A weekend at the Lakes

Last weekend I needed to get away. I was in desperate need of a change of pace and change of scenery. Schools were finishing up and I didn't have any work so I headed off to the Lake District.

I love the lakes. It was one of those incredibly picturesque places where everyone seems conscientious and welcoming, the lakes are deep and the mountains high.
I headed over to Aunty Pauline and Uncle Ian's for a bit of R'n'R. I spent a lovely weekend sunning myself in the continued glorious weather as well as visiting a few sites that I haven't seen yet.
Aunty Pauline and I went out to Brougham Castle. It is different to the other castles I have seen so far if only because it is made of red stone. It seems quite a soft stone too, given the wearing on the stone.
There were lots of nooks and crannies to explore and a few gaderobes to look down the shoots of.
There was one room in particular in the castle which was worth seeing and I was surprised by the peace and how well it has survived. On the very top floor of the castle, to which the only way up is via a steep spiral staircase, there is the remains of the family church (but that is not the word for it. I can't think what it is at the moment). Anyway, it is beautiful with the remains of the stone work patterning still remaining, as well as the stone roof and arches. There is even the remains of the holy water bowl dug out of the stone and a face carved from stone that looks down from the centre of the ceiling's arches.

Leaving Brougham castle we made our way out towards Long Meg and her daughters. However, on the

way up we briefly pulled up to King Arthur's Round Table which was a neolithic settlement. I didn't actually get to see it though. It was set in the middle of a farmer's field and there were huge, gorgeous eyed cows in the paddock. When I stepped into the field to have a look at the information plaque a few of them started staring at me then ambling towards me, then speeding towards me. I walked back out. They were cows, not bulls, but nevertheless I wasn't feeling safe. If there was a fence between me and the cows and they approach I would give them a pat but I get the feeling being trampled by said cows might not be nearly as much fun. They were territorial - must have had their cow-PMS.
We headed on up to see Long Meg and her daughters. It is a huge standing stone circle. There is one long stone, Long Meg, that stands outside of the circle an is made of red stone. It has the remains of early man patterns that were etched into it. They were circles upon circles. It was very beautiful. The daughters are the 70 large boulder-like rocks that form the stone circle. I couldn't actually get far enough away to get all the stones in, it was wide spread. It was interesting to see that the farmer respected the circle too. Instead of moving the stones out of the way to that they could put a road through, the road actually splits in two. It still goes through the middle of the stone circle, but the dirt tracks actually go between two sets of stones.
Up at Long Meg there was an overwhelming sense of solitude and tranquility, the same comfort one gets from knowing your mother is there looking over you. I felt very safe and could have stayed longer. As it was, we sat on one of the rocks and had some lunch before popping down the road to a farm house for some very rich hot chocolate made with full cream milk, fresh from the cows, and real chocolate. It was, in a word, decadent.

The next day with the sun bearing down, Aunty Pauline and I went out to (I think this is right) Crummick Water. We walked around a bit of the lake, stopped and had a orange while looking out across the fells and the rich blue lake water, before heading back for a chilled out afternoon in the sun.

On my way back up from the Lakes on the Monday, I made a stop off at Lanercost Priory. It is a place with

a rich history. It was built in the 12th Century and amazingly, despite the fact that it is slap bang in the middle of nowhere, a part of the church is still in use by the local villages and the village hall is the same hall that it was 900 years ago. Parts of the priory have been left to ruin which I walked through. I sat and did a bit of sketching and took a few photos. One of the things I remember most about Lanercost is the tomb to the baby. Obviously in the 1800's lots of children died but I have never seen a tomb to one. The father of the child was a member of the art movement and he designed the tomb lid to reflect the child. It is sweet and very sad to see a child cast in stone, forever sleeping.

I ended up splurging a fair amount of money at the site as well. There was this stunning tapestry of a lady giving her favour to a knight who was about to ride off into battle. The scene is extraordinary in the details and I hummed and haahed over it for the better part of two hours before going back to the shop and buying it for a whopping 115 pounds. I knew, in my soul, that I would regret it if I didn't buy it. And this being the year of no regrets... well, it is now packed away in the suitcase, awaiting return to New Zealand.

On a side note, I can't believe that I have been over here for 6 and a half months! I only have 4 months left. It's going so fast.

Keeping busy

I have been trying to keep myself entertained on the weekends and now that I am on school holiday, I am trying to keep myself entertained during the week. It is actually pretty hard.
In the past month I have been all over the place.

Grandad and I went to Housesteads Roman fort. The weather was gorgeous and the sun was shining. I

was a bit nervous about taking grandad all the way out there because I knew there was a bit of a hike to get to the fort and wall itself. However, he handled it admirably and we stopped at a few points up the hill for a little rest. His poor knees on the steep up and down! Not to worry, we weren't in any hurry and it was nice to admire the scenery, even if I was itching to get to the top and climb the wall. As it was, when we reached the top, I showed remarkable restraint. I brought us ice creams then we sat and ate them, not even looking at the wall. It is hard to be right beside something but not touch it.
We eventually got to the ruins and the wall. It was grandad's first time on the Roman wall. I couldn't believe that in the 85 years that he has lived in Consett, so close to the wall, he has never been. I was glad I was able to rectify that.
I love Hadrian's wall. It is 1900 years old and still standing. It has seen many people walk it, fight over it, die on it, and still it stands. It stretches for 70 miles. That is seriously impressive for people who lived so long ago and everything was done by hand... and slave. What makes me sad is when I see bits of it that have been destroyed in the days before historical conservation.

Hayley and I went for a long drive up to Lindisfarne Island. I have wanted to go there for months but this

was the first time the weather was good and the timing perfect for the crossing. Apparently many other people felt the same way. It was very, very busy. So busy in fact that the priory was closed and we couldn't get into it until 3pm. We vetoed that idea and instead went for a traipse around the castle. We walked up to the castle, around a bit of the island, looked at the gardens then chilled out in the shade when it got too hot.
I actually quite liked the island. I think with less people it would be a bit more peaceful but there was so many people on pilgrimage. It is a holy place. Some saint or another lived there at some point... you know me and religion - can't recall who it was. There was also posses of nuns everywhere. I don't know about you, but when I see nuns I get very nervous. They actually kind of scare me in the way that clowns scare some people. I feel very uneasy around them. And then, on top of that there were priests and catholic something-or-others (dunno what they were but they wore purple cowl-dress thingys the Catholic hobknobs love so much). I felt bad for showing off so much cleavage but dammit, it was hot! I wrapped my shawl around my shoulders and chest when I saw them. I avoided eye contact, secretly worried that they would talk to me - Why? I don't know. I doubt they even looked at me, let alone thought, 'Right there! That is a heathan! Can spot one a mile away... best we convert her now!'. Arghhh.
The castle is lovely, on a side not to my above rant. It is a bit like 'grandmothers broom' - you know, it has

had the bristles replaced, and the handle replaced multiple times but it is still the same broom it was 80 years ago. Similar with the castle. It has been built and rebuilt but it is still the castle of old... only it isn't.
Below the castles are huge lime kilns that they used back in the day. I had Hayley guard my bag and went exploring inside one of the kilns. I am not sure you were supposed to climb through the narrow opening into the kiln, but hey, if they didn't want you to climb through holes they would block them off. The opening was on the ground and was just the right size to shuffle through on hands and knees. Hayley took a photo of me from the outside, looking into one of the air vent holes. Hello.

Grandad and I also went out to Prudhoe castle. That is an impressive site/sight. I had not been called into

work so I made plans to visit one of the local castles on the English heritage roll. I wasn't expecting much so I was pleasantly surprised buy the grandeur of such ruin. The reason, I learnt was that until recently part of the castle was actually being used. In the 1700's a house was built inside the walls of the castle ruins but had been gifted to the trust to look after. We had a a look around the inside of the house, at the ruins and then we went for a walk around the outer bailey walls. This wouldn't have been such a problem if I hadn't lost grandad at that point.
We walked all the way around the walls and as we got back to the start I said to grandad that I was going to have a look at the mill which was down a steep embankment. I thought that grandad would just go back to the castle and sit at one of the benches. After I had looked my fill and taken plenty of photos I went into the castle grounds - no grandad. I wondered if he had gone out to the car - nope. I thought he may have gone to the loo. I waited outside the toilet - no go. I was getting a bit worried and started to ask people if they had seen an old man with a walking stick. No. Oh, god, I have lost grandad. It was all I could think.
I was coming back up from the car park when I saw him coming back around the castle. Turns out he had walked the entire castle walls again. He couldn't figure out how I was ahead of him when I had been behind him. I had to explain that I hadn't moved and that he had walked it twice. Ooops.

Manly men in kilts

A few weeks back I went to the Highland Games in Fife. They were held in a wee town called Ceres that any other time of the year has a very small population. But one day a year it explodes and people from all over Scotland and abroad bear down on the small town.
I stayed with Megan, a girl that I met when I was up in Aberdeen. She invited me to stay with her family and go to the games. I was welcomed warmly and they went out of their way to make me feel at home.
It took 4 hours to drive up to Fife and when I arrived, I threw my things down, got to know Megan's mum and dad then we headed off for a walk. It stays so light here that we didn't get back till 10.30pm when it was finally getting dark.
The next morning Megan, acting as tour guide, took me on a walk along the cliff tops and to an old fishing village. We must have walked for around 2 hours. It was a solid distance too but the views were worth it.
After a glorious, if not exhausting walk, it was time to head to the games.
I have always wanted to go to the games. Always. It was not a let down in the slightest. We grabbed Scottish beef burgers and a can of Iron Bru, found a bit of hill on which to sit, and settled in for the next four hours.
The games were in the village green right in the centre of the tiny town. The games began in Ceres after the battle of Bannockburn when King William (?) gifted them the right to hold the games every year. The only time the games haven't been on was during WWI and WWII. Anyway, they have been held for 900 odd years. That is quite impressive.

There was highland dancing in the middle of the the field with bagpiper. The the right was highland wrestling, a unique kind of wrestling where the two opponents hug each other close then try to throw the other to the ground. To the left was the hammer throw, caber tossing, a boulder toss, and something that resembled tossing a small hay barrel over a rugby post with a pitchfork.
Around the outside of these activities was a cycle track and space for foot races. There was also room for tug-of-war. There was so much to look at that I felt like I was always missing out.
That night Megan took me out on the town. It was good fun. It was her cousin's birthday so they were playing pub golf. What a crazy game. There is a hell of a lot of drinking involved. I was invited to play but I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up. At one of the pubs there was a hen's night and a fireman stripper. He was incredibly built up top with so much muscle that I don't think it was physically possible for him to lower his arms to his sides. The problem was that on his lower half, he seemed to have forgotten to bulk up his legs. I was pretty sure that if he fell over his legs wouldn't be strong enough to get him upright again.
Anyway, it was a great weekend away and I finally got to see the games.

I like sweet cakes

What does Iss ma lum cocka millish mean? It means I like sweet cakes in Gaelic. A handy saying, as was told to us by our tour guide when looking to pick up a guy or girl, to strike up a conversation.
Now, where are we up to... Killarney.
Killarney is a great place. The national park is incredibly green and wet. Apparently over the winter parts of the park flood which lends itself to the moist nature of the park. I was pretty tired so I had an early night when we arrived into Killarney. The next morning was exciting as we all loaded onto a series of horse drawn carts and went for a jaunt around Killarney National Park. There was a castle on an island in the middle of the lake. The guide told us that when they were renovating the castle they found a skeleton in a boarded up room. On the skeleton was a badge that said "World's Best Hide and Seek Champion". Teeheehee.

After a lovely morning of horse and wagon, we made our way onto Inch beach for a quick look then out towards Dingle. The weather was overcast and we were all hoping that the weather was going to improve for the afternoon so that we would be able to see much of the Ring of Kerry.

In Dingle we stopped and had lunch. I tried sea salt flavoured ice cream. I did not like it. It was salty and sweet at the same time. No thanks. Dingle is the home of the legendary dolphin called Fungie. We did not see the dolphin but we did have a ride on the statue, as you can see.
By the time the afternoon rolled around the weather had improved drastically and we began our journey out towards the ring of Kerry.

It is the most stunning coast I have seen. It is rugged and beautiful, green and blue.Mark the guide was great at navigating the twisty turny roads and he even let us out to walk along part of the cliff top road as it was such a beautiful day. It gave us the chance to stop and take lots of photos.

We also went to the Beehive houses on the coast. They were replica (and I think one original) stone 'houses' shaped like beehives. They were what the Irish used to live in. They were left overs from the Far and Away film with Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in. This lovely, little old lady whose land it was that they shot parts of the film on, lets the public in to view them for 2 euro each. We had a look-see, admired the views as the houses were set on a hill side that over-looked the sea and coast line, then headed on further around the coast.

We stopped at a few different beaches and even made our way out to a fertility stone. The story goes that if you are needing to be fertile then you and your partner rub your bottoms against the stone at the same time and voila! There are some strange stories out there but all in good fun.

That night we were in a wee town outside of Dingle. It was our last night together so we all headed to the pub where a round of kareokee had been ordered. It was good fun. The kareokee guy set it all up and was waiting and waiting for someone to have a go, trying to get some on up and I said, ya know what, why not!? So I walked on up, strutting my awesome self across the floor, requested a song and I was off. I sang 'One way or another' - pretty damn well too, just saying. After that, everyone was up and moving, making the most of the machine, requesting song after song.
I tried a new drink that night. It was called a car bomb. Kind of ironic for Ireland. Mind you, I think you can only get them in the South of Ireland. I don't think the Northerners would appreciate the name. The drink is a half pint of Guiness and a shot glass of half baileys, halt whiskey. You drink the head off the Guiness, then drop the shot in the glass and skull it back. It tastes surprisingly nice. Like a chocolate milkshake with alcohol. The problem lies in the next morning when your guts are twisting. Then it ain't so nice.

The next morning we were off to Dublin. We did the Guiness Brewery and museum. There is lots to do and see there. I couldn't believe that the land has a 9000 year lease. Yes, 9000 years! While we were there we even got to pull our own pint. Great fun.