11 & 12 April
Tuesday, J&N stayed home and waited for the telephone installer. B&P went back to the "SS Great Britain" museum and finished up where they left off earlier. They came back for lunch and vacillated about their afternoon's plan. The weather turned to a drizzly rain that kept up for hours. With the weather giving that kind of incentive, B&P decided that Tuesday would be a good time to lay back and recharge. Besides, they had been without the Internet too.
When the installer showed up, there were three computers up and operational, waiting for access to the Internet. Any attempt on his part to suggest that access would have to be confirmed from the home office in a couple of days fell on less than sympathetic ears. With the phone installed, the guy was able to get confirmation by phone, and suddenly a pack of drooling jackals lost interest and wandered off.
We did find one small problem with the Internet installation. Telewest, the ISP, has their system set up so that only one computer could access the net. We all had to wait our turn and share. We did and it all worked out
Bristol Blue Glass was first made in Bristol in the 1600s, and there was a thriving glass industry here until the early 1800s, when it and many of the glass blowers moved to the U.S. As we watched the two blowers and two apprentice assistants make little blue pitchers and large cranberry goblets, the current owner of the Blue Glass company spent a lot of time explaining the history of the glass industry, the process, his workers, and his products. Nancy bought a pretty little blue vase and a large blue glass ball for their Christmas tree.
B&P didn't get away until after lunch. They visited two houses about 10 miles southwest of Bristol toward the coast of the Bristol Channel. The first was Tyntesfield (pronounced Tintsfield), a huge Victorian Gothic fantasy, as it's called in the brochure! A movie called Paradise was being filmed there, so crews were busy installing fake wisteria vines for the spring scenes, fake snow for winter scenes, and fake autumn leaves for fall scenes! Some of the rooms were closed because of the filming, but it was so much fun seeing the movie stuff that no one cared. Too bad there were no sightings today of the stars, Sam Neill, Charlotte Rampling, and a British young lady whose name is unfamiliar. The oldest area of the second house, Clevedon Court, was built in the 1300s and the current owners are still living there! Lots of medieval stonework combined with upgrades like electricity and plumbing made for an interesting tou
Bristol changes its weather at the drop of a hat. It can go from sunny and bright to drizzle and back to overcast in minutes. The overall effect is that the weather is cool. Spring is busting out all over, but it's taking a little longer than what we see in California. The daffodils are in bloom and large clusters are arranged wherever you look. For some reason the grass stays short allowing the flowers to be displayed to maximum advantage. (We were told that it's short-growing grass! Gotta get some.)
The trees are putting on their summer foliage and blossoms, but with the cool weather this, too, is happening slowly.