pause for thought

over to runnymede to fulfil my whim of seeing where the magna carta was signed (there's a memorial, erected by the american bar association - the british memorial slab, put up by the chap whose land the site is on, is hidden behind a tree in the back of the carpark. for some reason the british government etc has never bothered to put a nice slab of stone up to say thanks to the barons for giving us the most important legal rights of our lives). oddly, there's also a memorial to JFK, for reasons not too clear other than the government of the day liked him and thought they should do something to show it. that was planned as being item one but in fact was item two after a small signage issue... ah well.

item one turned out to be the air forces memorial - a wonderful, if sad place. it's a memorial of the kind you (ok, i) associate with french battlefields of the first world war, all shining white stone with immaculate lawns and a stillness that you find hard to imagine when you stand on the balcony and see the planes stack up for landing at heathrow. it was very moving to read the names and more so to read the notes left by relatives - there are a little over 20,000 names on the stone walls here, all airmen whose remains were never found. looked after by the commonwealth war graves commission, they ask nothing more than you remember and don't leave litter; they ask for no money (it's government-funded) and that makes it all the more important that you remember. anyone who follows airborneskygod on blip knows it's not the distant past, either, it's still to be remembered and marked and prayed/wished/hoped it stops soon.

on then to savill garden, with a swanky and wonderful visitor centre built since the last time my parents were here - and indeed a lot of new garden created since they were last here. a very nice lunch then a wander around, checking out some of the biggest acers i've ever seen. the only problem was that we went to wisley first - if we'd come here I'd have liked it more. it's not that it's not great, just that it's not on the scale or style of wisley (tho it did have some great ducklings).

finally a garden centre, where i was the only person to buy a plant (99p on a lemon basil, last of the big spenders!), then an ice-cream and home to crash in front of the tuesday night csi/etc marathon in my room. holidays are great, no?

backblipped from here