The Wilds of Wonder: including happy deer with waggly tails and a delightful trip to England

I am a hard-core anglophile.

"Why?" you ask?

Well...the Beatles, Harry Potter, Downton Abbey...

The books, the music, the acting, the tea, the humor, the charm, the stiff upper lip. The Queen. I could keep going, but I'll keep it at that.

Never mind. I have to add one more thing: the food.

People never have anything good to say about British food.

They are crazy.

Tea and scones, people! And the Brits have honed the savory pie to perfection. It even comes in to-go style as a pasty. Not to mention fish 'n' chips, eaton mess, the English breakfast, and tarts. And all the cool ethnic food that worked its way to England from all over the former empire.

But I've gotten totally derailed.

What I started out to say is that, being an anglophile, my li'l anglophile heart was in high heaven over Memorial Day weekend. Dad's holiday lined up with my school holidays, so my parents took me to England. We spent three days in London and one wonderfully glorious day in Oxford.

This post is not going to be a play-by-play of the trip. It's simply a photographic record of some (not remotely all) of the moments we enjoyed during four ridiculously non-rainy days in England.

OXFORD

I forgot how much Oxford felt like my native environment.

I don't even care that this line isn't in the book. Of course it needs to be up in The Eagle and Child. It just does.

If you zoom way into the first picture you'll two specks in the middle of the field of gold. Which specks are happy deer with waggly tails.

Our friend the gargoyle. We didn't think to name him. If we had, he would have been Bob evermore.

I was intrigued by this one word on a paving stone in Merton College.

All sorts of things came to mind.

Well, then.

Oh well.

Well...

All shall be well.

And then I asked the porter who informed me that the stone marks the location of the well so that should there be plumbing issues they would know exactly what part of the courtyard to tear up.

Ah, well.

Colors and neutrals coinciding.

The Divinity School.

Apparently collegiate croquet players are exempt from the mandate to

PLEASE

KEEP

OFF THE

GRASS

LONDON

Hello, Portobello Road.

Who knew a black house could be so charming and inviting?

The sign requests visitors to please keep to the path. I love the fact that the "path" is a mowed strip of lawn while the rest has been allowed to run wild. This is Kensington Palace Gardens, y'all. And in the middle of this grand spot we have a meadow.

We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum solely to partake of their scones. Because the scones at the V&A are the best in the world. And the museum cafe's decor is a dazzling combination of Arts & Crafts style and modern snowball chandeliers. It's pretty much my favorite.

This takes the idea of gutting a building to a whole new level. I mean, the facade is left but EVERYTHING else is gone. Respect.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have some really futuristic stuff going on here... I would never have guessed that this was London. It feels more like Seoul. But it's just down the river from Westminster. Who knew?

We went to Motown the musical, which was super fun. The sign below was posted all over the theater and definitely gives a sense of the mood of the show:

I was definitely dancing in my seat. (How can you not dance in your seat to "I Want You Back" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"?) But no one asked me to moderate my enthusiasm. So maybe I wasn't enthusiastic enough?