Where to Begin

I know, I know. I have been gone for ages. Now I don't know where to start. So much has happened since I did my first installment of my holiday. But for the up to date news you will just have to wait.



I will continue my holiday.


I spent four lovely days in the Lake District where a relative of a friend of mine treated me to wonderful hospitality. Thank you Pat. She drove me all over the place on typical narrow, winding country roads. We visited 7 of the 11 ( I think it is) lakes. Each sight was more beautiful than the last. I do hope to go there again.

Then it was back to Gateshead and the Newcastle area for a few days there.





Then it was off to Northampton. My mother grew up there. She is now 93 but I had instructions to check out the house where she grew up and the infants school she attended. Too my surprise each was still there. The school swimming baths had a sign that said they were built in 1902 and they were in full use the day I was there in 2009! Good going.

I am finding it very difficult to get the photos placed where I would like them to be. So please bear with me. I will have to spend some time reading the help files and find out how to do it properly. So that's all for now. Next time will go to Cambridge, London and Stratford. I won'tpromise to up date sooner but I will try.

Returned

This is the barge that I stayed on in Ripon.


Back home again after a wonderful, restful holiday. I had such big plans of keeping my blog up-to-date while I was away but alas "the plans of man".... But that's another story. I think I will post a few days stories in order that I traveled around the U.K. So after my time at Lamplugh House I went to Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast for a night in a caravan. I was expecting a caravan as I know them but the park was full of only what they call "static" caravans.


We know them as park homes or cabins. Mike and Margi are friends of my brother and this was our first meeting. We had a fun time together. After a night in the caravan we went to Ripon where their home is a canal barge. Had never been on one before but Maurice and I had often dreamed of traversing the canals of Europe and England. But we never won Lotto! The birds and ducks were such characters. I know why ducks have their name. There were two that would come to the kitchen window for ---food.They would peck at the glass and bob their heads up and down---ducking!




We even went for a trip down the canal and through a lock. I liked that experience as I feel I understand a little better how they actually work.

This is the inside of the lock gate and the water is rising.



While at Mike's they drove me around and we visited, Whitby, York (where we had afternoon tea, actually lunch, at the famous Betty's Tearooms and Cafe), Harrogate (while there, I saw places where I had lived and my grandmother's house, and where I had worked in my 20's) Yes, I did used to be that young. Also went to Knaresborough and to Aysgarth Falls looking for the spot where my granddad and I posed for a photo when I was about four. Also went to the Railway Museum in York. That was very interesting. Saw the old steam engines, royal coaches and carriages and also saw the Mallard which still holds the speed record for steam engines. It apparently only reached the record speed for 21/2 seconds I think it was before the engine blew up and it had to be towed back to the railway yards. It certainly gave all it had to give. I was with Mike and Margi for a week before going on the Lake District. Will tell you about that part in the next installment.

My Holiday

Picture from www.kingdomfaith.com/yorkshire





Well Folks, I am having a wonderful time here in the UK. I have been here one week and one day. And it has been pretty busy. Arrived in Newcastle after a very long journey but everything went smoothly and right on time. I enjoyed flying with Emirates. |Peter and Margaret were waiting for me at the airport and then we boarded my first English train for a trip to their suburb. The area we travelled in looked depressed but that is usual for the area where trains run no mattter where you are in the world. On Monday I felt a little jet lagged so we just stayed at home and rested. The next day we took the train into the city centre and I shopped. There is more goods to choose from here than I find in Australia. I had to buy a LARGE handbag as the one I had wasn't big enough for all the bits and pieces I couldn't get in my luggage. And to all of those who knew about my struggle with luggage weight in the end Emirates increased their allowance on May 4th to 30kgs. so all the clothes I left at home, I could have taken!! Drat. I am finding it hard to find souvenirs so I may not bring much home with me.

I met Maurice's sister Norma and her husband Albert. They were lovely and kind to me, even giving me a small cash gift to "Help you on your way. lass." I was touched. I will be seeing them again as I have family questions I want to ask and it didn't seem right the first time we set eyes on each other.

I find the houses are very small and compact here. Except at this time I am sitting in an old manse which has three floors an a dormer attic and bedrooms by the dozen. I have been here for a residential healing conference and it has blown my mind seeing God work in so many lives in a miraculous way. My mind has been stretched as to what is possible with God. I am a little in awe as I know that He will expect me to use the new knowledge that he has entrusted me with and I am not sure what avenue that will take. But all things are possible for God and I know I only want to do what He wants me to do.

Today is my last day here. The countryside is beautifully green interspersed with yellow rape seed fields, which I think is our canola. I have been for long walks. Tomorrow I am being picked up by friends of my brother and going to do some driving/ sightseeing. Whitby Abbey, York, Leeds, Harrogate and Ripon. Then I will go on to the Lake District. I came here to Scarborough by the Trans Penine Express Train and after the Lakes I will go back to Newcastle by train from Carlisle. Getting very proficient on these trains but they are a quick and cheap way to travel.

Must go as I have been using this computer for a long time now. I don't know when I will have access again. I am hoping to copy and paste a picture from the web of the house I am staying in.