Evidently a big weather front is blowing in over most of the country. North of here it means very cold temperatures and a lot of snow, several feet of it in some parts of the country, including Floyd Virginia. I am sorry it is going to be nasty outside for awhile, but am thankful most of my friends seem ready for it and are all tucked in safe and warm at the moment.
    For me the shift in the weather meant hard, hard rain for most of the morning here in Florida. I am so thankful to have had some time yesterday to get up on the roof and do some much needed maintenance on the vents and such. As far as I can see there were no leaks from any of the places where I had seen water in the past. There is still some additional work to do on a few things outside, but that will have to wait until the weather clears off once again and the temperature edges up into the 70's again.
    So I stayed in for most of the day and read my book and watched another Star Wars movie. I have to ask; was there ever a movie character more annoying than Jar Jar Binks? They really should of killed him off as soon as they thought him up. Barring that, a happy little accident with a blaster or light saber would of been nice.
    It did stop raining finally, though it is due to rain more later on. Right now though it is almost nice outside. I am just having a bite of dinner out before heading off to the first night of the Florida 'Snow Ball', a weekend contra dance which is always among the best of the year. I am so looking forward to dancing again and just wish my sweetie was here to dance with me.

 Contra Dance Week in Ely England - April 7 to 16 - Part XI

Sandringham Palace, one of the Queens summer homes. This is a view of the grounds as we walk into the site.

Our first view of the actual palace. This was one of the many side tours that you could take while attending the dance week in Ely. Our host, Gwyn, made available buses for people who wanted to go if enough interest was shown. Then everyone who went was responsible for paying their own fees and bus costs. It was a great system that seemed to work out very well.

From what I could figure out the Queen, or her relatives, would visit this home for only a few weeks out of a year. In the past they would keep a complete set of workers there just to care take the place and keep it ready for someone to show up. These days they also allow commoners to come and visit and see how the upper crust might live, and to help defray the costs of course.

A cherry or crab apple tree in bloom.

A nearly whole view of the "home". It was hard to get it all to fit into a single picture since it is so large and spread out. And I have a pretty wide angled lens to boot. Of course this doesn't show any of the other large out buildings that go with the estate.

You can't take pictures of the interior of the main house so I will just have to say that it was stunning. This is the outside of one of the satellite buildings that was kind of a garage and museum all in one. I was fascinated by the wall finish on this building as it reminded me very much of some of the old 'Pueblo' building I saw in New Mexico at Chaco Canyon.

One of many of the horse drawn coaches in the museum part. I believe this one is called a Brougham.

A cute little single horse 'cart'.

The workmanship on these wagons and coaches is superb.

This one is interesting as it would of gone out in the field with a group of hunters any time they went out grouse/pheasant or wild stag shooting. It was used to haul the days kill back to the main hall to be prepared for dinner.

Several of the older, retired Roll's that were housed in the museum. These two from the era between WWI and WWII.

I liked this pair of a hand built Range Rover and it's accompanying trailer. Evidently used more for picnics out in the wild, than it was for extended camping trips, it was still a nice little outfit.

A beautiful hand built Roll's with wooden finishes.

A view of one of the buildings that housed some of the workers at Sandringham.

brk*