Guns defending the Americas from the British feature in nearly all east coast ports

Guns which were trained on the British are a feature of nearly all the east coast places we visited in America and Canada.

Battery Park, New York is named after the battery of guns which were placed there. This is a picture of the park featuring the remains of a sculpture damaged in the 2001 atrocities.

Perhaps most surprising among the evidence of guns trained on the British is found at Anglophile Boston.

Particularly in "Old Ironside" the US Constitution, we so much enjoyed going over when we crossed the Charles River to Charlestown. The descendants of those independently-minded puritans, who founded Boston and Charlestown, were among the most determined to rid their "New World" of the crippling taxation and political control of their English cousins.

I was uploading a picture of the fort at Halifax complete with a tartan-clad sentry, when the laptop I write this blog on died completely. Unfortunately it contained the picture, but hopefully it can be salvaged from the hard disc. It illustrated yet more defenses against the British on the west coast of America. I also hope to be able to salvage a picture of the guns which were trained on the British at Quebec, that Canadian city which has a flavour of Ancien Regime France, yet its palaces are egalitarian... hotels and railway stations. Quebec has also retained its walls and fortifications. The resulting citadel is very picturesque on the approach from the St Laurence River. Just to complete the blog, here is a picture of the British fort at Halifax...

And here is a picture taken below Chateau Fontenac on the promenade above the defences...

And to finish, a picture of the defences around Quebec seen from the sea at night.

I phone the family from Newport

Picture right, is the spot where I made my mobile phone call... it was so good to hear everyone's voices, sounding so near, yet so far away...

I phoned the family from Newport, Rhode Island. I spoke to my grandsons who were at an art exhibition in Norwich, featuring their grandfather's paintings, with their Mum and Dad. I was outside the Anglican church in Newport, more or less in the very spot where this picture was taken.The church looks as if it had been transported from the City of London to Newport with its Wren/Hawksmoor style of architecture. I remember standing there and thinking how extraordinary it was to be able to talk to the family from so far away from a tiny mobile phone, but also, what an immense pleasure. Inside the church notable features were high sided pews for nursing mothers and wonderful Tiffany windows.

We then went to have coffees and cakes at a little cafe and looked for the 7 for all Mankind jeans for my youngest son in the shops, where the young assistants enjoyed trying to track down a local stockists on their computer. I found out I could have got them in Bloomingdales, but the message failed to come through when I was in there. I've just noticed the name below the window, Cornelius Vanderbilt and I remember how our guide pointed out a Vanderbilt mansion nearby,

New York is like nowhere else on this planet

I've been looking back on my trip to New York. Almost two days of exploring that busy city, but it wasn't enough and I have to go back. Here is a picture of the High Line, which I would recommend to anyone contemplating a visit to the city. The street furniture was amazing. I'm glad one of my friends took the time to photograph one of those ubiquitous fire hydrants.

There are two eloquent bunches of street furniture from the same photographer. It says so much about this city which pulls in cultural tourists from all over America and the world.

Re--Reading Helene Hanff's "Apple of My Eye" has also brought back memories of taking the cable car from Roosevelt Island to visit Bloomingdales.

And look at those blue skies. Weren't we the lucky ones?

Wildlife we encountered in the Americas

 I wanted to share a few pictures of the wildlife we encountered in the New World. We saw many sparrows darting about in the vegetation on the High Line in New York. My friends had anticipated we would see plenty of the Monarch butterflies, so prolific along the east coast of America and I did see one, on the lawn of the synagogue in NewportThese butterflies are huge and also known as Milkweeds after the vegetation they feed on. In the ports we were struck by the huge gulls we saw.

This one was flying over Halifax. It was also in Halifax that the starlings provided a talking point for the couple we met, who had ancestral connections with the puritans from England who founded Boston in the 1630s.

And the black squirrels which darted about the park in Quebec were a delight.

Still enamoured with my trip years later

I should have come back from across the Atlantic a long time ago. I did in person, but not necessarily in spirit. I have put a picture of the castle and park here which is a few minutes walk from my home. Since one of my traveling companions has just given me some more pictures, I will mention briefly my journey back and then add a few special reminiscences with some more photos. We were among the last to disembark Arcadia and sat comfortably in the Crows Nest, where we had enjoyed so many quizzes with our friends, waiting to be called. We found our luggage easily on shore, they were the only cases left. We only had to trundle them to the collection point for the homeward dispatch service, then we were free to go home. It is noticeable that private cars and taxis going to and from the port of Southampton don't notice pedestrians. We were not the only people walking away from the port, but it took a long time to cross the road and then we were hooted aggressively either to prevent us crossing, or because we had the cheek to cross. Once at the station we took the train back to London. On the Liverpool Street line, there were engineering works, which resulted in a train to Billericay and then a bus through Essex country lanes and suburbs to Witham, then a train from Witham to Colchester. The journey was a bit surreal after a trip across the Atlantic and such a contrast to walking and taking the subway around New York that I will use it as an excuse to post a New York picture here.