Forcing my way out of the doldrums

We've endured entirely too much unseasonably cold, cloudy, and sometimes downright nasty weather this fall.  I actually feel like summer never came.  I kept waiting for it to get steamy and sweaty, like a Japanese summer, but it never happened.

And now I feel like winter is upon our doorstep.  I missed my best chance for fall photography last weekend when I was attending a conference.  A reminder of why I left graduate school after my M.A.  Who wants to be cooped in a dull classroom discussing the finer points of say, pornographic Japanese fiction, when you could be outside frolicking in piles of golden leaves?

So, I'm taking us on a virtual tour back to summer, and my warm and wonderful trip to England.

I already wrote about the world's greatest country boutique hotel ever.  

The New Forest

The hotel was in the New Forest, which is basically a big national park area, with towns and villages within it, that hosts thousands of wild ponies.  They are everywhere.  In parking lots, in the street, and in fields everywhere.  

Besides our stay in the Whitley Ridge, we also attended a family wedding in the New Forest.  Sadly, rain paid a visit, but Sweetie and I had fun with the children in the hotel garden.  We had run out to the car to get something, and the children were slinking around the garden and running from everyone they saw.  When they saw us, they'd run in the other direction.  This was amusing for about 5 minutes, and then the kids saw us, pointed, and shouted "Murderer!" and at that point, we decided we were very much done playing their game!

Motisfont Abbey

We visited the most glorious garden at Motisfont Abbey.  I could have stayed there for hours snapping photos of the bright flowers and bumble bees flitting from bloom to bloom.  The sun made an appearance and really warmed things up.  

Porchester Castle

Sweetie took me to the impressive Porchester Castle, in his home town (castles and gardens were tops on my list of things to do on our trip).  Located on the sea, it was an impressive fortress, still in very good condition.  We climbed up to the top, with its panoramic views of Portsmouth.