STRATFORD UPON AVON

Drove to Stratford Upon Avon today in cold wet conditions. We experienced our first 'delay' on the M1, bumper to bumper for ages, i didn't drive so much as rolled along, it was boring and a waste of a day but what can you do ? i did spot something funny with a car in front of us ' hey look that car has no driver ! ' the kids were stunned and finally realised the car was a left hand drive and what they thought was the passenger was actually the driver, that kept us amused for awhile. We finally arrived in Stratford along with 400 million other cars...grrrr. Ended up using the car park at the Holiday Inn and walking into town in drizzly rain but it was still nice. Stratford Upon Avon is the home of William Shakespeare and his presence is felt everywhere, Riley was full of knowledge because he has just studied William at school so it was interesting for him to see this place and he did declare that he really liked it. Unfortunately because of my penchant for not booking ahead, we couldn't find any accommodation, i thought there was a recession on ? so we have ended up on the out skirts of Swindon. This morning at 9am the temperature was 3 degrees. Tomorrow we will head back to Oxford and spend the day cleaning the car and getting our gear sorted because on Monday we have to hand the car back. Bed time now. Mia H ? Mia R will email you soon, hope the Judo went well.

TO YORKSHIRE

Mia took these while we were driving towards York today. It was sunny nearly all day and i even got to wear the sunglasses for awhile, something i haven't had to do for weeks.

We had plans to stay in York but every hotel etc was booked out and the place was packed.

So much traffic as we got closer to York, bumper to bumper which made me nervous. I do not enjoy driving in this country, i do not like the manual car I'm driving or i should say attempting to drive and making a mess of it, i do not like the confusing road rules which send me into a panic attack all the time.

Driving around York which is a walled city, we had to tackle 9 huge multi laned roundabouts that had my heart racing....i do not like these roundabouts !

My poor son spent the day giving excellent navigation instructions, he got us into the city and back out but i was a wreck....i would not be surprised if he divorced me and got a new mother. Tonight we are in a hotel in Leeds and tomorrow i think we will head for Cambridge. Its extremely cold, never got above 8 degrees even with the sun shining. Thanks for all the comments everyone we love reading them. Thanks for the news on KHS Suzanne, cant say I'm surprised and it may be a blessing.

LAKE WINDERMERE AND BEATRIX POTTER

Today we drove all around Lake Windermere stopping at various points to explore and take heaps of photos. The one above was taken at Windermere which is still under a bit of flood water near the shore, this jetty is normally out of the water. We saw so many rainbows, it rained on and off all day and seemed to follow a pattern...when driving it didn't rain but when i got out to take photos it would pour. It was so cold because the wind was blowing hard but we still managed to enjoy the day.

This is Riley and his fan club. We bought a bag of duck food and they were all over the kids.

some of the swans were almost as big as Mia and very pushy.

Mia loved the birds crawling all over her. She looks like a snow bunny in her new beanie. I bought one too but i don't look like a snow bunny in mine ! lets just say that some people should not wear beanies.

This one was taken on a walk we did near the car ferry crossing called Claiffe station walk. The gorgeous path through the woods takes you to the ruins of Claiffe which over look the lake..i took far too many photos but it was so beautiful in the woods.

Riley and Mia standing in the door way of Beatrix Potters house on Hill Top farm in the village of Near Sawry. What an interesting place, i really loved it. It was raining when i took these photos so i didn't have time to be fussy. Being at Hill Top was strange, you kept expecting Peter Rabbit to jump out, we loved it.

This was taken from the vegetable garden, everything is exactly as it was when she lived here in the early 1900's. Shame it was raining while we were walking around.

The village of Near Sawry taken from Beatrix's front gate. A truly picture postcard village that doesn't seem to have changed much.

This is one of many photos i took of Hawkeshead village, again it was raining while we were walking around it. So beautiful and i loved watching the locals go about their business, it was like stepping back in time.

WINDEMERE, LAKES DISTRICT CUMBRIA

November 25th ...............more entries under this one

We headed into the Lakes today in weather not much better than yesterday but it was now or never. The rain was on and off all day so we just rugged up against the bone chilling cold and ventured into the streets of Kendal and walked everywhere, very pretty village. We walked down to the shore of Lake Windemere and the recent floods were evident everywhere. The water is still high and some shops are still under. The swans and ducks were out in force and so were the bus loads of tourists with their umbrellas that kept turning inside out...cracks us up every time. We drove down to the car ferry that takes you across the lake to Hawkeshead but its not running at the moment so we walked around the lake. Its gorgeous even in this weather, the sheep paddock comes right down to the water so on one side of the path its expensive yachts and the other sheep . Incredibly cold walking around here, our noses froze. On the way back to the hotel we got lost, nothing new..it usually happens when Riley screams RIGHT TURN RIGHT TURN and i go left, i don't know why i do this, its like i have no control over the hands on the steering wheel. There is no where to chuck a u turn in this country so you end up driving miles and getting more lost which is what happened today. We of coarse made it back, should have taken about 20 minutes but took an hour instead...oops ! Riley is patient with his old mum. Thank you everyone who commented, glad you all like the blog. To Deborah Anne at the Times...i have more photos of Christine that I'm keeping in case they are needed in the future and i only put those ones on the blog because I'm safe here in England and she cant reach me.
Off to bed now more later.
The town Christmas tree in the village of Kendal, they will decorate it soon. We went to the open markets here and bought some fruit. Really lovely and old, i saw a building stamped with ' built in 1689 ' amazing.

I'm so cold, the wind was a shocker and pushed you over when it gusted.

Mia had the ducks eating out of her hand.

she loved the swans, her favourite bird.

The flooded water front.people were mopping out some of the shops, the tide mark was quiet high up the path but the water dropped quickly which was good.

i took lots of photos like this around the lake, it was really lovely with the sun trying to shine through the clouds.

KILLINGTON LAKE....2 new entries below

This is the view from the motel room. The lovely green grass is sodden which Mia discovered when she slipped while playing football with Riley during a 2 min break in the rain.

Our hotel room....notice the mini football in Riley's hand, it eventually bounced off every wall in the room until i threw a hissy fit.

I read that this wind farm powers like 8,000 homes....amazing. We've seen a lot of these throughout Britain, they are huge.

This is the weather we drove in all day, it poured. Very stressful for an old girl who can barely deal with the one set of traffic lights in her home town ! there must have been 4 million cars on the road..the bad weather doesn't deter them. If i leave the crawlers lane { that's what they call the slow lane over here} i get beeped, so i cower in the crawlers lane...I'm happy there.

November 24th

Left Glasgow today and drove to the Lakes District. The weather is the worst we’ve had and it wasn’t possible to sight see so we found a hotel at Killington Lake, and we’re just holed up waiting for a break in the weather. Hoping tomorrow will be better, we don’t need sunshine just no rain. Today its blowing a gale and freezing and the rain is steady, not really heavy but constant, what I call the second notch on the windscreen wipers…1st being intermediate, 2nd being steady and 3rd being flat out. the wind is howling though and a bit spooky, it was buffeting the little car all over the road. I’m really hoping we get to walk around the Lakes District tomorrow, I’ve had my heart set on seeing Hill Top Farm and Hawkeshead…Beatrix Potter territory. These are photos Riley took from the car as we were driving along this morning.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND.....burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

November 23rd Glasgow
We arrived in Glasgow today under very grey skies. The day started off sunny and then deteriorated to rain and cold wind...again. We checked into a Travelodge then set off on foot to explore the city. Glasgow is a scruffy place and not that attractive, the weather probably didn't help. Lots of rubbish everywhere, everything is covered in moss because its so wet. We walked for miles and came back wet and tired to the hotel just on dark. It's a lazy night tonight just TV and dominoes. i managed to take some photos while out walking but its a real mission to keep the camera dry, i usually have it shoved into the front of my jacket which is not an attractive look...who cares ? i don't, must keep my pretty camera dry. Hey Deb ? tell Jonathon that the 14.2 MB's make all the difference { just stirring hahaha}.

FORTROSE, SCOTLAND

So beautiful.

An attempt at an arty picture

Drinking from the river because i forgot the water bottles.

Alf gearing up for the walk.

November 22

Thanks everyone for all the comments....Duana, i can not believe that the air con is still not fixed..i shall attempt to push some cold air your way. Clare...i am trying hard not to take crooked photos..the urge to tilt is strong but i'm winning. helen...enjoy tasmania ! you might get some cool air.

i know it's been a few days since the last update but we have been busy so here is 3 days ? worth. off to bed now.

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Breakfast at Alf and Karen’s was delicious and plentiful, thank you…with full bellies we went hiking with Alf up Glen Arriff to see the scenery of the real Scotland. I took 300 photos !! the scenery was breathtaking and we loved the walking.Spotted snow up on the hills, it was cold but because there was no wind it was almost pleasant…5 degrees. Afterwards Karen put on a wonderful lunch and we had a great time talking and laughing. Thank you Alf and Karen we really enjoyed seeing you. We are now on the road again and headed to Glasgow. More later.

This is the view from the dining room window out over Karen and Alf's backyard.

LOCH NESS, SCOTLAND

November 21 Today when we went to get in the car Mia noticed something on the windscreen....ice, it was 8.30am and the temp was 3 deg, had to turn the heater on in the car and wait for ice to melt enough to put the wipers on. We spent the morning exploring Inverness by first walking around the waterfront and dropping into the kilt makers shop where we bought some souvenir's and found the tartan of Clan Ross which I bought. The kids thought it was very cool to see the name Ross everywhere. After this we headed to Loch Ness in search of Nessie, the drive along the Loch is along a narrow one lane road that winds all over the place and has passing spots where you pull into if another car comes in the other direction. The view along this road is stunning with trees over hanging the road and the forest coming right down to the road edge. The Loch is huge and the water black with not a lot of houses around it, its quiet and peaceful, really beautiful. We dipped our faces and hands in the water and searched in vain for Nessie, but she never turned up..Mia was disappointed. For dinner tonight we headed over to a place called the Black Isle and the home of Alf and Karen who happen to be the parents of a Katherine South Primary school teacher, can you guess who it is by these photos ? maybe this photo. I found these on the lounge room wall and couldn't’t resist….her father told me to !!! Riley got a kick out of seeing his former teacher Mrs Christine Sutherland as a youngster….Alf slaved all day to cook a yummy chicken curry for dinner, so good that we booked in for breakfast the next day, it was great catching up.

EDINBURGH TO INVERNESS

November 20
Today we left Edinburgh but not before tracking down a laundromat at Portobello where we spent 2 hours waiting for the wash and dry cycle to end. while we waited we walked the neighbourhood and took a short drive around the waterfront, it was so cold, that nasty wind was blowing again. We finally headed out across the Fourth bridge which is huge and comes at you suddenly. its a suspension bridge and way to high for my liking but the kids liked it. The drive to Inverness was cold but very scenic and at around Kinross Mia spotted something strange on the hill tops....snow ! she was thrilled and i instantly felt my bones get even colder. Arrived in Inverness around 6pm. We havent done a lot of sightseeing today so most of the photos were taken by Mia or Riley from the car windows.

EDINBURGH, A CASTLE AND OUR EARTH

November 19 Today we explored Edinburgh. first we caught a train from Musselburgh station into the city, in what is becoming typical for me we missed the train because i was reading the timetable so we had to wait 45 minutes for the next one. people advised us not to drive in because we'd never get parking and i'm glad i listened because the roads and traffic would have done me in. It rained all day and was very cold. We walked from the station up the hill to Edinburgh castle and spent an educational few hours walking all over the castle, the kids got right into it Reading all the plaques and asking lots of questions. There is this chapel there called Saint Margaret's which was built in 1153 ? by King David and dedicated to his mother...1153 ? amazing. After walking up stairs down stairs around battlements and into dungeons we left the castle and made our way along the Royal Mile to a place called Our Dynamic Earth. Its a huge building devoted to our planet and is fascinating, like a big science lesson. The kids loved it and got right into all the experiments, the tropical room made us homesick. Our favourite part was this room where everyone sat in recliner chairs and looked at the ceiling which was huge, suddenly it was filled with stars, then clouds and we went on a tour of the world. at times it made you dizzy, a bit like a rollercoaster...wonderful stuff. We came of there at 5pm and found it was dark, gets dark here at 4pm. Walked back up to the station and as is usual we just missed our train so we had to wait for 20 minutes....did i mention it rained all day and the wind was blowing off ice ? by the time we got back to the hotel we were wet and cold, but it was a good day all the same.