Lindisfarne - Holy Island

And here I am AGAIN!  Aren't you glad you don't have to LISTEN to me?  Yes, you are!!!  Believe me!

At any rate, I thank my friend Karen Smith, who lives in Northeast England, for providing the pictures that are in this blog.  She has introduced me to the fun of snapping digital pictures and has also provided all sorts of beautiful shots for this blog (shejust didn't know it until I asked her if I could post 'em!!!).  I shall also take pictures when I'm there this summer, as we are going to visit the Holy Island so I can visit Lindisfarne Priory's ruins.

The Lindisfarne Gospel is another magnificent, illuminated gospel, like its cousin, the better known Book of Kells.  It was created by monks at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island in the North Sea just off the coast of Northumbria in the early 8th century.  The story of the illuminated gospels is a different tale than this virtual trip, however.  Shall we get started?

Of course we shall!!!!! 

I hasten to add that Karen has a wonderful ability to include everything in her shots of an outing.  This ring necked pheasant was watching the car go by from a safe spot in a field.

This is the first view of the island that one experiences.  You are looking at Lindisfarne Castle which stands atop the island's highest point.

To reach the castle, one must cross a causeway, which is usable only at low tide.  Note that the water is out (but not dreadfully far).  It comes back in rather swiftly , as tides are wont to do, and, unfortunately, there are those who think they can beat the tide in their effort to return to the mainland.  Those drivers have relatives in the American Southwest, the ones who drive right into a flash flooded dip in a road.  At Lindisfarne, rescue is available.

Here is the watchtower at the midpoint of the causeway.  Karen says that people need to be rescued relatively often.  Cars are fast and heavy.  Tides are faster and far more determined.

Here is half of a placard telling a bit about the things to see on the island.  There is, of course, the castle and the priory.  And there is a Nature Preserve as well, and a small town within a mile of the castle.

Here's the second half of the placard, showing the castle and other points of interest. 

I believe that Karen said that cars are parked down below and a shuttle takes visitors to the base of the castle (rmember, it's on top of a hill).  Karen had a great opportunity to take some shots of the area as the shuttle climbed.

This is a pond:  the North Sea is on the horizon.  We're heading steadily upward.

I'm fond of the clouds and the view of the sea, myself.  This is an overlook - part of the outcropping is rock, especially in the middle, and the rest appears to be an old wall.

Oh drat!  I forgot about this picture!  The two tower things are actually markers showing boats the safe channel in which to travel.  I should have put it right at the beginning.  I'm sorry!

Remember I said that the shuttle takes visitors to the base of the castle?  Here we are at the base of the castle.  Do you see that railing off to the fair left?  Yup - stairs.  Very LOOOONG stairs!  Here's a closeup of them!

We're just looking up from the bottom fo the stairs.  Some kind soul decided that a rope might be a good idea to have in addition to the railing.  Thank heavens!  It's a steep climb, to say the least!

After the visitor has scaled the side of mount castle, there is a brief moment to rest before the next leg of the journey.  This flat section is that moment.  Inhale - exhale...

Just before the visitor turns to the right to enter a covered stair, this is the view from the portcullis.  The stairs that we have climbed are off to the left.  The two pointed shapes are the bottom of the portcullis.

Then off we go for a little more climbing. Part of the way is covered and has more helpful rope railing (believe me, I like ropes better than metal.  When I was at Blarney Castle and climbed the tower, that big rope hung down the stairwell was easierto grab than slippery metal!). 

From the top of the climb, the view out to sea is wonderful! 

Here is a shot of the small village that lies about a mile away from the castle. 

Being the nosy soul that I am, and having, unfortunately, a poor recollection of what Karen patiently told me about the castle, I had to turn to references to relearn the salient points.  The castle is quite small by castle standards.  It was built in 1550 originally and, over the years, served as a fort, a castle, and a Coastguard lookout.  In 1901 it was purchased by a publisher named E. Hudson and was renovated at his request by Sir E. Luytens.  The renovation was done in the Arts and Crafts Tradition and includes, outside the castle walls, a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll , who was internationally famous for her garden designs.  The family lived in the castle until it was deeded to the National Trust in 1944.  I don't have pictures of the garden (Karen, guess what we're going to visit this summer!!!)

Here are some pictures of the interior of the castle.

This is a model of the castle - it's really very well done indeed!

This is the master bedroom, or what we'd call the master bedroom today.  The bed is smaller than one might expect, but, then, people weren't all that tall early on.  The woodwork is marvellous and done all by hand. 

This is an anteroom and is furnished with pikes, a crest of the family and a handcarved cabinet.

Another bed, this one is a double.

Of the many pieces of furniture, this cabinet caught my imagination immediately.  The woodwork is splendid and the detail is amazing!  I don't know if I can get it out of the castle unnoticed when we visit, but I'm going to give it a shot.  What the dickens do I do for a diversion?

Back in the bedroom with the double bed is this washstand with a porcelain backsplash and matching washbowl.  It's beautifully done.

This chest, also in the bedroom, is another piece I'd like to steal (I'm admitting it!  It's so beautiful!!!!).  But I don't know if I could get both pieces out without drawing attention, and it's probably too big to fit in my suitcase...the thought was nice, though!

A small bathtub!  I wonder if it was for children.

This is a shot of part of the kitchen.

Another shot of the kitchen, this time showing the chairs and the brasses over the arch.

The kitchen table with a setting of china.  The brickwork on the floors is beautiful!

I enhanced this picture a bit so it would be possible to see the model of the ship overhead as well as the extra lighting added to this living room. Without the lighting, the room would be so dark it would be impossible to read.

Karen had a wonderful outing going to visit the castle, which has such a long history and which is so well cared for.  We're going back again this summer when I visit, but I wanted you to see her great pictures!

I hope you've enjoyed this little virtual trip (because, laughs like Simon LeGree) I have more thanks to Karen! 

Until next time?  Thank you for reading!!!!

Flowers, We Have FLOWERS!

Well (heh), not specifically we here in Rochester, although we do, mind you! 

But I'm going to put in some pictures of the garden of a friend who lives in England.  Over that-a-way, spring started a month or so ago so, while Rochester was busy having cold weather (normal) and wet weather (not so much normal, since it was the wettest April on record), English gardens were busy ramping up the posies!

I also have other pictures from England, and they'll be posted as well, but this bloggy thing (which sounds suspiciously like a boggy thing, but that's just my mind, since we've had so much rain over the past 72 hours) is about Chris's garden!

The garden has two sections, one for the poochies (this is a picture of the dog garden) and one for the peoples

In this shot, you are standing in the dog garden and looking back through the gate toward the people garden.  Personal take?  They're both nifty! 

We're in the people garden now and looking at a bench set under an arch covered in wisteria, which, in this shot, hasn't bloomed.  Shy plant wisteria...

The yellow flowers are king's cups.  They're growing in a little pond (because they are really water lovers?  because they don't know when to stop?).  I just went wandering in Google and have learned that this is one of the most ancient of British flowers.  They predate the last glaciation and have survived and flourished.  When you stop to think about what the weather was LIKE in the last glaciation, not to mention before and after, this is one stubborn and adaptable bloom!

Here is a paper birch

And here is a picture of some black elder flowering -

The rose is an early bloomer, a Maigold. Chris says that it has a soft fragrence.  It's a lovely thing  -  I love the color.  Makes me smile (no screaming and fainting at THAT thought, understand?)

Here we have a Hawthorn on the left and what (I have to learn to TAG these pictures!) I think is a blue spruce on the right.  Remember, too, that this is NOT a huge garden.  But it's bursting with all sorts of life and color!

Speaking of color!  These are poppies.  And they're absolutely beautiful.  I know California poppies and I've seen cross stitch patterns for Himalayan Blue Poppies, but these are gorgeous.  Maketh me to smile, they do!

We've walked a little way from Chris's home to look at a lovely, very, VERY stubborn Campanula.  It found purchase between the bricks on this fence wall and decided to decorate the bricks.  Again, so absolutely beautiful! 

This gentleman keeps watch on Chris's garden.  He was actually part of a church's facade.  The church (forgive me, I didn't tag the picture and Chris isn't in town right now, so I'll have to update this later with the name of the church.  I'm sorry...) underwent some updating, and he was removed, along with other things.  Chris saw him and knew he had to come back to the garden.  And there he sits, looking as if he'd never been anywhere else and completely at home.

EXBURY GARDENS - NEW FOREST

Exbury Gardens are famous for the Rothschild collection of  of rhododendrons, azaleas and rare plants.  The story of the gardens is fascinating, but today is about pictures.  When Chris went visiting there a few weeks ago, it was still too early for the rhodies to be out, but she caught some lovely shots.  I'm going to add them in here.

Azaleas, we have azaleas!

This is a beautiful, quiet nook in the 200 acre Garden.  I want to bring it home (but my apartment manager might not like it!!!)

A very, very tall magnolia tree!

These are primroses. 

This is a picture of trees of all different heights.  In the foreground, encaged for its own safety, is a small sapling.  To the right midground is a still leafless older tree.  And in the mid ground center stands a massive oak (I think) protecting a very large pine, which probably doesn't need protecting any more, but has it anyway! 

Notice, oh ye who may think that England doesn't have many sunny days - blue skies!  Ain't that cool?

Ah, I feel ever so much springier than I did an hour ago!  Have a great day!

Wander May 13, 2011

Hi!  This isn't a giant thing, of course.  It would be WANDER in capitals if it was.  I'm like that.  BUT, this is a quick rove - up on the bike/walking path next to the Ontario State Parkway.  I ambled about 3 miles total, although it didn't seem like that long, honestly.  The weather was nice, not blowing wind and howling storm.  And I wanted to take pictures (I NEVER thought I would be this avid about doing the imaging thing!)

I pick up the path only about 1/4 mile from my apartment.  Just walk South on Dewey Ave. and there it is - no big signs or anything.

HOWEVER, I found myself unable to get past the Lurking Tree in the front yard of my building.  It's a very pretty L.T. and was in full flower.  I think part of the reason Rochester has so many flowering trees is because we get so weary of the grey and beige (pronounced, with condescention - not condensationg, please- as "beeje".  A sneer at the end helps heighten the mood).  No matter, I get to take pictures!!!!

Aren't you THRILLED?  Yes you are!

This is a beautiful tree - and the branches are awesome!

So, naturally, I had to get the shot from every possible angle (or at least two)

THEN, because there was some sun?  I went for (heaven help me and you) the "Artsy" shots.  You know...

Actually, I like this shot.  It's not terrible or anything, I think?

And then, in a fit of utter sicky sweetness, I did this one:

What can I say?  I have spring fever?

I then did something like a 270 turn and head off down the sidewalk toward the path along the parkway.  Couldn't get past the first stand of pines (which are great wind and snow brakes). 

I'm fond of pine cones.

Before anyone asks, yes, I had my cell phone and my keys along with my camera.  Didn't take a bottle of water, but I really didn't need it. 

I took a picture a little bit after I started walking.  Just stepped into the shade and got the path and some trees.

If you look reeeeeely hard in the previous shot, you'll see the tree in this shot.  Still playing with the zoom lens, but I wanted to get all the pretty blooms up a little closer.

Speaking of pretty blooms...there are bunches of flowering little bits of green beside the pathway, or any pathway that you might fancy.  I don't know their names, but I decided to snap pictures of them (well, not the dandelions.  Maybe I SHOULD take a picture of one, just for reference?  Uh, that would be Not Yet.

This little fellow was shy, hiding down low.  You can see the tiny petals - I don't have a macro lens so I couldn't make 'em any clearer.  They carpeted one area and popped up irreguarly elsewhere.

This little bit of a thing was no more than an inch across.  It looks like a daisy with a yellow center.  And there is was doing its thing so I caught a picture.

This little sprite was soooo tiny all I could get was a faint image of four petals.

It's really hard to know what to take of places that one frequents - er...frequently.  The old forest for the trees thing, you know?  I did okay, but I could have done more (I think that is the battle cry of every picture snapper out there)

Be that as it may, I did take a picture of  a curve in the path to give someone watching an idea of where I was going.  Because I'm nice that way.  Snicker.

Be that as it may, we are now out of the copse of trees and have walked a bit on. To your right is a busy 4 lane highway.  To your left is Lake Ontario.  This is a wetland where swans, ducks, red winged blackbirds, turkeys (one ran out in front of me earlier in the week as I walked the path), and elusive (drat) Baltimore Orioles among other things live happily.  I tried to get a snapshot of the Oriole for twenty minutes!  Couldn't do it.  He was way too fast...

As you can tell from the regularity of the sides of this bit of water access way, people have been in recently (only a couple of years ago, while the walk way was being finished) and dredged an existing access point.  The water is deep enough for ducks and fish.  Since this is a state park, I think perhaps the rangers need to be able to access the area as well, although I'm not sure.

Like I said, I need to take a lot more pictures to give everyone a basic idea of the walk, but I'm going to close with this one.  We're looking back at the woods that belt the wetlands.  The footpath is under me and trails off toward the trees.

This is a spring picture (a number of the trees are still bare), but there is almost an autumnal cast to it.  And, in the autumn, richer versions of these colors will be each tree's fall finery.  I realized that a long time ago ...weird, eh?

This is just a little wander.  I hope you liked it!