TRING

We spent the night in Harpenden, at Diane and Matthew's. Early visitors to our room were Joe and Georgia, bearing the results of a small purchase we had made for them at Camden Lock the day before. The tiny colored seeds in plastic packages had expanded into a mass of small balls, shiny and gelid as frog's spawn...

The kids were delighted with their resplendent jars, and even transferred a few from each into little jars for us to take back to Los Angeles. A lovely morning visit.

True to form, Diane had prepared a vast feast for our brunch...

... not only scrambled eggs and toast, but also lox and bagels, a green salad, a stir-fry of chorizo sausage and onions, and an irresistible cheese plate. This accompanied by a choice sparkling white wine or coffee, or both, or tea... We have not been allowed to go hungry.

Georgia, who had missed the feast in favor of a kayaking birthday party, returned after lunch with excited tales of her adventures--including two unintended dips in the cold water. With her safely back in the fold, we all piled into the family's Toyota minivan and headed out for Tring. As noted yesterday, Diane has an unfailing genius for find interesting spots to visit. In this instance, she had mentioned a "museum of stuffed animals," and we thought, okay, Teddy bears for the kids, sounds a bit boring but we'll go along. Instead, we found a vast, astounding, totally compelling collection of "real" "stuffed animals."

It's a branch of the national Natural History Museum in this tiny, out-of-the-way town, housed where is was originally assembled by one Walter Rothschild, a fanatical collector of wildlife species of the 19th century who traveled the world to find literally millions of species--from butterflies...

... and bugs...

... and other slithery creepy-crawlies, to water creatures and feathered fowl of all kinds...

... to great cats...

... and apes and marsupials, to antlered animals...

... great African giants...

... and even those we have domesticated...

(Georgie, beware! Though the above are English spaniels, snub-nosed, and less attractive to our eye than the Cavalier!)

(Three other beauties, taking a rest!)

There are four floors of display cases, an unending testament to the variety of life on our planet Earth--and a reminder, less happily, of their vulnerability. Memento mori!

It is a sobering experience to walk past all these once living, now dead beings, and to reflect on the human capacity to dispose of them all at will. Rothschild's intense curiosity and passion reveal not only the abounding beauty of all natural things, but also the dark side of our human power.

(Afterwards.)

We took the long way home, for a last ride (for this visit!) through the lovely English countryside...

... past Whipsnade Zoo and the Dunstable Downs--all quite close to the villages where I lived as a child. It all resonates in the soul... Back in Harpenden by early evening, we ended the family day as we had begun,: with the twins engrossed in a project--this time unearthing luminous "dinosaurs" from little eggs of solidified "earth."

Such a pleasure to watch them!

Then back along the now familiar route, taking the M1 south and through the streets of north London, stopping only for a last fill of gas (Americans, take note: you'll pay a bit more than $70 to fill the very small tank of a Toyota Yaris!) I was grateful to park the car for the last time outside our flat. It's been a great boon, but it's still stressful driving on the wrong side of the road in a country filled with oddly worded street signs and seemingly ambiguous directions. I also discovered from Matthew, only yesterday, that ubiquitous CCTV cameras watch your speed and send out tickets! A bit late to find that out. I have been driving like a Californian, mostly inattentive to speed limits. I now have nightmares of having collected a dozen of them along the way.

A pub supper at the Landseer, just around the corner. Delightful. Good food. We enjoyed a qiet meal there, and wished we had discovered it before. Our mouse--have I mentioned this small furry friend before?--has now found his way into closed cabinets, and has been feasting on our cereal. We took appropriate action--but this morning found that, presumably in desperation--he had chewed a dishwashing sponge into small pieces. Not much nutrition, as I pointed out to our friends whose flat this is; but perhaps at least some oral gratification...