Historical weekend frolics

During yet another prolonged absence from my blog, this time due to work and DIY on my new house, I took a well-deserved weekend break with two friends. Over the weekend we visited Hatfield House, Blenheim Palace, the Rollright Stones, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.

Hatfield House was the home of the son of Elizabeth I's advisor, Robert Cecil. I visited the house last year for Folk by the Oak and again two weeks ago for the annual Living Crafts Fayre.

Blenheim Palace was a gift to the first Duke of Marlborough to celebrate victory over the French during the Wars of Spanish Succession. Perhaps the most famous resident of Blenheim was Sir Winston Churchill, who was both at the Palace and spent much of his childhood there. Over the years the Palace has undergone numerous transitions, but is still the home of the current Duke of Marlborough and is now classified as a World Heritage Site.

The Rollright Stones consist of three Neolithic monuments, The Whispering Knights, The King's Men stone circle and The King Stone standing stone. The monuments date from around 3,500 and were built of natural limestone boulders found at the site. The King's Men stone circle was likely a gathering place, while the Whispering Knights are probably the remains of a Neolithic burial chamber. The name “Rollright” is believed to come from “Hrolla-landriht”, the land of Hrolla. Legends say the stones ae knights plotting against their King before a witch turned them to stone, and that the Knights go down to the brook in the valley to drink on New Year's Day or when the bells of Long Compton are heard. I am very drawn to the ancient neolithic monuments and stone circles of Britain, and consider them an important part of my heritage. This out of the way and secluded stone circle was particularly magical for me, all the more so with the fading light and peace of the evening. I could have stayed there all night, but sadly, we had places to be and family to visit!

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town in , over 800-years old and best known as the birthplace of the great bard and playwright, William Shakespeare. We were lucky enough to visit the town on the hottest day of the year so far, and spent the day visiting Shakespeare's birthplace, his final home (Nash's House and New Place), his final resting place (The Church of the Holy Trinity) and the home of William's daughter and her doctor husband (Hall's Croft). Stratford is also home to the Royal Shakespeare Company, though sadly we did not have time to take in a play.

Warwick Castle has been in the hands of the Earls of Warwick since Henry de Newburgh in 1088. The original rampart was built in 914AD by Ethelfleda, the daughter of Alfred the Great, and developed into a fort by William the Conqueror in 1068. Today, the Castle is an example of how life would have been like throughout the ages and is very very well done. We visited during the Easter holidays, so the Castle abounded with characters from history, some historical (Henry VIII, Elizabeth I), some fictional (King Arthur, the plague-victims!), and numerous events were on offer, including falconry displays and the firing of the fully functional trebuchet (oh yes...with fireball!!). The most pleasantly surprisingly highlight however, had to be the musical performance of the plague victims themselves...possibly the hardest I have laughed in a long time. We also visited the new Dungeons exhibition, which was highly entertaining, though certainly not for the faint-hearted.

Needless to say, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, and very much in need of another holiday! Hopefully I will catch up with some of my reviews, but in the meantime I leave you with some photos of our trip..

Blenheim Palace

Spring at Blenheim

The King's Men, Rollright stones

The Whispering Knights, Rollright stones

Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon

Hall's Croft, Stratford-upon-Avon

The Church of the Holy Trinity, Stratford-upon-Avon

A watchful gargoyle overlooking the graveyard

William Shakespeare's grave

Warwick Castle

Walking along the castle ramparts

King Arthur

View from the ramparts (spot the trebuchet!)

Posing with the plague sufferers..."Milly Molly Manky", "Nostrildamus" and baby "Cillit Bang"!!

USA adventures...part three

After leaving Montana, I headed west through some of the most stunningly beautiful parts of Washington State (with the most fantastic rain clouds I have seen since leaving China!), past Seattle and into the Olympic Peninsular. There I drove through Port Angeles and into Forks, of Twilight fame, a quaint little town very much reliant on the books' fame but full of hidden gems and interesting people. Then I hiked a trail I have long wanted to visit, the Hoh River Rainforest Trail, full of stunning forests covered in moss, and little beasties that popped up to greet me. Ending my trip in Seattle was a little disappointing after all that wildlife (though I did spend a day shopping in The Elliot Bay Book Company, where I returned with many a read!! All in all, an excellent trip!

Deer in Glacier National Park

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

The Hoh River Rainforest

Hungry squirrel!

Hummingbird

A very watchful young elk

My beloved Pacific Ocean!

USA adventures...part two

After a fabulous few days hiking in Yellowstone, I drove up through the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, and through the lovely town of Kalispell, to the very quaint town of Whitefish. Just outside, I joined the highlight of my travels, the Bar W Guest Ranch where I stayed for several days. The weather was suprisingly hot for this time of year, and I spent my hours, riding, walking, eating, riding, riding some more (!), arena skills such as barrel racing and pole bending, and practised my hand at roping cows and team penning. In the evenings we had delicious meals cooked in the beautiful homestead, bbqs out in the gazebo by the lake, rides in the horsedrawn cart and drinking beers to piano and guitar music on the porch with excellent company. Fabulous. I really did not want to leave, but afterwards I got to spend a day in the stunning Glacier National Park, possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Where I was also lucky enough to see a grizzly up close. I shall definitely be returning to Montana.

Bar W Ranch, Whitefish, Montana

Bar W Ranch, Whitefish, Montana

Chilling out after a long morning trail ride

Barrel racing

Frolics!

Team penning

Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park

USA adventures...part one

Bit late in my holiday posts but things continue to be manic in old Norfolk!

My trip to the States was primarily to spend a week in Minnesota catching up with old friends from Hawaii, and celebrating my dear friend Susie's wedding. But after going all that way, I decided to make the most of the trip and travel across country, visiting some of the sites I have longed to see. I hired a car and drived from Minneapolis to Seattle, making a few stops along the way...

Badlands, South Dakota

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Crazy Horse Mountain, Sout Dakota

Crazy Horse Mountain...a work in progress..

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Early spring in Yellowstone

Old Faithful

Busy busy busy...

So, been away a while! I'm working on a manic environmental impact assessment, which is a little new to me, so I haven't really had the chance to have a break in a few weeks. Plus I've been crazy busy in the evenings, so my reading has really suffered too. But I did get to spend a weekend diving in an old quarry, albeit in 8 degree water with less than 2m visibility! It was gloriously sunny though which made up for it (see photo)! I'm hooked again and will be doing a lot more when I get back, though UK diving is certainly something to get used to!



In fact I've been so busy that I have missed my own one year blogiversary! So I'll be having a delayed little blog celebration in a month, as I'm off to the States on Monday (assuming my flights don't get cancelled due to swine flu!) for three weeks of travels, catching up with old friends and a spring wedding! This weekend will be frantic getting ready for the trip, catching a performance of Pride and Prejudice at a small local theatre, an early viewing of Coraline in 3D (not out here yet!) and seeing the wonderful Kate Rusby in concert. Just thinking about it wears me out!

So apologies to all for not commenting on your blogs recently. I have been trying to read them, (with some success) and will try and catch up on some reviews before I go. I hope you are all well and enjoy the rest of spring! I leave you all with some lovely english bluebells as seen at Blickling Hall last Friday. If that doesn't make you love spring...I don't know what will!

Adventures and obsessions..

Well that was indeed a ridiculously short job. Two days in fact, though a very intense and somewhat fun two days. And with a well-deserved five-day holiday in Brisbane afterwards, visiting some friends! We walked, shopped, had lots of high tea, visited a glow-worm cave, went to the beach, watched the US election and celebrated with an Obamarama party! It was lovely to get the chance to see (once again!) everything I love about Australia, especially the ocean, the hills and fabulous wildlife. And now I am back, and it looks like I won’t be going offshore again before March, which leaves me lots of reading and blogging time! Speaking of which...I started reading Rebecca, but have made the mistake of also starting to reread The Black Jewels Trilogy, which I now cannot put down! It’s a real effort coming into the office, when all I want to do is sit at home and read.

I have also discovered a newfound obsession with vampires. I don’t mean obsessed in a dressing up in dark sexy clothing, roaming the streets at night and biting people obsessed (though I am sure there is nothing wrong with that…), but over the past few months, I have really started to enjoy reading vampire fiction and watching vampire television! Considering I’m pushing 30, I’m a bit late onto the vampire bandwagon, but I’m sure it will make Rhinoa happy (she’s been trying to get me to read Anne Rice and such for ages!). I recently started watching the television series Blood Ties, which isn’t fabulous, but I am enjoying it more than anything else on the box right now. So, on Saturday I broke my book buying ban (bad mariel) and bought the first Charlaine Harris novel, Dead After Dark, and am looking forward to the film adaptation of Twilight, which should be hitting our screens in a few weeks. I’ve had sudden interests like these in the past, with animal stories as a child, travel and nature writing as a teenager, and now my longer lasting enjoyment of fantasy fiction.

Where will this newfound obsession take me? Well I’ll certainly be diverted from the reading I was hoping to do! So my question to you is…who else is a big fan of the more bitey fantasy fiction, and have you gone through a similar obsession, however brief?

I’m also starting to feel the wintry Christmas/Yule spirit. My housemate and I have already selected an afternoon to take off work so that we can get a tree for the house! I did some shopping Saturday afternoon after it had gotten dark, and I love the feeling of walking around town all wrapped up warm, watching the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping…and its not even December yet! Late night shopping tomorrow...

Rottnest Island, Western Australia

Quokka!

Beach on the Spit, Gold Coast, Queensland

High rises meet the sea, Gold Coast, Queensland

Glow-worm cave, Springbrook Park, Queensland

More travels and Booking Through Thursday

Conditioning

Suggested by...me!

Are you a spine breaker? Or a dog-earer? Do you expect to keep your books in pristine condition even after you have read them? Does watching other readers bend the cover all the way round make you flinch or squeal in pain?

Oooh typical, this is my suggestion but I'm abroad so need to be quick about my reply! I am a spine breaker. I don't do it on purpose, but I definitely don't avoid it. I can't enjoy a book if I have to keep it half closed when I'm reading! However, I don't like dog-earing pages..in my opinion that's what bookmarks are for! And like Naida, I hate stains, unless its a really old book! I'm not fussed at all how people treat their own books..it is personal preference after all. But when people borrow my books, it does pain me somewhat if they come back much tattier! I lent some books recently to friends on a ship abroad and got an email from them saying they had been totally trashed, but they sent me an amazon voucher in return, to replace the books or by more, which I thought was really sweet! It does amuse me though, when people are even more anal than me, and can't break the spine. I really like how we are all so different, and I think how we treat things like books really tells a lot about our personalities..

So what are you like?!

And yes, I am offshore again, despite switching to a desk job. I have flown all the way from the UK to Australia for 36 hours work on the ship, starting tomorrow morning. Ironic considering I work as an environmental scientist and we are all about saving the environment..thats a lot of emissions! Back soon, so apologies if I don't read or comment much on your posts!

Oh and Happy Halloween!!

Back to reality..

Well, things have been far more chaotic than I thought over the last few weeks. I have changed jobs which has given me more free time, which I have filled with all the things that I have been meaning to do over the last two years! It also means that I have not done a great deal of reading recently, until the last few days during which I have been struck by a nasty cold!

Below are some pictures of the farm where the Thirteen Moons festival and women's gathering was held on Dartmoor. Nigel Shaw and Carolyn Hillyer have spent the last 12+ years creating a beautiful home for themselves in the centre of the stunning and wild high moor, including the contruction of an Iron Age roundhouse, stone circle and several shrines, which are scattered over their land. The gathering itself was one of the most wonderful experiences I have had, being surrounded by over 200 women (and 2 men!) all sharing in our femininity and the power of the land around us, through craft, music, community and shared experience. My first women's gathering and a very powerful thing indeed, especially our pilgrimage across the moor before dawn, to meditate in an ancient neolithic shrine and stone row, watching the mist rise over the heathland. It was a very emotional and creative time for me, as well as a chance to meet up with old friends and meet many new ones. I made my own deer toe rattle as well as taking part in the festivities as a member of the drum moon clan...a curious coincidence as I am most attached to the drum as an instrument.

Unfortunately, my journey back home after the gathering somewhat marred my time away. I witnessed a particularly horrible accident in which a motorcylist was hit by a car and trapped beneath it. We managed to free the man from under the vehicle and he was rushed to hospital where I understand he is recovering after being in a critical condition for several days. I have experienced several minor accidents in my life (and one which could have been very serious) but nothing like this, and it has truly shaken me to my core. At the time of the accident I remained very calm and my mind leapt into practical action, but I have since struggled while driving whenever I see motorcylists, feeling this inexplicable panic rising within me. I truly feel sorry for the poor girl who was driving the car, she must be suffering so terribly. I have friends who ride motorcycles, and I can't say that I do not fear far more for them now than I did before.

On a more positive note..I am now another year older, and celebrated in truly immature style on Sunday with several friends, with a picnic, followed by rounders and trip to Go Ape, an extremely fun high wire forest adventure course in the trees...I shall try and post some photos tomorrow. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone (unless you do not like heights!), although I still ache now, several days later! So now I am spending my restful evenings recovering from my non-stop few weeks with my new copy of Brisingr by Christopher Paolini..yet another book to distract me from my challenges!

stone circle

iron age roundhouse

inside the roundhouse

bone shrine

pond with buddha and old flute shrine

offerings to the goddess