Autumn Comes to York

This is St. Paul's Mews, the park across the street from our flat. The trees are some of the prettiest color seen around here (most of the trees just turn brown). All the flowers were removed from the city flower beds and we thought that would be it until spring.  Surprise - the next week they were filled with pansies and primroses!  I guess they don't expect any hard freezes during the winter, which is good news for us.  The weather continues to be cool and cloudy, often with heavy misting (or "dull, damp and spitting" as the weather woman on the telly says). 

Below just another interesting piece of English life: shopping for dish soap.  With no pictures on the label, John wasn't quite sure if this was meant for 'washing up' dishes, clothes or bodies:

If you need a Band-Aid here you ask for a "plaster."  Scotch-tape is "sello" (celo?) One of my office-mates says he brings his lunch rather than going out to eat with the others because he is "skint." (That means he's short on funds, not that he is thrifty.) Another person was looking for a "Biro" - she needed a pen.  When I arrive at the office in the morning, the greeting is "hiya!" Ruth had been out the night before and said she was really "knackered" (which means tired, not hung-over). They tried one day to explain to me the difference between digestives, biscuits, cookies, short bread and tea cakes (all of which look like a cookie to me). They call cakes puddings....but then then call almost any dessert a pudding (other than the things that look like cookies). Whatever you call them, they're good!

I'm reading the first Harry Potter book, which I purchased here.  It's called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (not the Sorcerer's Stone, as it was in the U.S.).  It didn't take long to find British-isms: Knickerbocker Glory is a type of ice cream sundae; trainers are what we call sneakers or tennis shoes. It also mentions several times that the students are doing "revisions" which means studying for exams. I wonder how much they changed things in the book for the U.S. market?