Wednesday, May 02, 2012

England is for lovers...of beautiful old buildings

The Bridge of Sighs, Oxford

Also in Oxford

The Bridge of Sighs, closer up

Inside the natural history museum in Oxford

Some of the vast collection of dead animals in the natural history museum

An old castle somewhere between Oxfordshire and Devonshire

Glastonbury (I think) high street

  
An even higher street, in Ilfracoombe
We just don't get stuff this old in New Zealand, where any building more than about 150 years old is considered ancient and worthy of protection.

I just love old buildings, though I might not want to be a homeowner of one.

And a word about the natural history museums we visited - they are terribly sad places groaning with death and human arrogance.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you I can't help but think about all the unresolvble plumbing issues that you'd have in old buildings like those! Extraordinary that they've got all those skeletons just chocked in there!

Violet said...

Even worse is glass cage upon glass cage of stuffed animals - even domestic dogs!

Amanda said...

These are great. I have put one on Pinterest (my new thing) http://pinterest.com/pin/182606959861331775/

Also, very nice turn of phrase of this "And a word about the natural history museums we visited - they are terribly sad places groaning with death and human arrogance."

Violet said...

Amanda: ooh thanks - I've not gotten into Pinterest but my sis-in-law loves it. That sentence you pointed out was probably a bit on the over-wrought, trying-to-be-literary side - but it was my best going at conveying my feeling about those places.

Violet said...

Amanda: I like your collection of places you want to go to, by the way - I've been to some of those places e.g. Uluru, the Haworth house (well the shop, anyway) but the rest are still unticked on my list.

Karen said...

Can't believe you didn't pop in and see us - you must have passed right by!

Violet said...

I didn't get time to ANY of my friends!
Whereabouts are you?