, he spent most of his time in France. He and his wife visited Germany, and he was honoured by the Nazis. It is also said he entertained the idea from the Nazis that if they invaded England they would place him back as king.
This post box has a stamp machine attached, but it obviously is no longer in service, as evidenced by the cost of the stamps listed. The cost shows 50p for a book of stamps on the machine. Only one first class stamp is 1.35 pounds today. Don’t you wish stamps were that cheap today?
One location in England that is iconic is the local pub. Pub signs would be an object that is iconic. Most pubs in England have a sign that incorporates an image with the name. Although the green man image appears on some grotesques on churches and other places in the US, it is more of a thing in England.
The Green Man Pub Sign
The green man idea is ancient with pagan roots, but the image appears on churches in England. Pagan symbols were brought into the early Christian Church. They say the green man appears on churches to symbolise rebirth and resurrection.
As with this image on the pub sign, green men are often depicted with leaves around their face and sometimes acorns. Have a great week!
Some birds that are native to North America, I have not seen in North America. One such bird is the Bufflehead. I saw this bird for the first time in London, England.
Bufflehead – female
There are sightings in England and Europe for these on All About Birds. I was kind of thrown off in identifying this diving duck. I am far from an expert and the colouring listed online for a bufflehead female appears to be brown, but in these images the duck appears to be black. I will have to look through my pictures more, but I do not think I captured a male. This female was on a pond on a cloudy day. The pond was mostly well shaded by trees hanging over it creating an even darker situation.
Bufflehead – female
In multiple images not taken in consecutive order it appeared maybe a hook was in its beak. I could be wrong, but to be on the safe side I contacted the entity responsible for the pond and they were going to check it out.
Again, I would like to emphasis that sometimes what many think is not the best lighting can still create nice lighting for your images. Don’t discount the cloudy days.
Sometimes things just catch your eye. This pub barrel caught my attention the first day I was in England. The pub had 2 or 3 barrels outside the building, and this was one of them. I am not sure if they served as additional overflow tables or if they were just there for decor.
Pub Barrel- The Goat
I love the flags and lettering painted on the barrel. Some say only Americans have their flags displayed everywhere. I beg to differ. There are a variety of items on which the British place their flags. Pubs are one place you may see a British flag in some form.
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