Journey to England.

We've just arrived in England. It turns out, the trip to Iceland from Boston is just a short, hop over the pond... Shorter than it is from Seattle to Boston, even. Super short and easy flight, with a miniature layover -- just enough time to locate puffin paraphernalia, some black licorice chocolate candies that I remember from 4 years ago, and a volcanic rock necklace. I've been needing some big gaudy jewelry for performance (cough cough, Dunava) and I figure if I have to wear it, it might as well have some -earth- in it! Plus, I'll have a piece of Iceland with me whenever I perform: 

Also, note the woolen spirals! They remind me of crafters in Sighnaghi, where I bought them as gifts and didn't keep any for myself. So, that's done. Multi purpose art jewelry is always a good thing. 

I've finally made the switch over to shoes and socks, after wearing sandals all over New England for everyday wear and for performance. It feels very strange, especially since I usually have this feeling when I go back to school in the fall. Fall in England, England isn't as cold as I thought it would be... The sun is out and it's probably around 72. Maybe all those extra wool socks won't be necessary yet. 

8/17 Now we're in Norwich. We had our first concert in England last night in Castle Acre, at St. James Cathedral. 

There are parts of the church built in 1450. There were gravestones inside the church (or I don't know what you call them... Mausoleum plaques?), one of which was for a woman who died in 1786 at the age of 33. I took note that it was the wife of Ross Jermyn, whose name was quite large (while the wife's name, who the plaque was actually for, was quite small). The "toilet" was outside, and you had to pass through a spookily lit graveyard to get there. It felt a little like Halloween in the mist.  Right before our concert, Adam asked me if I wanted to see the priory, so we ran through the cemetery and the hedges to a clearing, where the runs of the priory, built in 1140 or so, were there in the twilight. It was quite magical. I didn't have my camera, so I just took a mental picture. I hope we'll have time to go back there tomorrow before we leave Castle Acre. Also, before the concert, a few of us wandered around the castle keep... Built in 1140, which are pretty much just ruins now. 

We met this chap, who was walking around the ruins. He grew up here, and said that he and his friends would have the best snowball fights in this place. Three would be inside the castle (where they are standing) holding the keep and three would be outside storming the castle. How fun! It seemed like there should be some Game of Thrones reenactment and there wasn't nearly enough bloodshed. Probably plenty of bloodshed in history, though. 

A jolly time was had by all. Kimaya also shared with us how she fell in the moat when she was there last year. Luckily none of us fell in on the trek up the goat path to this place. We also walked around the town on the way to dinner, which didn't involve cold quiche, as was foretold. Plenty of delicious warm quiche,

though.