random scenes around town

So the other day, I was out running some errands,  and I found myself taking some random pictures with my phone.  Pictures of things that I noticed the first time we came here, but now seem normal and commonplace.  Eventually, I think I'll like looking back on these, because they're little touches that make this place itself, and make it really different from everywhere I've lived before. 

There are weird trees everywhere.  Some are just funny shapes, some have been trimmed to be that way.  We pass this tree almost every day, and I love it.  It's like an umbrella. 

 

Then there are the walls.  They have these weird rocks built into them, running in straight lines.  I like to think about the people who put these walls together, and why they used rocks, and how long it took.  Sometimes they use broken rocks (or maybe shells) instead. 

 

 

And it's not just walls.  There are a lot of houses built this way, too. 

 

Here's a house that has the different kind of broken rocks and shells along the outside.  Really weird.  Maybe there are buildings like this in other towns around here, too, but there's definitely nothing like it in Scotland or London.  (Or maybe there is.  But I never saw it.)

 

Also, some of the houses are huge.  Like that house above.  Does it even belong to just one person?  It's also surrounded by houses that look like it, with the small rocky walls and everything.  Then a few houses down the road, it switches to normal brick exterior.