Cherhill white horse

In Ireland and Scotland you get the sense that the windswept and untouched mountains, lakes, rocks, waterfalls, are endowed with spiritual qualities.... In England the people took time to add their own sense of wonder to the sacred hills... to get a sense of the size of this white horse at Cherhill imagine that the eye is about 2 meters across.

Jenny Nimmo

At the Childrens literature festival in Bath we got to go to a workshop and talk by Jenny Nimmo one of Aja’s favourite authors and pick up her latest book in the ‘charlie bone’ series... which Aja polished off in a day and a half.... so far Aja has read a novel about every three days as we travel between locations...

Stonehenge

England has had many different civilizations and has its share of sacred places, geographical locations, buildings, and environmental features...but one of the most moving to me was when we got a chance to walk around the prehistoric Stonehenge monument.. it was easy to imagine that we were walking amongst the ancient people who mapped the course of the sun and moon to build this monument.... at a time when we know so much it is nice to come across an ancient mystery..

Small World

Just when you think your traveling alone and in isolation.... you walk into a park enjoying the sun and the crowds of people dressed like the characters of Jane Austen's novels when you spot someone waving at you....... This is Lua Anderson...Her grand parents were friends with my parents and i went through elementary and high school with her father..... Lua and her brothers went to Maxwell International Bahai School where i visited them many times.... It was amazing and wonderful to meet up with her as she and 10 other canadians were in Bath for the Jane Austen festival, so we were introduced up close and personal to the World of Jane Austen which we knew little and the World of some Jane Austen fans who we knew lots..... small world

Jane Austen's England

We arrived in Bath just in time to see, enjoy, and take in the annual Jane Austen Festival... although i was hoping to see a roman town... with 400 plus people from all over the world here in bath for the week long Jane Austen festival... all walking around in period costumes it was amazing to just sit and watch and be transported back into the days of the King George's and the Regency Period... Yes the streets, shops, parks and coffee shops were full of the Bennets, the Bingleys, the Darcys the odd colonel Fitzwilliam and mr. Wickham and of course lets not forget the smattering of lady Catherine's and her daughter Anne de Borgh

UK Taxi

I could not leave this updating of the blog with Brittany and Michael... on a much brighter note... i have totally enjoyed the look of the Black taxi's that the UK is famous for (not unlike the yellow taxi's new york is famous for)... sure the double decker buses are cool too, there are thousands of them out there... but we live in victoria so they are far from uncommon... i have been delighted by the black taxi's... which in the past typified the words of Henry Ford... you can have a car of any colour you want, as long as it is black.... I love the new bright black taxis but am sure henry would be rolling over in his grave at the colours now....

Is this the news?

I had wondered how i would keep up with news from home while we were traveling .... but thank goodness for British Tabloids.. we have kept up on the continuing Michael Jackson saga... the news paper aja is reading has a half sister of michael's, from a second or third marriage by joe jackson... Anyway her story of meeting michael apparently needed to be featured on the front page so we could all hear her stroy... if you look at the other front covers closely you can see that brittany spears putting sun lotion on her legs with a good view of her private area (although covered this time) can still make the national headlines.... I am beginning to see why my ancestors headed to a new land in search of news...

Cool Statues

Of all the many statues we have seen of Queen Victoria and Albert we liked these ones the most as these statues were made from melted down cannons... they are not the biblical turning of swords into plow shears but Queen Victoria has a place in religious history and she was a force in ending slavery... for which there is a museum and a memorial in Liverpool...

Liverpool spirit bears

Remember the spirit Bears in Victoria... local artists were asked to design and create artistic representations on the bear statues that were displayed all over Victoria... well they had sort of the same idea in Liverpool.... but instead of spirit bears, which we did in Victoria... they asked themselves what else are we known for besides the beatles...someone said hey we export lamb someone else said hey we and import bananas... both seemed big and a fight was brewing when someone said "why don't we do a half lamb half banana creature"... so they did... of course someone did paint one to represent ringo star so a big hit on all areas of fame for liverpool...

The fab 3?

It seems everyone wants to capitalize on the success of the beatles... except if you were trying to harder you might want to have four things not three things on the menu... everyone wants a piece of the Beatle fame... some just want a good meal... well a fast one anyway

Youth moves the worl

Looking at the picts and memorbelia of the beatles reminded me of how young they were when they started ... i was happy to find i still very much believe in youth and the influence that any of them can have on society... youth can change the world... but of course i still see myself as young so may be even the old youth can move the world... well at least we can go out and see it....

from where we came

Aja and I spent two days in Sheffield England where my father was born in 1905 and my grandfather worked as a coal miner...It was from Sheffield where my ancestors made their way via Liverpool to Canada in 1910... i was interested in the place where my dad was born along with wondering why they decided to pack up the family and head to a better life in Saskatchewan..

Cavern Club

The wall outside the Cavern club is engraved with the names of bands and performers that have performed at the Cavern club over the years before it closed..... most of the giants of rock and roll have a brick here....this close up of bricks has the names, moody blues, elton john, eric clapton... This club can still claim to be the birthplace of the Beatles... as they helped paint it and helped around the club hoping to get a chance to perform... which they did and the rest is history...

Liverpool Tour

It would be hard to come all the way to England and not visit Liverpool the port where my grandparents and my father at 5 years old departed for Halifax in 1910 for a new life in Canada... Aja and I departed on a small sea journey around the city on a small yellow duck (as they call them) which was built for the d-day invasion.... and now supports the tourist invasion...

the journey moves on

Time to leave Scotland ... thanks to Margaret and Gordon for making us feel like honored members of the Clan, introducing us to the land, the sea, the golf courses, the hills, the food and most of all to the greatness of the people... thanks always

Harry Potter

This is the coffee shop in Edinburgh where JK Rawlings worked in obscurity on the first Harry Potter book.... we sat in there hoping to think up the next book...but there were too many people hanging around and wanting to sit and be part of the experience so we got very little writing done... we did however have tea and cookies in Edinburgh and that was magical enough....

hands on

Aja was not impressed by the chess pieces but loved the catapult hands on section.... then there was the giraffe made of cutlery... just when you think you should wash that pile of knives forks and spoons you turn them into art.... how cool is that...

Lewis Chess Pieces

Would any trip to the UK without tracking down The Lewis Chessmen from the 12th century most of which are carved in walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. They constitute some of the few complete medieval chess sets that have survived until today... and i had to see them

Stirling

We went up to Stirling in the middle of Scotland to visit some of the local bahai's ...while in Stirling we spent a few hours wandering the old grave yard near the castle with graves back to the 15 hundreds... as well in Stirling there is a monument for William Wallace (from the story Braveheart)....we wondered what the blue and white sign (shown) meant but as we did not have any bodies to throw in a hole we figured it did not refer to us...all in all a day spent in the dead center of town was an interesting and fun way to spend a day...

Tantallon Castle

We enjoyed climbing around the the amazing ruins of Tantallon castle built by the red douglas’s... the castle built in the 14th century was just intended to be the family home on a magnificent cliff top ...it was attacked and withstood a siege by james V in 1528 but was destroyed by General Monk in 1651.. just like building sand castles... some delight in building them... and others delight in knocking them down.... ahhh kids

fireworks

We have seen many pyrotechnic shows but to see one launched from an ancient castle and with the castle itself as a backdrop it has added a new and pulchritudinous dimension to watching fireworks... in fact one could even imagine what it might have looked like watching the castle under siege.. and a few locals would like to have been there to siege the place as well...

construction projects

The locals like this picture.... They figure if the ancient Scotts could build a monument like Edinburgh castle over a period of a couple hundred years (shown in the background) the modern Scotts should be able to build the new transit line... eventually....

Signs

Scotland has been brilliant so far, although have not seen the large groups of men in kilts playing bagpipes, but we have seen one or two, we have seen lots of sheep, the odd group of highland cattle and a world of very cool signs for every type of store...

Freshly Caught

On our amazing trip to the Craig Gorm with Gordon and Margaret we stopped for tea (supper) in Crief had a taste of “Haggis served with neeps and tatties all freshly caught”.. it was actually pretty tasty, however, every shop and person makes it with their own secret recipes... so can’t say i or anyone has ever really tasted official haggis.... i am working on my own recipe which in the words or ground keeper Willie...’chopped heart and lungs boiled in a wee sheeps stomach, it tastes as good as it sounds...’

Crain Gorm

(best read with a Scottish accent)

We took an amazing 6 hour journey with Gordon and Margaret along the lowlands, to the midlands and way up into the highlands of Scotland... we went over bridges at inverkeithing, through kinrossi milnthort, just missing auchtermuchty, over the bridge of earn through dunkeld, ballinluig, drumocter, killiecrankie, pitagowan, dalnaspidal, kingussie and turning at aviemor to go into the highands at glen more we went on through the queen’s forest dodging bicycle racers up into the mountain of crain gorm...the 6th highest peak in scotland...we rode the tram up to the top of the ski lift had soup and bread, admired art and read books in the gift shop, relaxed and .... from there we headed down toward the west coast through the glories of wild scotland through the passages at rothiemurchus along loch linnhe to Fort William (the only place along there named by the British if you couldn’t guess) along the flats up to glen coe through the rain and waterfalls by altnafeadh and the bridge of orch by beinn dorain through tyndrum, crainlarch and glen ogle to ardvorlich, comrie, crief, gilmerton along by perth and back down the east coast back to edinburgh... Canada has gotten so much from scotland, including our first prime minister.... and i have been thinking how interesting it would be to have gotten a few more Scottish names for our cities...

tea with the queen

After climbing Arthur's seat we stopped and had tea at the queens residence in Scotland, Hollyrood house. Her Majesty was absent but we stayed for tea and scones anyway... we were disappointed not to be served on the royal Dalton china with the periwinkle borders but we made do..so we ate our scones with our fingers and Aja drank the last of the milk from the small Carlton china milk jug...as they say ‘her majesty puts on a good spread.’

arthurs seat

So far we have climbed 2 of the seven hills of Edinburgh. The tallest being Arthur’s Seat. For the most part cousin Margaret and I climbed up the well walked path ... Aja bolted up the steeper less marked paths. The views were amazing and the walk was great exercise... all in all a delightful way to spend a day in Scotland.

beach morning

There was a long sandy beach at N. Berwick where aja had fun playing in the sand trying to re-create a small bit of the sand castle that won her and a few of the foster kids first place in the Bamfield sand castle building competition... the beach, which is like most beaches in scotland built beside a gold course and seen as just a potential sand trap

Cousin Margaret took us out to a Scottish beach area north of Edinburgh... it is everything you might think about in a small Scottish town called North Berwick...We had hot soup and scones at a small sea side cafe on the 4 block main street and then we basked in the sun... yes the sun... for a few min anyway

We arrived in Edinburgh for the last remnents of the fringe festival... got so see many top notch street performers while walking up the Royal Mile.... the old part of town (not to be confused with ‘new town’ that is only 250 years old) that runs from the Queen’s residence by the new Parliment buildings up to Edinburgh Castle... the old time seat of Scottish Royal power.

Aja liked the dog graveyard that has been used for royal dogs, regimental mascots and the dogs of other officers serving at the castle since the time of queen Victoria..another dog memorial is down the royal mile is of the terrier known as the Greyfriars bobby who stayed near his masters grave for 14 years.. a symbol of bravery and loyalty... if i died here i wonder if i could get burried there?

Edinburgh Castle 2

My favorite part of Edinburgh castle was a small shrine called Margaret’s cathedral about 4 m by 8 m building... the oldest building in the castle grounds.. it was built and dedicated to peace and reflection... the rest of the castle is full of history and honours the scottish kings from 800 and the sacrifices of the Scottish soldiers since then...

the big gun

Mons Meg... we couldn’t lift the cannon balls to load this big gun so we did the best we could with what we had...but we didn’t get very far... perhaps if we had another 100 men to help

Edinburgh Castle1

The small guns and the big guns at Edinburgh Castle... and a knight with swords and spears from older times...to the cannons to the great gun ‘mons megs’ which took 100 men to move...

Relative?

My favorite statue is of a possible ancestor, John Wilson, who has this magnificent statue which can’t be seen as it is obscured by a tree... on the upside the statue gets to watch the tree all day long and his head is not the distinctive place in the park for the birds to stand... unlike prince albert shown here on on a horse...

Scotlands favourite

The Bard, still as alive today as he ever was. Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire, the national poet of Scotland. Born in 1759 and died in 1796... who else but the great Robbie Burns. His statue is in George’s square.. King George was overthrown before the square was finished so he did not get his own statue there..but Robbie Burns did..