Priory Church of Saint Bartholomew the Great

Two days ago I went exploring and found the Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great. It is one of London't oldest churches. I think it is the second oldest church in London. It was built when Henry the first was King of England(he was the son of William the Conquerer). I took the tube to a place a little south of Covent Garden and started walking. It was freezing and gray and was definitely threatening rain. I walked and walked. I walked through a cute little park. There are little (and big) parks all throughout London. I think that is just great. It started to pour rain and the wind picked up. I pulled out my little aluminum travel umbrella and it did nothing. Then it blew inside out. While I was wrangling with my umbrella trying to get it right side out a dapper older gentleman walked by and said, "bit blustery out isn't it." Hello understatement. I found this wierd little alley with a german looking exterior archway thing and took refuge from the rain in there. When I got under the overhang and wiped the rain off my glasses

I saw this

I was like what the heck is that. So I walked down the alley and it opened up to a beautiful little courtyard.

And these exteriors.

When I entered the church the frail elderly caretaker bustled me in and said, "oh! come out of the rain. It's a bit blustery out" hahahaha
Entrance to the church. (left)

One of the many floor tombs that cover the church.








I'm so lazy, I won't write a description I'll just let you read it.

Up close pic of the tomb. Read the inscription.
I really like this picture for some reason. I had to ask the caretaker what it was. I forget the proper name now, but it's what they baptise babies in.






Yes this is still St. Barts. The trashcan, phone and miscellaneous crap is all in plain view in a corner of the church.



This is the founder's Tomb. Prior Rahere. He died in 1143.







This is the hallway to cloister aka where the monks lived.

right: The inscription underneath this memorial reads, "Behowdle youreselves by vs svtche once were we as you and yov in tyme shalbe even dvste as we are now"


Some of the memorials were very modest like this one. Others...








...were more ornate like this one. This person was a helper(employee?) of Queen Elizabeth I.

It's too dark to see but this is a floor to ceiling organ.

Sorry about the wierd spacing I'm still having trouble figuring out pictures on this thing. Also the British keyboard is different from ours so if I have a bajillion typos that's why.

London!

Well it is now the end of my second week in London! So sorry I haven't done any posts! I have been soooo busy! I'm going to try and start writing a little bit everyday. Heres some pictures of where I'm living in London. Our location is amazing.

The front door.

This is in the front entrance to the house. I have to walk up four flights of these to get to my room. I have to walk six of these to get from the kitchen on the lowest floor to my room. Sorry its so dark I forgot to put the flash on.

My door.

My room! Because someone dropped out of going on the trip I got to have a single room. It has a view of the garden and that window lets in great light when its sunny. For some reason this picture came out really dark even though sunlight is streaming through the windows. I'm hoping its just this computer that I'm on. It's old. If it is dark to yall leave a comment so I know it's my camera setting or something.

The view from my window!

New glasses and a cool dress

Yay! New glasses! Not only are they anti glare, anti scratch, and any other anti you would want they have scotch guard(!I know what?!). It's supposed to make them easier to clean, rain apparently rolls off them, it makes them even more scratch resistant, and in my opinion have the power to stop pollution and crime. Impressive. I feel dumb taking pictures of myself so I warmed up by taking some pictures with J.P. my brother and guitarist extraordinaire.


JP and I. We can never take a good picture of the two of us without funny faces or something to screw it up.
My brother has a fro. Bad ass.

Awww. That's a good one. Mostly. Except that it's blurry and my head looks teeny and his head looks giant.

Finally a good one!

New glasses! I'm happy even though I look pissed.

There we go that's better.

Now for the hard part: figuring out the timer. I love this dress. It was my moms in high school and I think it's great, so to figure out the timer the subject will be my dress.

Left- OK. Note to self a two second timer is not enough time to do anything.

Down- Second note to self, ten seconds seems like a long time when you're just standing there.

Me: Jeez hasn't it been ten seconds yet? Maybe I didn't set it right. Let me just bend down and take a look. Click. Well, at least it worked.

I don't know why I'm smiling and squinting. Is that how I look whenever I don't understand/am trying to figure something out? So confused I'm squinting(like that will help) and smiling at myself because I'm dumb?

There we go. Isn't that a cool dress? And yay I know how to use the timer now!

This last one is my favorite picture of the day. It was taken when I was still trying to figure out the timer so it's blurry. I like it. It looks like I'm dancing.

Late Pre-Christmas Christmas pictures

Pretty nice left side of a front yard!

I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my new camera to the computer! I feel very accomplished now! So, finally here are some of the Pre-Christmas Christmas pictures. All of these were taken in Grammy's yard.

Rachael holding an icicle
Deer tracks!
Deer tracks leading into a den!

Sledding!

More icicles!

Can you tell I'm from Florida?

Uncle John. He was using the tractor to clear the driveway for cars. Though the driveway was actually used for sledding.

Notice Rach playing with the pup in the background.