You may have noticed there was something of a blank here at Lucid Ephemera for a few weeks while I went off and did festive things and had a holiday. More details on Italians in puffy jackets and wild boar salami follow in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I hope all of you [...]
Archive for the ‘day trips’ Category
2010 and 2011, thank you and hello
Posted in Aleppo, archaeology, architecture, Australia, autumn, Berlin, bread, British colonial mansions, cathedrals, chocolate, Christmas, churches, Crete, Cretins, Cyprus, Damascus, day trips, deer, Dodgy taxi drivers, driving, elbow, England, expat, fleas, food, Germany, Greece, history, Italy, Liverpool, manor houses, markets, Morocco, mosques, museums, odd hotels, Ottomans, Phillipine overseas domestic workers, post offices, Recalcitrant stereos, rowing, shopping, singing, smuggling, summer, Sunday, Syria, The Cyprus Question, The Mediterranean Middle Lane, tombs, tourism, travel, Turkey, Uncategorized, Venetians, Volkswagens, Volkswagons, weather, winter, wordless, work, working from home, Xania on January 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Pubbery
Posted in day trips, England, food on August 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The pub is a Great British Institution and occupies a very particular place in English life. On long winter afternoons the pub is a welcome change from the confines of the house, offering a cosy alternative when its dark by four and the evenings go on forever. Nursing a drink over an extended period in [...]
A Knightley Haunt
Posted in day trips, England, history, manor houses on September 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Blessed with a temporarily sunny day and encumbered with a desire to get out of the house, yesterday I ventured out on a jaunt into Derbyshire, this time to visit Kedleston Hall. The place is gorgeous. It has a spectacular art collection, an awe-inspiring domed entrance hall and a suite of rooms entirely covered in [...]
Eternal Love
Posted in churches, day trips, England, history, manor houses, tombs on September 7, 2009 | 4 Comments »
One of the things that I love doing when visiting anywhere in England is looking at the graves and tombs in and around old churches. Call me morbid, but I love the old headstones, some with inscriptions so worn they’re indecipherable. It makes me think about what we leave behind, and what the world will [...]
Crossing the Line
Posted in Cyprus, day trips, The Cyprus Question, Turkey on August 7, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I visited a country that doesn’t exist. Not as an official nation, that is; as a place it looked pretty real to me. I crossed the line (deliberately, this time, as opposed to last time) into Northern Nicosia, which is part of Northern Cyprus. The northern half of Cyprus was invaded by Turkey in [...]
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know
Posted in day trips, England, food, history, manor houses, summer, tagged Byron, day trips, manor houses, National Trust, Newstead Abbey on June 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If the Poet Lord Byron was odd, his uncle, the Evil Lord Byron, was completely nuts. He fought a duel, swords and all, with his cousin, and after winning was promptly tried for murder. He was also known for building a fort in front his house, and installing a cannon in it, which he would [...]
A Lyme Green Spotted Bunny
Posted in Australia, day trips, England, tagged Australia, day trips, England, geography, Melbourne, place names on May 27, 2009 | 2 Comments »
On Saturday, I went to Bunny. Well, I drove past it, making rabbit jokes to which the Beloved responded with snide remarks about Playboy mansions. English place names are a frequent source of comedy on our day trips around the countryside and speak volumes about both events in English history and the age of the [...]
