Farmer John

This cute man looks like he is working really hard!

Tony's Allotment

I had heard so much about Tony's gardening abilities/knowledge that I had to see his allotment. I'm jealous! He has a greenhouse here and in his backyard at home. Since we were there in February, we didn't get to see it at its best, but still interesting. Off to one side, there is a giant pile of horse manure (farmer's gold?). I mean giant. This guy doens't have anywhere to dispose of his manure from his ranch, so he brings it to the allotment to use as fertilizer.

The Garden Shed Gang

The exhibit we went to at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London was about Shaun Greenhalgh "the greatest master forger". He forged all kinds of art work including sculptures, paintings, silver reliefs, etc. His father and mother helped sell the art work. They were called the Garden Shed Gang because all the work Shaun did was done in the shed in their garden of the government housing they lived in (basically welfare housing).  They lived in Bolton where the Horrocks family grew up. They sold one sculpture to Bolton for 460,000 pounds and it was displayed as an original for years. One of his forgeries was sold to a gallery in Chicago. They were finally caught, investigated, and Shaun was sentenced to 4 years in prison.  He was released a few weeks before we arrived, and the Museum was able to display some of his work.  A detective that worked on the case was the speaker at the exhibit. The people of Bolton was kind of proud of Shaun, because he and his father were able to fool a lot of artsy, rich people, and of course, the artsy, rich people felt exactly the opposite.

Tower of London

(I had to put the cheesy tourist pic in here)

The original part of the Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. 1078!!!!! I read all about it on Wikipedia and now I can't remember what it's original use was, but since 1303 it has housed the Crown Jewels. It has also been used as a prison and has been the scene of lots of famous executions.  It is considered the most haunted building(s) in England.  Queen Anne Boleyn, beheaded in 1536 for treason, has been seen at the chapel where she was buried, walking around carrying her head under her arm. The ghost of Henry VI and Lady Jane Grey have also been seen.  A guard (known as "Beefeaters") died of fright after seeing a ghost of a bear walking towards him. There is also 10 ravens kept at the Tower because legend has it that the Kingdom will fall if the ravens leave. Their wings are clipped so they can't fly away. During the bird flu scare a few years ago, the ravens were kept inside so they wouldnt catch it.

Big Ben and the House of Commons

We got to see Big Ben.  Only British citizens can tour Big Ben and you have to make an appointment with your local politician.  We also happened to be there as the clock was striking 5:00.

One of the most interesting things we did was go in to see the House of Commons in session.  It would be like seeing the House of Representatives in Washington D.C. They were debating a water issue which wasnt that interesting, but seeing how it all works was fascinating.  We had to go through a medal detector, have our mug shot taken and wear it around our neck on a lanyard.  We had to leave our purses and/or bags at a check station.  We were allowed to stay and listen as long as we wanted though.  And there was a glass barrier between the visitors gallery and the rest of the room apparently so we couldn't throw tomatoes or something at the politicians.