England / - Page 2 -

Now we come to the heart of London, and Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived before her passing, and Kensington Park, where the Peter Pan statue is. I visied the Palace the day before the anniversary of the Princess's death. These pictures are from that day. You can see people behind us looking at the flowers that people had left there in respect of her, as we did.

Click on the photo above to read my Princess Diana Memorial page.

In Kensington palace is an area that Princess Diana loved to visit, it is an enclosed garden with fountains, pink and purple sweet smelling flowers, and song birds winging their way around the air, on the bushes.

From here we go to the Gardens area, and see the Round Pond, where Swans, Canada Geese, and Ducks abound. From there we head off to see Peter Pan's statue, and we pass some trees along the way. One of them, a horse chestnut is magnificent in it's size, here I will show you another photo, my granddaghter is standing in the truck so that you can get a sense of the size.

©Gloria Hazell 1998

In this country we call these 'Conker' trees, the seed that falls to the ground is threaded with string, a knot tied so that the 'conker' cannot fall off, and a game is played. This used to be a boys game when I was a kid, but girls quietly played it too away from the boys eyes. The aim is to have the strongest conker and to find that you hit each other's conker until one breaks. There are ways to make your conker stronger, soaking them in vinegar first is one of the old tried and true ways. I can picture little children from the centuries picking up the newly dropped shiney conkers from around this tree and running off home with them. Peasants and Princes alike played this game. This year young Jenny is going conkering with her friend John.

And so we more on to the laughs and squeals of the children playing happily!

Coventry is our next stop, it's quite a drive, let's go via the motorway to save some time. We'll be careful of all the trucks that take up all the space though.

Today Coventry is a thriving city. During the second World War though it wasn't so lucky. In 1940 German bombers came over and in the longest single attack on a British city, dropped fire bombs on the town, which demolished it to the ground. Many people were killed and their bodies were never recovered. The Precinct which is built there is actually a grave-site, because those people are still under the new town. Coventry is like the Pheonix rising from the ashes. A great loss for the town was it's Cathedral which was destroyed completely in the bombings. In the 1960's a new Cathedral was built in the shadow of the old, and both were linked by a canopy. The new was clean and simple, the old medieval and broken. I went there many times in the 60's and I took these photos then. I am adding them here to show the loss of one of the ancient's work, by today's modern weapons and war.

©Gloria Hazell 1963

This altar was made out of two of the medieval timbers from the bombed Cathedral, the small cross is made from two modern nails which are a part of the new Cathedral. The words behind the Altar say 'Father Forgive'.

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