It's a good day to go for a ride in the automobile

As we were leaving Blanchland Abbey, we noticed some classic cars in the "car park" (Brit speak for "parking lot").

The first is an Austin. Just an Austin, so it must have been built before Austin met Healey.

The following car is a Singer.

But you must have a jaunty hat to ride in one.

And a Delahaye.

The next one is a Morgan.

And an Austin Healey.

And they're off!

The royal blue rubbish bins (again, Brit speak for "dumpsters") have been removed from these pictures so as to not offend my readers!

Isn't she lovely...

This trip we got to meet Edith, the daughter of our friends from Bill's Cambridge year, Becky and James. Bill had nicknamed his friends at Cambridge the "Scoobies." I don't know why. Since Edith is the first-born of the Scoobies, that makes her the first "Scoobiette."

James and Becky took us to lovely Blanchland Abbey for lunch, but the most delicious little thing on the table was Edith!

Here Becky is teaching Edith how to enjoy a proper pint!

If it seems that Edith is good at mugging for the camera, that's because her mommy (sorry, "mummy" means something else to this American) is a professional photographer of children, expectant mothers and me! By the way, Becky is the photographer who took the sexy pictures of me last year.

It is quite clear that Edith enjoyed her outing with her parents and her new American friends.

Speaking of her parents, meet Becky and James. James is a professor of modern British English literature at Durham University.

As for the title of this blog, Becky, Edith and I got together yesterday for tea in Durham. While I was eating my Victoria sponge cake, Stevie Wonder's song "Isn't She Lovely" played not once, but twice. So just as Catherine's special song is "My Girl" I now declare that Edith's shall be "Isn't She Lovely"--because she is!

Making my own English country garden

The students here have been wondering what I do with my days while they're in class. I decided to use this time to experiment with water color painting which I find is something deceptively hard to do well. Relying on photos I took from previous trips to England, I have made my own little bouquet and even virtually matted and framed my paintings using InDesign! These aren't signed and are still open to editing, but since we head to London on Thursday, I figured this was a good time to wrap up at least this phase of my project.

Newcastle: It's not just a club scene

We never made it to Newcastle last year so it was on our list for side trips this year. Among the students, Newcastle has quite a reputation for its club scene, but that's not why we went there. Actually, it's named after a "new" castle.

The five of us really liked this castle because it was authentic. Not too much "folderol and fiddle-dee-dee" can be found in this castle  In fact, bonus points to those of you who can recognize the allusion to the quotation here.

Back in the day, the knights must have been VERY short!

This, I believe, is the Tyneside Cinema. It's an Art Deco theater and is ranked #2 on TripAdvisor's list of attractions.

Grey Street is a lovely Georgian street in town.

I'm not sure what the building below is. For some odd reason it reminds me of a caterpillar. 

Of course, Bill is conducting courses in medieval literature and history so we had to go see How to Train Your Dragon 2 because it's...medieval with Vikings and dragons!

It takes only 12 minutes and 7 pounds (the British sterling kind) to get back to Durham. This was our view as we emerged from the train station.

What goes up must go down: two cool bridges

Two of the coolest things we've seen on this trip have been absolutely free! And both are bridges! The first is called the Rolling Bridge. It's in London near Paddington Station. TripAdvisor alerted me to this, but I will add that their instructions on getting there are incorrect. If you go, check Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Bridge. Since Wiki has done all of the "research" work for me, I'll simply post pictures.

If it seems as if I've provided oodles of pictures of this bridge, I just want you to know that this blog so far has been edited down from 370 pictures! Believe it or not, that's the same way with most blog entries. It's the beauty of digital cameras that it doesn't cost a cent more to shoot an extra thousand pictures!

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The second bridge is in Newcastle, UK, which is in Northumberland. This bridge is called the Gateshead Millenium Bridge. We arrived too late to see it being raised, but this Wiki entry provides an image of what that must look like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateshead_Millennium_Bridge. Here are the pictures I took. In the background is the bridge; in the foreground are Bill, Lindsey, Allison and Breanna.

Here is a side view. The sidewalk on the left is actually drawn up by the cables to let ships pass through (or to amuse tourists).

Looking down the River Tyne.

And after only four pictures of this bridge I'm sure you're wondering "where are the other pictures." Well, this is it! Surprise!