| We had ambitious plans to take a long driving trip this Thursday which
would take us south to Winchester Cathedral, west to Salisbury, north
to pop in at the Nye's, our former vicar from Cheltenham, and then
to Hook Norton to inspect their brewery and finally to Kidlington to
surprise the Lapworths now that we had a camera we knew how to
use. But when we telephoned the Nye's and they told us that
Thursday would be a bad day for them. |
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| Our exploration of Hook Norton was very
rewarding. This is their "city center", so to speak. |
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 This little pipe
organ was very interesting, but there was no information relating to
it. But there was a Pastoral letter from the bishop of Oxford posted
in the front of the church which decried the recent denial of Canon
Jeffrey John to become the next bishop of Reading due to his openly
gay lifestyle. It is really nice to see small English
communities reacting in an apparent open and affirming manner. But,
of course, what do we know about the general opinion. |
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We finally got to the Lapworth's and were able to photograph their
garden above and Rosemary, Peter, and the two of us below. But Peter wanted me to
get shots of the little plaques on their fence which, when I tried
it the day before, convinced me that my Nikon wasn't working.
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| Actually, the trip we had
planned would have been totally impossible, so we decided to limit
our travels to the brewery and the Lapworths after finding the PX
we used for three years in Upper Heyford. Good thing. That took all
day! After taking tiny roads all over the place, we actually
found the PX, but it was guarded so heavily with gates and guards,
and had a sign that warned us that intrusion would violate England's
official secrets act, we took no pictures. On to Hook Norton. |
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| Below is St. Peters, their village church. |
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| The church had a magnificent font -- which usually provides
a good place to put my bean bag. |
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| Below is the Hook Norton brewery. We visited the museum but could take no pictures whatsoever since our
flash unit was not working. I learned later in the vacation that I
could set my ISO (like film ASA) to 400 and get pretty decent
indoor pictures, but by this time, I had not completely made peace
with that complicated camera. The brewery still uses steam generated
power, delivered to the whole plant with complicated pulleys and
belts. They even claim to deliver beer to their pubs with horse
drawn buggies, known as the Hook Norton Dray. |
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| Peter said they were Japanese in origin but had no other
info. We excused ourselves, telling Peter and Rosemary that we
wanted to get back in time for evensong at Christ Church College
chapel. |
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