Merry Christmas - Chatsworth

Many houses are decorated with lights and the villages have all had lighting ceremonies to light the high street and a central tree. We went to Chatsworth which is a Duke’s home and was decorated for Christmas. To keep the house and property in the family, one of the duke’s ancestors made it a trust and opened it to the public.  The current duke pays rent to live there.  It is an impressive house with extensive gardens. The maze was fun. One picture I’m adding is us in the chapel, sorry it’s out of focus, someone took it for us and they obviously moved.  May you all have a very merry and safe holiday season.

Fall

As the weather gets colder, spiders migrate into homes just like in the states. They are harmless, but here they are huge. We have had 25 of them in the house since the end of September. Here is a bad picture:


spider near ceiling, about 4 inches across

Fall/ Holiday Markets

Christmas shopping season starts after Halloween because there is no Thanksgiving in between.  Towns put up decorations and have Holiday markets along with their farmers markets. 

John in Portland Square in Bakewell

 

We went to Bakewell in the Peaks National Park District for their market. 

Town center market in background

 

It has an interesting medieval bridge over the river Wye with duck outs to climb up and see the river. The warn steps on these were impressive.

River Wye medievil bridge in background

 

Steps in bridge- no longer level worn to a slant.

 



Guy Fawkes Day

In 1606 a group tried to blow up parliament and kill the King, because they believed the next in line would reinstate the Catholic Church. An anonymous letter tipped off the authorities, and they found Guy Fawkes guarding the powder kegs in a room under parliament.  The group was rounded up hanged and drawn and quartered to discourage other rebels. Bonfires were lit to celebrate the king escaping injury.  Since then, Nov 5^th has been Guy Fawkes Day.  It is celebrated with bonfires that have scarecrows on them. Everyone cheers when the scarecrow burns, and then fireworks.

Guy on the bonfire

Guy under the talest flame

Bonfire burning down

People watching and staying warm

Fireworks

Inverness Area

Loch Ness        A whirlwind trip to Scotland started with Inverness and Loch Ness.

 

The Scottish highlands are beautiful but the eastern hills are not as steep or high as I expected. It is surprising how many high flat pastures and fields there are.

Culloden Battle Field     This was the battle that ended the power of the Scottish Highland clans and started years of repression of Scottish culture by the English.

 

 

Clava Cairns
Neolithic burial chambers that are 3000 to 4000 years old.   There are three cairns. Two have entrance passages that line up with the setting sun at the winter solstice. The third has a open  center area but no passage way to it. As with most prehistoric sites in England no one is sure how they were used.

 

Edinburgh Area

Edinburgh Castle

This is where Edinburgh started 1300 years ago.  It has been a fort and royal residence since the 11^th century and most buildings are still used today. St. Margaret’s Chapel inside the castle is the oldest building in Edinburgh completed in 1130.

 

View from Elephant House Café is where J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter. Does it make you think of Hogwarts?

 

Royal Mile           The road from the castle to Palace of Holyrood House.

 

Hadrian’s Wall

When the Roman army couldn’t conquer Scotland, they built a wall to mark the end of the empire or civilization and to keep the Picts out.  It ran from coast to coast, 73 miles, with a Castle and gate every Roman mile. Parts of the wall remain as do outlines of several forts, but most of the rocks were taken to build houses, churches and field walls after the romans left.  The amount of artifacts that have been found and are still being excavated is amazing.

On wall where it is part of the Housestead roman fort
 

 

 

Vindolanda Roman Fort near Hadrian's wall



Hatfield Moor and Peat Bog

A beautiful fall day, sunny, windy with a bite in the air, we went for a guided walk on Hatfield Moor.  It is part of a natural preserve now, but before 2006 it was mined for the peat that is found there.  The peat was used for gardening soil much like we'd use compost.

 In part of the preserve, the peat was scraped off and gravel was mined, so now these gravel pits are lakes.  The lakes have filled with rain water and the emigrating birds use them for resting and nesting sights.

Roe deer call the area home though we didn't see any. There was an abundance of mushrooms.  We saw 6 different kinds.

Now that we've been there, we'll go back with out the big group, and see if we can find any deer.

Wales

Conwy Castle from the middle of the town

Interior of Conwy Castle -This was the great hall with a  chapel in the rear

Conwy - A walled town in northern Wales with attached castle.  It is amazing because the wall still surrounds the original town and 90% of it can be walked.  Northern Wales has an abundance of medieval castles that are in remarkable condition for a being 700-800 years old. This means the walls are left and you can climb up to the top of many towers as well as walk on the top of the castle walls.  The walls have mid-level corridors that allowed defenders to travel quickly the length of the walls and defend them as needed.

View of walled town from Conwy Castle
 

These castles (17 of them) were built by King Edward to support his claim to Wales and secure his safety and that of his supporters while here. The towns were built and filled with English settlers. The Welsh were not allowed to live or often enter the towns.   The castles were all built with multiple rings of fortifications as well as secure access to the sea for delivery of supplies.



Wide tidal difference - Harbor at low tide

 

Along the harbor wall toward the city wall jutting into the harbor in the distance is the smallest house in England. It is two floors built against the city wall with a fireplace, sitting bench ladder and single bed upstairs. You can stand up inside. It has fairly high ceilings.

Kathy coming out of smallest house

We had a beautiful weekend in Wales spending one day in Conwy, castle, town and wall and a day visiting Beau Maris and Caernarfon castles.  We drove home through the mountains of Wales.  They are made of slate quite steep, rocky and beautiful. The tallest is Mt Snowdon at 3560 feet.

Beau Maris Castle still has its moat around ¾ of the castle. The protected dock for ships is evident. King Edward stayed here with his wife even though it was never finished.

Front of Beau Maris Castle wooden walk was draw bridge

View of secure harbor to right of main entrance(wall is gone)

Midlevel walk inside castle wall - light from alcoves with arrow slit

Beau Maris Castle is on an island seperated from the main island by Menai strait. Before this bridge ws built in the late 1800's it took three hours to cross this strait on the way to Dublin.

The tidal shift in this strait is dramatic. Boats are equiped with fins to keep them upright when the tide is out.

Caernarfon castle is the place where the next in line for the British throne is vested with the title of Prince of Wales. It is the largest of the castles, but like Beau Maris was never totally finished due to wars in Scotland that needed attention.

Main castle entrance
 

View from West end inside the castle.

 Caernarfon had water pipes in the castle.  The two well sites had sinks to dump water when it was pulled up and this water would drain to the kitchens or where it was needed. This view of the kitchen, below, shows in the background the grove where the water pipes were. The lead has been stolen long ago. On the left are two caldren/ kettle stands for cooking.

 

Festival of the Plow

The Festival of the Plow was held in the neighboring village of Low Burnham.  It truly celebrated the plow.  There were horses plowing, steam plows, tractors, rototillers and anything else you can think of that could plow was demonstrated.  Terrier raced as well as ferrets. Birds of prey were on display and it could arrange to have them come fly over your fields to catch rabbits. Tents of vendors selling a wide variety as well as tents of poultry, antique farm equipment, models of fairs, boats and steam engines were set up.  Dancers, bands, a carousel, kiddy carnival rides, and food booths rounded out the assortment.

John was amazed by a pair of steam tractors pulling a plow between them by means of a steel cable.  This method was used into the 1960’s.

First tractor- up hill pulling plow

 

second steam tractor-down hill- pulling plow

 

 

pulled plow-double sided doesn't turn around, other side just engages

cable to pull plow

 

 

 

 

I like the horse plowing competition.  The competition seemed to be who could plow the straightest and most even rows.

 

                         The ferret racing was fun to watch though none of them were very fast.

Ferret race couse

 We haven’t seen many birds of prey flying around England. Talking with the people who had them on display, we learned that many of the birds of prey were killed so they wouldn’t hunt the pheasants as people like to do that.  The ones they had were hand raised and trained to only hunt rabbits, so they could help farmers. No mention of birds hunting mice. To see wild birds you need to be in forested areas away from large estates where hunting was or is popular.

Choral Society

I've joined a Choral Society. It meets once a week to practice and gives 3 concerts a year. We are currently practicing for the Christmas concert. No carols song here so far. The music is varied from something by Handel ( not the Alleluia chorus) to a new composition by Karl Jenkins all in 4 part harmony. Think the One More Time Around Band in voice form.

Chester

This is a town from Roman times. It lies on the western side of the country south of the Mercy River from Liverpool.  It has the Roman wall, remnants of a Roman amphitheater, and a historic city center dating from medieval times. It’s a smaller version of York.

City center, Roman wall, clock tower
 

Shops in city center

 

Equinox parade

 

We were there just after the spring equinox and caught the parade through town celebrating that event.   

Roman wall and gate. On left pillars in Roman garden

 

Roman Amphitheater- St John's church in trees

         

  The church of St, John, near the amphitheater, couldn't maintain the east end of the church, so they built a new east wall and let the end of the church fall to ruin. As it did, so they discovered a coffin with a body had been built into an arch way.  They don't know who it was or why.  Just the coffin remains now.



Coffin built into arch of church.

East end of church- coffin in left set of pillars.