Where was I? Oh yes, adding one of my grand-nieces back onto my MSN Messenger because she leetspeaks and ID's herself using lots of Greek and Cyrillic characters and the first time she IM'ed me I thought it was some shady Eastern European spammer so I inadvertently blocked her. Kids today! Speaking of which, here are the rest of the fit-to-publish photos from England, mostly from when we went to visit Robin's oldest sister Carol in Bexhill-on-Sea (where Robin was born and where Carol, her daughters and their families all live) on the Thursday.
The outside of Carol's house. I love English houses! Just look at that garden.
Our hostess greets us.
Carol and her husband Graham in their back yard, which is as lovely as their front.
See what I mean? This is one border of the triangular-shaped yard, with the row of flowers (the other has a hedge row).
Every proper English house has a shed out back. I only know of one American house I've ever visited with a back yard shed (other NYC bloggers may recall that as well).
In fact, I suspect the main reason Rob posed here with Carol was to be near the shed...
And it was even worse when Carol revealed that they actually have two sheds, one behind the other...
This is the garden 'round the side of the house.
And they have a great view!
Out of all the photos I took in England, I think this one is my favorite, because it came out the way it did by accident. I call it "Dad Reflects." You may have to click on it to enlarge (you can do that with all these photos, by the way), but in the windows you can see reflected Graham (first window), Carol and Robin (his eldest and youngest, second window) and me with the camera (third window). It's one of those "arteest-y" photos I could never have arranged on purpose.
I believe Carol took this one.
After we returned from lunch (see food photos from earlier this week), "the kids" and their kids started to arrive. The last time I was in England had been for Shaine and Sarah's wedding; now Joel and Phoebe have been added to the family!
As many of my relatives have probably figured out by now, my favorite kind of family photo next to "the sibling picture" is a multigenerational one. Here's Phoebe with her grandmum and great-granddad.
And here she is again with Mum, Granddad, GGD and GM off to the side of the photo (her brother's feet are visible as well).
As the other daughters and their children started to arrive, I switched a bit to movie-mode, as you've seen previously, and I think I was able to capture more or less everyone that way. I didn't want to be too annoying with the camera, particularly as nobody else had one (these is a very close family whose members see each other all the time, after all), so I slowed down the picture-taking. I did notice, however, that the seat next to Grandmum seemed to be prime real estate, and that every family has at least one person who's amazingly photogenic and knows it. In this family, that would be Keri.
Keri's mum Tracy happened to marry a fellow with the same name as her father. I'm told that captioning this "the two Graham crackers" would be a wasted pun on the family, as they don't have Graham crackers in England.
Naomi is the first-born of a first-born (Sandra) of a first-born (Carol) of a first-born (Mum). For all I know this first-born-daughter thing may go back even more than four generations. There's real power there, as you can see by the way she subdues her brother Matt (like me, Naomi has two younger brothers; Ben is, wisely, well out of this photo). Naturally, Na seemed unimpressed by my first-born-power theory when I IM'ed her about it. She's also becoming quite the artist, just like Mum and Robin...
And just like that, it was time to leave. I kept trying to snap photos of various animals a'grazin' in the fields, but these darn hedgerows got in the way. If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, it's probably a frustrated amateur photographer looking for moo-cows and sheeps and horthies...
This came out a bit better because the hedgerow whooshing by in the foreground is kind of balanced by the stability of the trees in the background, but between them is still a field sans animals, so I was a little disappointed.
"We're coming up on the windmill," says Dad. "Cool!" says I, sliding over to the other side of the back seat to get a photo of it. I'm still rather amazed it came out so well (or at all), considering we were going at regular highway speed...
And so, with a lone tree against a dramatic-looking sky, we end our Riggs Return to England pictorial for now. We hope you've enjoyed the show; please deposit any comments in the appropriate receptacles.
The outside of Carol's house. I love English houses! Just look at that garden.
Our hostess greets us.
Carol and her husband Graham in their back yard, which is as lovely as their front.
See what I mean? This is one border of the triangular-shaped yard, with the row of flowers (the other has a hedge row).
Every proper English house has a shed out back. I only know of one American house I've ever visited with a back yard shed (other NYC bloggers may recall that as well).
In fact, I suspect the main reason Rob posed here with Carol was to be near the shed...
And it was even worse when Carol revealed that they actually have two sheds, one behind the other...
This is the garden 'round the side of the house.
And they have a great view!
Out of all the photos I took in England, I think this one is my favorite, because it came out the way it did by accident. I call it "Dad Reflects." You may have to click on it to enlarge (you can do that with all these photos, by the way), but in the windows you can see reflected Graham (first window), Carol and Robin (his eldest and youngest, second window) and me with the camera (third window). It's one of those "arteest-y" photos I could never have arranged on purpose.
I believe Carol took this one.
After we returned from lunch (see food photos from earlier this week), "the kids" and their kids started to arrive. The last time I was in England had been for Shaine and Sarah's wedding; now Joel and Phoebe have been added to the family!
As many of my relatives have probably figured out by now, my favorite kind of family photo next to "the sibling picture" is a multigenerational one. Here's Phoebe with her grandmum and great-granddad.
And here she is again with Mum, Granddad, GGD and GM off to the side of the photo (her brother's feet are visible as well).
As the other daughters and their children started to arrive, I switched a bit to movie-mode, as you've seen previously, and I think I was able to capture more or less everyone that way. I didn't want to be too annoying with the camera, particularly as nobody else had one (these is a very close family whose members see each other all the time, after all), so I slowed down the picture-taking. I did notice, however, that the seat next to Grandmum seemed to be prime real estate, and that every family has at least one person who's amazingly photogenic and knows it. In this family, that would be Keri.
Keri's mum Tracy happened to marry a fellow with the same name as her father. I'm told that captioning this "the two Graham crackers" would be a wasted pun on the family, as they don't have Graham crackers in England.
Naomi is the first-born of a first-born (Sandra) of a first-born (Carol) of a first-born (Mum). For all I know this first-born-daughter thing may go back even more than four generations. There's real power there, as you can see by the way she subdues her brother Matt (like me, Naomi has two younger brothers; Ben is, wisely, well out of this photo). Naturally, Na seemed unimpressed by my first-born-power theory when I IM'ed her about it. She's also becoming quite the artist, just like Mum and Robin...
And just like that, it was time to leave. I kept trying to snap photos of various animals a'grazin' in the fields, but these darn hedgerows got in the way. If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, it's probably a frustrated amateur photographer looking for moo-cows and sheeps and horthies...
This came out a bit better because the hedgerow whooshing by in the foreground is kind of balanced by the stability of the trees in the background, but between them is still a field sans animals, so I was a little disappointed.
"We're coming up on the windmill," says Dad. "Cool!" says I, sliding over to the other side of the back seat to get a photo of it. I'm still rather amazed it came out so well (or at all), considering we were going at regular highway speed...
And so, with a lone tree against a dramatic-looking sky, we end our Riggs Return to England pictorial for now. We hope you've enjoyed the show; please deposit any comments in the appropriate receptacles.
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