Tea in Grantchester and Riots in London

"Stands the church clock at ten-to-three
And is there honey still for tea?"
-Rupert Brooke

I had tea in the orchard at Grantchester yesterday.


The orchard (owned by Kings College) was first planted in 1868. Students began drinking their tea there in the spring of 1987--and the orchard hasn't changed much since then. Rupert Brooke, Rutherford, Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf, A A Milne King George VI, and Prince Charles are a mere sampling of the people who have drunk their tea in this orchard. Of course, ordinary people drink their tea there as well...like me.


I ordered a fruit tea and a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. It was heavenly. I'd never heard of clotted cream before I'd had a real British scone, but it definitely takes those unbelievably good scones to a new level. So good. This is definitely one of the things I'll miss as far as British food goes. It was beginning to sprinkle when we got our food, so we ate in the pavilion--the same pavilion that literary geniuses such as Virginia Woolf took shelter under when it began to rain. Here's to hoping that some of that literary genius stuff rubs off. 

tea & scones.

After tea, it had stopped raining...so we began to walk back. We took a different route back, following the Cam. English countryside is so beautiful. 

katelyn, kiri, and i!
kiri is visiting katelyn (kiri also went to
hamilton high school) for a couple days. :)

English countryside.

keep your face to the sun.

[i don't want to think about leaving.
where has the time gone?]

On an entirely different, and much less peaceful, note, there has been a lot of rioting going down in London lately. Arson, looting, violence...it's spreading around England. The sale of baseball bats on Amazon has increased 8,000% in England since the rioting began. Kind of scary, huh. In fact, BYU is sending the study-abroad students in the London Center home early. 


As I was running last night, I noticed quite a few police cars sitting around in Cambridge and lots policemen making their rounds. Cambridge hasn't had any big incidents though--still feels really safe. Tourists were stopping the policemen and asking to get their picture taken with them. Kind of funny.


However, the situation itself is very sobering. It was definitely a big wake-up call--life in Cambridge has been so wonderful that I've forgotten to keep up with what's going on in the rest of the world. My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the violence.