This seaon is brought to you by Benadryl...

So, anyway, all those years of slaving away on a farm, mowing fields, moving rocks, mining salt (ok, I exaggerate a little), and I have, you know, your usual amount of hay fever. Usually I got all sneezy and itchy after I did something silly like mowed over a gopher hole (big belch of dirt, random crap, whatever). And then I go and move into the big city, where you'd think there wouldn't be so many things to be allergic to. Yeah right. Cherry trees - flowering weapons of mass destruction. Daffodils, forsythia, you name it - if it's planted in the city and looks pretty in the spring, I'm allergic. It's not your usual sneezy wheezy type allergy either - it's a much more 'urban', itchy eyes and puffy face type allergy. I'm lobbying the city to have the trees covered with plastic in the spring, but so far haven't had much luck.

Anyway, I've decided to join either the 21st or perhaps late 20th century and actually post some pics in my blog (and David is busy putting several thousand (literally) online, though I'm not sure where they are at the moment. I have yet to join Facebook, and am holding out for a written invitation and sum of no less than six figures.

Yeah - and back in the real world... I've got a few pics here - these are from bike rides and wandering around in London over the past few weeks.

This first one is a few weeks ago, about 15 miles north of London, looking back towards the city (in the far distance).



This next one is a sign pointing to a new housing development in East London. I just liked the name, for some reason... ;-)



This is a church near Windsor - just thought it looked really cool with the monkey puzzle tree...



Windsor Castle... What you can't see here are the hordes of touristas that descend on the town (I tend to stop in Windsor for a snack when I'm cycling west of London - it has a Starbucks, which usually means a guaranteed potty! :-)



Here we have the not-quite-completed Olympic stadium. What is a bit difficult to tell is the size of the fence, which is about 20 feet tall with about 10 strands of electric wire on top. That'll keep those nasty Parisians out of there!



This is last weekend at Hampton Court - lotsa daffodils.



On my bike last weekend - random country road west of London - very good biking country.



I didn't actually get the name of this town, but there are quite a few little towns that look about like this (the newer towns aren't quite so charming...)



Southern English countryside...