Exploring England

On a hike

Last week I took a day trip to Dover Castle and then the next day I hiked four miles through the Surrey Hills. After that I came home and napped!

Our Fourth and Final year of living in England has commenced and the clock is counting down the time we have left here. I feel the need to get out and explore before it's time to go home.

The "American Women in Surrey" organization that I am a member of is helping me with the exploring. This year I joined the "English Experience" subgroup as well as the "Country Hikes" group.

English Experience

English Experience alternates lectures on English history with visits to where the history was made. Salisbury was our first trip, it is a cute little historical town with a huge amazing cathedral. Our guide through the town was an older lady that walked so fast we could hardly keep up with her. She had so much she wanted to show us in so little time and she did a great job of it.

Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral

After learning about the Norman Conquest of 1066, we journeyed to Dover, as in the "White Cliffs of Dover", to tour the castle there. Our guide, Dr. Marc Morris, is a TV presenter on the Discovery History channel. He has hosted a series called Castle. He was able to give us great insight while also making the tour fun. He grew up near Dover and enjoyed exploring the castle grounds as a young boy. Now he gets paid to share his passion with others, what a dream job he has!

Lighthouse and Chapel at Dover Castle

Dover Cliffs

Walking through one of the arches at Dover Castle

View from top of Dover Castle looking across the English Channel to France

Country Hikes

To take a break from educating myself on English history, I joined the "Country Hikes" group to enhance my physical well-being. Each Friday morning a group of about 40 women goes on walks averaging 6 miles. In order to complete the walk in around 2 hours, the leader sets a fast pace. We go through some lovely countryside but with not much time to stop and take photos. I snapped a few quick shots last time on my camera phone.

We walked right past these horses.

As we climbed over a fence one by one, I had a chance to snap this.

Passing by Denbies Vineyards.

I am looking forward to more tours and walks and possibly more material for my blog!

Trees Trees Everywhere

I joined the National Trust of England. It's an organization that preserves historic buildings, gardens, and countryside. My membership lets me enter the locations for free. I joined back in February and then we proceeded to have the rainiest April on record followed by the wettest June. The weather is beautiful now so I decided to get some use out of my membership.

I chose a place nearby called Winkworth Arboretum that had a guided walk scheduled. I thought that would be a good way for me to become familiar with that property. It was a great walk except we had to keep stopping to hear educational stuff about the trees. I like trees and all, in fact I love looking at trees. I just didn't realize I was getting mixed in with tree experts on the walk who are all about tree facts and names and types and blah blah blah. There I was with my bottle of water thinking I might need it for a vigorous one-hour hike in the woods. I had to laugh at myself for having different expectations of the walk. Oh, that's why it's called an Arboretum! It's all about the trees.

I'm sharing the photos that I took labeled with my own very unscientific captions.

Pretty flowering shrub

Cool carved bench

Pretty flowering tree

I think I captured the spirit of a purple ghost in this photo!

The place goes on and on for 100 acres.

Cluster of trees

Someone's clever nature artwork

More trees 

The path we were on

This tree looks like a Christmas tree no one wants due to its sparse branches:

Cool tree, wish I could remember the name.

So why are there so many types of trees here? A tree enthusiast, Dr. Wilfrid Fox, bought the estate in 1937 and it became his retirement project to assemble a large-scale collection of trees and shrubs. Quite an impressive retirement hobby I'd say.

There are even some "National Champion" trees in the arboretum. Trees of the largest girth or height in the country are recorded in "The Tree Register".

As our guide was pointing out different varieties of magnolias, I couldn't help myself and had to tell him that I was from America and I definitely recognized the American Magnolia with the large fragrant white blossom on it. A lady asked if it made me homesick and I have to say it did a little. I should have kept my mouth shut because later the guide asked if I recognized another tree from America and my tree ignorance was shameful.