Walking with Jasper in the Neighborhood

I recently spent two weeks in England being as much of a non-tourist as I could possibly be. I have no photos of London. I took no tours except on foot around Norwich. London will be another day and is not my main interest in England anyway. Most of the English literature I read takes place somewhere other than London. These are the places I'm more interested in exploring, though, yes, of course, I'll do a tour of London some time, no doubt.

Bear in mind that not everyone rushes to see Washington, DC on their first trip to the United States. Heck, I live here, and I didn't visit DC until I was in college. I did, however, spend a lot of time growing up in Florida at the local beaches and watering holes. Not grand adventures, but I certainly thought those trips were fun, particularly the times when I'd spend most of the day out on the ocean, floating on a rubber raft. I was oblivious to the fact that nothing separated me from the sharks and other monsters of horrific proportions was air and a bit of rubber (thank you, Jaws, for scaring the holy beejeebers out of me in regards to the ocean).

On those days on total relaxation and floating on the waves, my body would become so attuned to the rhythm of the waves that when we drove back home, I would begin to fall asleep in the backseat of the car. When I closed my eyes, I could still feel my body rocking with the gentle wave motion of the ocean.

Jasper, whom you've met before at this site, was one of my hosts on this trip to England. This first little tour you're going to get is narrated by him. He seems to have taken a liking to sharing his world with the readers of AGNADL.


"Next to my yard is a lovely walking path that is, of course, open to the public. the little fence thing is called a stile. This is where our tour of the neighborhood begins. Follow me, ladies and gents."


"You'll have to walk a bit faster than that if you're going to keep up with me. I have four legs to your two, I realize, but your legs are a bit longer than mine after all. Step lively please."


"I'm not really sure what the big deal is about the red metal box, but my guest seems to be enamored with the oddest things, so we had to pause here while she snapped a photo. I like this woman a lot because she really knows how to give a cat massage, but she is a little odd."


"Now I guess we've stopped here for a photo of a thatched roof, but I'm a little uneasy about the less than friendly dog, so I'm going to move along and hope you'll keep up the pace."


"Yeah, a brick house with a white picket fence and a cool looking door. Be sure to put this one on your must see list when you come to England. Hehe. I told you she was an odd one."


"Finally! Back to my space. We have a great backyard, which you've seen in other tours I've led, but you didn't get to see the little patio space back there. Has a lovely view of all the grass, trees, and flowers back there. Hope you enjoyed the tour. Not much to it really but that's what she did on her first venture out and about.


I'm ready for a nap though. *yawn* See you another time then."

Editor of AGNADL and Jasper