Tudor Time

While in England for Geoffrey's mother Kathleen's funeral on the 1st of December, we drove to Chelsea and visited the Victoria and Albert. First the costume exhibit. Then we discovered the Elizabethan rooms. We visited the great Bed of Ware and a room that had been completely reconstructed in the museum.
This sarcophagus is actually a photo from our stay in the Cotswolds in 2007. We had combined visiting Kathleen with a weeks stay. There had been floods that Spring and Summer. We went on long walks through the countryside and found this tomb in a small church.

The floor reconstructed in the V&A is, I presume,"Tudor oak" as in the opening monologue of "Lettice and Lovage."




Loved the ornate fireplace and the molded plaster ceiling. All creating a very gloomy room with a huge long dining table like the ones in Le Pain Quotidian but very dark!!


For Christmas we got a copy of "The Tudor Chronicles" by Susan Doran. A friend is reading a biography of Henry VII and a lively discussion developed at our Epiphany table about the "evilest man in England." I poured over the section on Henry' s life and that's really the first time I got the dates sorted!
I was a tour guide in London in the 70's for Abercrombie and Kent, luxury travel. That was a bread and butter job that I could keep! I undertook extraordinary feats of assistance for tourists who were always losing their luggage even when standing right next to it!! I would meet planeloads as they arrived at Heathrow. On the bus ride into London and their hotel I would explain the sights we were passing and alert them to their itinerary for the week. Often the flights were delayed, and I would wait for hours at the Arrivals gate at Heathrow, watching reunions of far flung families. I was in tears at the emotion I saw lavished on the arriving relatives. Such joy, such triumph over separation!