This weeks places...

...were quite close at hand and easy to get to! We finally tracked down my dads brother, John, and paid him a visit. My dad is not a big man, but uncle John is very small!We took a trip to Whitby, which is about 1 or so hours down the coast from where we are staying in the North East. Beautiful seaside resort, had the BEST fish & chips there! (Cod, fresh, yum!!!) Most of the streets in the main part of Whitby are old and as they were pretty much when they were built (except for electricity and running water I would say) This was one of them and thought it was really cute.This red building is where Captain Cook lived while doing his apprenticeship.We walked up to Whitby Abbey, this is the view of the beach and surrounding countryside.Whitby Abbey, some of the gravestones can not be read, but we found a few that dated back to the late 17oo's.
This is John Freeman who has been painting for many years and does the most wonderful pictures of the Whitby area.Another of the streets of Whitby.You certainly would not need be tall to live here comfortably!!!
On the way home we stopped at Hartlepool and were crossing the road when this unfortunate chap lost his rear wheel! It missed us by seconds!!! Someone had loosened his wheel nuts in the car park of McDonald's just minutes before. Very lucky no one was hurt.Next day was a beautiful day of 24oC (the locals didn't like the 'heat' tho), so we took a trip to the local beach and Marsden Rock. Here I found Beach Henge (LOL)Marsden Rock to the left in the distance and Marsden Grotto on the right.Inside the Grotto. It is an old smugglers lair and has been many things over the years. Now, as it has been for quite a long time, it is a cafe and restaurant.Then it was off to walk the pier at Shields. Alas, it was closed cos there were divers doing their work :( But this is the Little Beach at Shields looking back from the beginning of the pier.Next day trip was to Cragside. (This pic from the Northumberland Web as I could not get a good one of my own!) It was the home of Lord Armstrong who was a great inventor)Of course! a miniature house was to be seen inside.The formal gardens were a delight.Tiles were the order for some of the hallways. Another quilt coming on???This pic is a little yellow because of the lighting. It is red work on a cream and is very old.This quilt was made around 1870. It has a fine net over it to keep it together along with a radiator and temperature gauge to keep it at the right temperature.This Grandmothers Flower Garden is made of 100% silk. 95% of the items in Cragside are original to the house.The pool room was as great as all the other rooms in the house. However, you are allowed to play on this table if you wish!!! So Dad and John had a go.The Rock Garden.There is a Labyrinth in the gardens which was a pleasant walk around with many carvings on the way.
This 'little' toadstool was hanging off one of the trees - it must of been about 10-12'' in diameter.
Back at Gloria and Johns and it was breakfast time - little Springer having his bran flake!
Gloria's mums ashes were to be sprinkled at sea, so we took them up to one of the local beaches at Seaburn. This was an opportunity (?????) to have a plodge in the North Sea....it was a warm day - another 24oC - but the sea was freezing and this is as much as I wanted to get wet!I will leave you for now with the sun glistening on the beach....

A stop at last!

Thursday we were off for the day to a place called Beamish. We have been there before 5 years ago, but it was nice to go again and see some changes and new things. If you go to the link you can read all about it and probably take a longer tour than is on here. One of the shops is a drapers and clothing shop. These old shoes are a wonderful collection of what the women wore in days of old.In the drapery there is a section for quilters (funny about that) so thought you would like to see what they had available and the cost.
In the Masons Lodge, young Sam was sitting patch working ready to show her piece on Saturday (I think she might have to stay up all night to get it finished though!)
I was chatting to this lovely lady in the stationers, this is her piece for the quilting section on Saturday. It is made out of silk - so I think she must of been a rather well to do lady of the time!
Of course there was the obligatory miniature house on display for us to see. It didn't have a date on it but I think it is quite old.
There was an agricultural display at Beamish with the Flower and Veg section. Would love to be able to grow carrots this big!
David managed to stroke this cute little ferret called Damson - but only the bottom half - no where near the teeth!Adam from the Gordon Highlanders was on hand to encourage young people to join the ranks - however couldn't get him to throw his kilt up! LOLThis is Inn Washi age 2. She is a Stellas Sea Eagle - they often eat seals so that might give you an idea of her size.
Quilters hard at it! The girl on the right had only been a quilter for 20 minutes at this stage!!! LOL You have to start somewhere don't you?
This delightful cross stitch was done in 1842 by a 14 year old girl! It has been restored and preserved wonderfully. Can you imagine many 14 year olds today doing this sort of work???
One of the nice little houses in the village near where we are staying - I think hubby feels a new miniature house in the planning.

We caught up with some friends last night -Derek, Dorothy and David last night at the pub.
Myself and Lisa at the pub.
Now for a relax for the rest of the morning before we head out to visit cousins!

Here we are again.....

...at one of our favourite places...taking off at Adelaide Airport for our trip to the UK.

Singapore was our first port of call for a few hours. So while here we went to see the beautiful butterflies in Changi Airport Butterfly Garden. They are rather large to say the least. As you can imagine, very humid.A bit smelly too as they have many of the insect eating plants there and they are very large too!

We had a bite to eat in the airport where SW had a raspberry jam donut, had to take a pic and show you all cos he reckons its the best donut he has ever had.

When we began the journey I suggested we have a competition on who would meet up with someone they knew first...guess who won??? Yes, SW...here he is in Changi Airport with Ann from one of our local hardware stores.

The plants and greenery are rather amazing in the airport.

They even have a little indoor Forrest!

The orchids are fabulous in size and colour, this is one of the pink ones, but they have many green and cream ones on show too.

We arrived in South Shields safe and sound and one of the first ports of call was the local Minchellas Ice Creamery. Raspberry sauce is the flavour that they are known for as well as the wonderful creamy ice-cream.

Then it was off to visit with one of the relies and meet Alfie, the 2nd newest in the SW side of the family. You can see he was rather happy with his 'woof' that we took him. LOL

We then took a drive down to the sea front to view the Wouldhave Lifeboat. This is said to be the first life boat to be invented.

Bonnie Scotland was the next port of call. The border between England and Scotland and what beautiful weather!

Blair Athol, Scotland was a must for a stop - being the Bells Whiskey Distillery. Unfortunately we missed the tour so went on to Dalwhinnie instead. Not a whiskey that I enjoyed, too bitey.

We decided to head up to John O'Groats and stopped at a place called Brora near Inverness. Indian was the order of the day for dinner....and just to prove that Dad ate it, I took this pic! What fantastic Indian though, the best we have ever had.This was the first B&B on the trip at Brora. Built in 1828 by a man who apparently was from Adelaide. The owners are in their late 70's and keep a wonderful place and fab breaky too!!

We took a trip over to the Orkneys on a ..... yes .... ferry! The Orkneys played a large part in both world wars and there is a lot of history around the place including many sunken ships.On Mainland, Orkney we visited a cathedral in Kirkwall. This cathedral was built by the vikings many hundreds of years ago. It belonged and still belongs to the people and is non-denominational therefor it survived the reformation of Cromwell and his men. A very interesting place with beautiful floor tiles.....I think I feel a Celtic Quilt coming on!!!

Orkney is a very old place, Neolithic ruins all around, so it was on the cards that other strange things would be here. As opposed to crop circles there were crop lines and just outside the area was a strange looking creature...some thought it was alien in manner but it turned out to be one of the local goats!!!

Dad and Dave on Orkney.

We went on a visit around Skara Brae very interesting place to visit indeed. There is a large mansion called Skaill House that is on the site which was inhabited by the laird of the area.
Of course wherever we go there seems to be something small that catches our eyes! This stone cathedral was inside the bedroom at Skaill House.

Beautiful pink heather on the hills of Orkney.

One of the mysterys on the Orkneys, the Ring of Brodgar. There are many stones in this ring but no one really knows why as each stone is from either a different island or area of the Orkneys than where they are placed. I think it could be a sister city to Stonehenge! But bearing in mind that this area is Neolithic - so a very old area of settlement.

Dad and Dave at John O'Groats - the furthers north point in mainland Britain. On our way back from the Orkney Islands.

Time now to head off back down to the south part of Scotland but this time over on the west coast. On the way we went for a cruise on Loch Ness, there were some monsters about - one was sitting opposite me on the boat :) I think this might be a shadow of Nessie - but I think she was too shy to come and say hello :)))

This is Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness. Built in the 17th Century.

Some of the scenery driving through the Ben Nevis area of Scotland - as you can see the weather is superb! as is the scenery.

Have arrived in Leswalt! On a previous visit to the lovely part of Scotland to visit friends, we brought a little 1/24th scale victorian for Flo (you will see her face in a previous post from 2008) Well, Flo has been busy making furniture and decorating her house as you will see below.

Well, thats all for now till the next installment!