Springtime in York

Welcome to the Daffs! The local nickname of the daffodils, is, daffs, so that's what we'll call them here too! I absolutely love it when the daffs are out in York. There is nothing as beautiful as all of the bright yellow faces shining along the walls of the city. It's fabulous and can't but lift the spirits after a long, cold, dark, English winter! Anyway, I'm sure you can tell I'm happy about being out among the daffs.
Tiptoe through the tulips . . . wait, the daffs, seems to apply here. Or better yet, William Wordsworth's famous lines "I wandered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils--. This is one of my favorite pictures, actually.
While I was out looking for likely spots to photograph, I was joined by this really friendly ginger cat. He/She followed me all along the way and, cat like, insisted on being right in the middle of whatever I was doing. It was a bit difficult to take pictures sometimes, but I didn't mind. I miss my cats at home and it's always nice to find a friendly substitute for a few hours.
More daffs along the banks below the York City Walls. I certainly live in a beautiful place!
These next photos are just some of the other types of flowers blooming among the golden daffs.
I don't know any of their names, but they are lovely. The little golden star shaped one reminds me of the Golden Eleanor that J.R.R. Tolkien described as growing in the grass in Lothlorien--the golden sunstar. Perhaps these are similar to the ones he imagined.


This is a bird's eye view. All of the banks along the walls look like this and it's quite a site driving around York to enjoy it.
This is a picture of me out on a little hike over an estate called the Moorlands. The daffs weren't quite out yet, but I'm sure they are now. I've been told that I need to come back again in about a month when all the Rhododendrons are in bloom. Apparently it's so beautiful that the grounds people charge entrance at that time of year only! So, guess we'll if I make it back or not.

Molls and Gangstas

Hello again! It's nice to be posting something at last. These pictures are from a Single Adult Activity that we went to in March, I believe. It was a dress-up dance and the theme was essentially the 1930's. The first picture you see Debbie and I together. A word about my costume--I improvised in a major way. I wore a long black sheath dress that I brought with me from the US and was able to find the lacy shawl at a Charity shop for 2 pounds and the red thing was something I used in the pantomime. Debbie kindly picked me up the white feather from the costume shop where she rented her costume and there I was! It worked great and was cheap and that's a win/win situation when you're a tightly budgeted student!
This next picture has another girl in it. Her name is Anna Gibson and she isn't someone I know very well at all. But, I guess she felt like she wanted to be in our pictures, so she sort of jumped in without an invitation. She's from somewhere down London way and that's all I know.

Another one of us three.

This last one is of me and Rose Richardson. Rose had a great little costume complete with a fake cigarette that let off puffs of white dust when you blew on the end of it. She was very proud of that thing, let me tell you! And how was the dance itself? Well, I spent most of the evening going around meeting people and trying to get acquainted with more of them. It can be a chore to get Single Adults to associate with people outside their little group of familiars. It was a bit exhausting, but I did my best. I did meet a lot of people from the Oxford area and from South End and Birmingham, so that was something. Not that I will see any of those people again because they live too far away for meeting regularly. Anyway, there you are.