January

Well I am back I made it safely to my home in merry ol’ England, and its good to be back…
But as my mom commented in to the last blog entry – on the Tuesday I got back I woke up to a nice and lovely surprise: SNOW!!!! It was great – here i was all sad that I missed the snow in England, but I got a chance to see it – I’ve had a couple snowball fights (didnt get to catch them though as I was getting snow shoved in my face, etc)…

We did recieve snow all week – whats frustrating is that lots of schools (on Wed there were – that I counted – 235 schools – primary, highschool, and universities/colleges closed) – can you believe it!?!?!?!? But I guess they’re not equipped for snow up to your ankles – that does melt quite fast and turn to ice quite fast at night/morning…

Christmas at home was really fantastic as well… Loved visiting with the family… Here’s a couple pictures – compare the snow…

this last picture is of the winter wonderland we had in our own house – made by my younger sister as a surprise for my dad… I thought it was cute and thoughtful

London part II

So here are some more pictures from my London adventures.

This is the London Bridge.

Here is the London Tower – I would’ve loved to go inside but there was just soo much to see – so I’ll go back one day to go inside of it. And this is Tower Bridge (best picture I could get while it’s under construction):

of course I had to go to Platform 9 3/4. And look – I’m a wizzard!

That’s pretty much my trip. We spent a lot of time on the underground, and wondering around looking at different places – didnt really stop to go inside any of the attractions because we were having fun looking at it all… But going inside will be a totally different trip.

I’m off home for the christmas – so I’ll talk to you all in the new year!!

London Part I

OK – sorry it’s delayed… I’m still working on getting all the pictures off my computer. So here is a start of some pictures… It was an awesome trip and I enjoyed being with my cousin. I thought the city was very amazing – but I must say that I’m quite happy up North (where I live) – I’m not a big fan of the super busy and pushy life. I was in London for 1.5 days and saw as many touristy things as I possibly could – here is the first installment.

Buckingham palace

Tower Bridge and the place we spent half the time – the tube. I still dont know the system though – get turned around all the time, thank goodness had my cousin to help me

Parliament, and Big Ben. It really is big! There’s another picture of big ben from the Westminster Abbey (which we didnt get to during tourist times And behind it is the London Eye – didnt go on it too expensive but it looked fun!

York Ball – Oscars

I noticed i have not written for about a month. Nothing really exciting has happened to write about. there is one event that happened since guy fawks night – its called “Pudsey Bear” – and its a fundraiser that goes on throughout the whole England in schools, and everywhere (a telethon on TV) – its to help children in need. I taught on that day and it was quite fun – I enjoyed entering the raffle to see if i’d win a prize…

this is the “bun” and “biscuit” that I bought to help with the fundraiser – and this is the face of Pudsey Bear – how cute eh? (*bun = cupcake, buscuit = cookie in case you didnt already know that)

Also – within my church the YSA (Young Single Adults – aged 18 – 30) get together like at least 1ce a month to have a fun dance. This one apparently is a HUGE one of the year – because its at christmas time. And this year’s theme was: the oscars. It was a fun ball to meet lots of people,and to dress up in your really fancy gowns. here are a couple picturs.

*notice the oscars in Andy’s hand.

Next entry will be all about my London Adventures – I’m heading there in a week

guy fawks night

ok, so ther’s a night that England celebrates (Canada used to celebrate it as well but now its only celebrated in BC and NFL, and one other province) a night called bonfire night. This is to celebrate when the person – guy fawks – was arrested and sentanced to being burned at the stake, for his treason. He tried to blow up parliment in London. He was mad at the king because he made unfair laws to the roman catholics… So on bonfire night they light a huge bonfire to commemorate his burning… as well as fireworks to remember the 36 (was it?) barrels of gun powder found under the parliment building… It used to be manditory, but now its just a fun tradition to carry on… Here are some pictures: aparently this bonfire was a small one compared to some fired that are lit throughout the city. They’re usually fueled by petrol or alcohol (yay burn the devils water!)

this one i had to get as high as i could on my friend Andy’s back to get to see the fire – we were that far away! And then the fireworks – they were really good (made me not be so sad i missed the Canada day fireworks)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and who could forget about Halloween!

 

 

 

this is interesting – the differences between the 2 moneys: the canadian thers a toonie ($2), a loonie ($1), a quarter($0.25), nickle ($0.05), dime ($0.10)… In the british (BOTTOM ROW): 50 p(ence), 1 pound, 20p, 5p, 10 p, and bottom 2p.

Cousin Clare’s Visit

Either I’m not that popular or noone comments on my blog – hee hee… So this marks the beginning of half term… and although I would LOVE to go out and explore (I might do some), I unfortunately need to spend money on my car so that it will pass the MOT test that it needs to take in Dec (*that’s a check so that you can drive it on the roads*).  But Thankfully I have enough money to do it now

So for my Cousin Clare Miller, who has come to visit me. We did lots of fun things this weekend. Here are just a select few pictures to depict the wonderful weekend!

so this is Castle Bolton.

we’re on the roof of Castle Bolton where we can see for miles!

Short history of the castle: built in Wensleydale in 1399, by Sir Richard Le Scrope – Lord Chancellor of England (to RIchard II). Claim to fame is that Mary, Queen of Scots was held prisoner at this castle for 6 months (but was still in luxery – 51 to attend to her). Deemed unlivable in 1647.

 

 

 

This is the chamber that Mary, Queen of Scots stayed in during her imprisonment. And this is the nursery. The Lord of the castle sang this lullaby to his kids: ” Hush thee my baby, thy sire is a knight./Thy mother is a lady so lovely and bright/ The woods and the dales from the tower we see/ They are all belonging dear baby to thee. (sir Walter Scott).

This is me and Clare at the York Minster Cathedral. It is amazing, and the choirs that sing in it sound soo wonderful (even the children one – which we heard). These statues are some of the kings since the cathedral was built.

You can also see us enjoying baskin robins icecream, even though its raining and “cold” – wouldnt be a true canadian if we didnt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is Kirkstall Abbey. The main points: only 15 min drive from my house. 2.) built in 1152, and eventually surrendered in 1539. *which was said to have prevented what was “rapidlly becoming the 1st industrial revolution”. Most preserved Abbey in Yorkshire, but yet the least visited.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Shibden Hall. Built in 1420 – passed down many genereations/ and families. Most famous contravercy is that one of the tennants – Ane Lister was a lesbian. But also the Waterhouse family owned it, and John Hemingway lived there for a little, and it eventually was passed onto Anne’s lover Anne…. There were also tunnels that were built up to the house so that they didnt have to see the gardeners walking to the servents chambers. Look at how low the roofs were, and how dark it was – i felt like i was in a coffin.

 

That is the extent of her trip. We had fun. Next is me going to London to visit her  in December (hopefully)

Castle Howard

Well not to jinx anything – but I have been getting a bit more work lately, so lets hope the streak continues!

This weekend I had the pleasure of visiting one of England’s largest privately owned houses called Castle Howard. A VERY BRIEF bit of history to it (*that’s my new thing – to do research on the palces and put together a scrap book): It’s 309 yrs old! Charles 3rd Earl of Carlisle decided he wanted to build a house on this land that they inherited through marriage. It took 100 yrs to completely build it – which half was then accidently burned down in 1940 (when an all girls school went there). the place is around 1000 acres big (the grounds and house). And it was the first privately owned house with a dome for the roof. The Howards still own the house and live in it today…
A bit of history about the people: The eldest daughter of the 6th Earl is the daughter in the movie (and book) “The Dutchess” (with Kierra Knightly).  Also, another daughter of the 6th earl married the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. Their eldest daughter married George Douglas Campell (the Duke of Argyll – in Scotland). Their son John Campell was the one who married Princess Louise Alberta (the princess that the province of Alberta, Canada is named after). These are pictures from the house:

this is the view of the grounds outside of the 2nd story room.

This is a picture of the great hall – the part that got burned down.

the dining hall, and the dance all (I was going into a dance pose in this picture)

First week of school

Well this first week that school was back in – I was able to land a job as a T.A. for half of it – only the beginning – I hope that there are many more Teaching! jobs available for this semester… We’ll see how the work rolls out…

So – this las week, I was able to visit a couple castles – out in Harrogate (I thought I’d explore the area while I was out there)… And they were pretty. The Ripley Castle as been owned by the same family for 700 years – is that crazy or what!?! The second castle was just a ruin, but it was nice anyway – its the Spofforth Castle…

I was also able to visit my church’s temple in Preston (or near Preston). It was the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen (aside from all the other temples of my church – they all look just as beautiful). And I got to enjoy it with my two best friends over here in England.

Now let’s just hope that they’ll be more jobs rolling in… Cross fingers!

Scotland Castles

Here are the 8 castles that we saw in Scotland, as well as some scenery pictures – it was hard to choose – i took around 90 pictures while there – hee hee

This first castle is Culzean Castle (on the south west coast of Scotland).

This one is just a ruin of a castle on the Croy shore (still south west coast)

Next isnt really a castle – its a house (that ppl. still live in). This is Pollack house in Glasgow.

After that is the Fort Augustus Castle – its along the bottom tip of the Loch Ness.

We just drove past this one – its the Inverness castle. *We drove by a lot of castles, but couldnt seem them because of the foggy rain clouds. It rained every day we were there!

And now we have the Eilean Donnan castle – Dornie (by Kyle of Lochalsh). This is the castle in the “made of honour” movie – its the castle they drive up to, but the inside of the castle shooting is at the Dunvegan Castle (Isle of Skye – which we did not go see).

We now have the Castle Stalk. I think someone still uses it (in Appin, Argyll. That design originates from Scotland, my favorite design)… Speaking of design, the before the Tartans of Family Clans became symbols, the only way to tell the difference between clans was the flower they wore on their bonnets – cool eh?

Second last the Kilchurn Castle – we just stopped to take a picture, didn’t actually see it.

And lastly the Inverary Castle. This is the coolest one because of the history… Which is that this is the official castle of the Princess Louise Alberta! The princess that the province of Alberta was named after! She didnt spend all her time here though, but it’s her castle! And here’s some pictures of scenery (so beautiful!). Highland cows – they’re much hairier in the winter time…

Scotland

Well, I’m actually excited that its time for school to start again (first week of September)! Does that make me crazy?
So this last week I spent exploring Scotland with my roommate Nikki. We saw many things – here’s a quick list: Hardian’s Wall/ Vindolanda  – Roman ruins! (near the border of England and Scotland)

, tourist sights around Glasgow,

the southern part of the west coast

up to Ben Nevis -largest mountain in Scotland (fort William)

up to Fort Augustus – and the Loch Ness. (this is Loch Ness)

Then a long circle back – around to the West coast again – to Fort William. Then a quick trip out to the site of the Harry potter bridge (Nikki had misinformed  me previously, this one actually had signs saying it was)

Then on the way home we stopped off at a place with great memories for Nikki – she helped build a bridge when she was 20ish… and then we headed home. It was a fun trip… I’ll have to do a second post for all the castles we saw – we saw 8!