Henry IV was born here

...well, not in this cottage,
but turn right just before you reach it and about ten yards further on you will find yourself at Bolingbroke Castle,
where the future King Henry IV was born in 1366/7 (depends which account you read).  

There are many websites which give the history of the castle, like this one, so I won't bore you with too much history.

This is how it may have looked -

 but this is how it looks these days.

The stones still speak, if you take the time to listen.

Luckily, there are lots of helpful information boards to help fill in the gaps.

What remains of the kitchen... inside and out.

The castle may be in ruins but it is still a wonderful place to visit and let your imagination fly.

*   *   *

Thank you for your wonderful comments on my previous post.

Susan, Ming Ming has sent me her recipe,

I'll be posting it soon.

Jane, Joanne and Val:  they live in a part of Shanghai 

which I will be posting about soon.

They chose to go there because it is very convenient

for Jon's work at the uni.

Pam, it is lovely to meet you!

*   *   *

Apologies to one and all.

Our internet connection is
misbehaving again.

The simplest task takes forever,

with frequent dropped connections,

emails disappear into the ether,
this page has gone down several times
and it all causes

enormous frustration.

George has had many conversations

with Indian call centres
all very polite
and totally
ineffectual.

We are still beset by problems.

Oh, well, back to the spring cleaning.

xxx