Gloucester Cheese Rolling

Memorial Day, 2009. Annual Cheese Rolling Festival.

Cooper's Hill, Gloucester. (pronounced Glaw-ster)

Such random hilarity!

Waiting at the base of the "runway" inbetween races.

A friend made this pretty little buttercup necklace, which Sophie loved...and convinced me to teach her how. Elementary school skills came in handy here!

Barbecue at the top of the hill. Glad that I didn't volunteer to haul the portable grill!

View at the valley...and a very small portion of the incredibly huge crowd for that altitude!

It's tradition to wear costumes and race the cheese down the hill. We saw many varieties...banana man, spiderman x 2, a cow, the mankini-man (try explaining that to a 5-year-old boy!) This celebrant (obviously inebriated!) on the trek back to the car, climbed into the pasture with a few horses. They were confused for just a bit, then figured him out and left him in their dust! We all laughed, but Sophie was angered at the guy for disturbing the horses. And, horse man didn't run so well in his flip flops!

Ahhh, relief! Stand-still traffic vs. at-capacity bladder. Winner= Michael!

Beautiful Bluebells

We found a lovely little grove of bluebells on our hike. We actually went looking for them. A good friend had told us about them and we were intrigued!

The sun was shinning and it was a beautiful day in and out of the forest. The bluebells did not disappoint!

Our own little bluebell!

Such delicate little flowers.

Amazing! They carpeted the forest floor. They were everywhere!

Sophie practicing her photography with our old camera. Riley's a great subject to capture!

The view from the edge of the forest. Typical English countryside, so pleasant. We all enjoyed hearing the little lambs baaing in the distance.

These fields are so pretty now. It's such a contrast with the green and blue. (I think it is rapeseed?) Is it the farm girl in me that loves the look of these fields? Surely not going to deny it!

May Day Celebration

Magdalen College choir kicks off May Day at 6am, singing a Latin hymn celebrating the morning. They're at the top of the tower in the distance...I think they must have microphones on! Of course, you'll have to listen carefully, the crowd is full of inebriated college students who can't turn their own volumes down for the event. Oh, and also our own kids...loud, too. They would be tired, but definitely NOT drunk! Thanks for the free balloons! Sophie was determined to get hers in a video/picture...or two!

Magdalen Tower with the choir in its ramparts. With sharp eyes you can make out a head or silhouette. The bridge between us and the tower was closed for the event...to deter college daredevils from leaping from the bridge to the River Cherwell below. Always some kind of injury with that behaviour. The river is only 2-3 feet deep there. (I would have liked to have been a bit closer to the tower.)

My sweetheart amid the growing morning crowd. (As I was focusing the camera on Michael, the couple directly behind just kept looking straight at me. I had to wait a few minutes until they finally looked away and pretended to be talking to each other!) Sorry for the wait, Michael. Lovely smile.

We first arrived at 5:45am and mayhem was already brewing! We soon found ourselves shoulder to shoulder with smokers, drinkers, kilts, tuxedos, bare skin, and a cow.

Trying to get a better view...and where did that cow go?