Eye on London

We ended February break with a fun Friday outing up the London Eye with some of our favourite friends.


Urban girls riding the tube

Zed Es El

February break is genius. It makes so much sense. It is just such a relief to have a break in the dead of winter, long after the festive season has passed when spring fever really begins to set in under solid grey skies. Of course it's more fabulous when you can use this break to head to sunnier pastures, as many around here do. Although even if you can't spend a holiday in the sun, I still really appreciate February break. Among all the dentist, doctor and eye appointments we've accomplished this week, we've had some fun relaxing at home and doing some fun things around town we don't normally have time for.

Today we played at the London Zoo.

Chocolate Fondue

I pretty much seek after any possible opportunity to incorporate chocolate into anything and everything. Even if I overdo it on some particularly rich chocolate delight, it really doesn't take long to rekindle the appetite for more cocoa. Recently we began a family dessert tradition that has us dreaming creamy chocolate dreams. Dessert doesn't grace our table every night, or really much ever. But ever since Amazon.co.uk introduced us to our new chocolate fondue pot we've been indulging in much more frequent post-dinner dolce!

Last week we decided it was time for an adult-only chocolate fondue party. We invited some fun friends over and had a dipping grand time around the chocolate pots; our first pot got a sister so we could double the fun with both milk and white chocolate.




The veg was only to clear the palette every now and then so we could continue the chocolate drizzle as long as possible

Box Hill

"They had a very fine day for Box Hill . . . Nothing was wanting but to be happy when they got there. Seven miles were travelled in expectation of enjoyment, and every body had a burst of admiration on first arriving" Jane Austen, Emma

Bronte Country

I am taking two literature courses right now. In one we're studying the Bronte sisters, reading and discussing Charlotte's Jane Eyre, Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey. I cannot overstate how fortunate I feel to have the opportunity to study these authors in their home country, and because of this we have the great fortune of visiting the places that have inspired their stories and provided the backdrops for their own lives.

As a part of the Bronte course we took a four-day trip up to Yorkshire where the Brontes lived and wrote. Haworth, pronounced like "How-worth," is ground zero for the Brontes. Here we walked the moors where the Brontes once walked, drank in the pubs where Branwell drowned in his sorrows, stepped into the room where Charlotte penned Jane Eyre, visited the hall that inspired Gateshead, saw the sofa where Emily breathed her last breath and even slept in the house where the Bronte's doctor lived and practised. I realize now that visiting these places really isn't so much about a literature pilgrimage as it is about putting the Brontes and their writings into context. I understand so much more about the books now after having seen the moors they write of, walked through the house that was their daily environment, and just feeling the spirit of Haworth made the characters come to life. One could almost feel the ghosts of Bronte's past.


Haworth high street, Black Bull pub, Branwell's watering hole




The Old Church cemetery


Haworth guide


Path to the moors from Haworth


Moors














Haworth guide






Our teacher




Our teacher pointing out "Gateshead"






Haworth town at night








Old Church


Bronte Parsonage


Bronte Parsonage


All are buried here, except for Anne


Old Church


Bronte Parsonage, the window to the left of the door is where the sisters wrote