Gloucester Cathedral

Formally known as the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, this is an huge and imposing place.

Worcester Cathedral - V

St. George's chapel is filled with old military flags to honor the country's fallen.

Worcester Cathedral - IV

Amidst the scaffolding of the repair and reconstruction is the tomb of King John. He was a strong and successful king of England and it was his efforts that shaped the country to become what it is. However, his last decade or so was not so successful and he really was gouging the barons and earls for money constantly. Hence, in 1215, he was forced to sign the Magna Carta. He died in 1216.

Worcester Cathedral - III

The cloister garden is a very pleasant place to meditate. I suppose that was the original purpose, after all. It is also a dandy place to see the tower and structure of the building.

Worcester Cathedral - II

This cathedral is certainly a big place. Looking along the ceiling, it seems to recede into the distance without end.

Worcester Cathedral

In downtown Worcester we visited the Cathedral. Like all the other Anglican churches at the time of our visit, there were memorials out front for the Queen.

Hereford Cathedral - IV

Somewhere, at some time, this lion was part of the structure of the cathedral. It either fell or was removed and placed here on the floor.

Hereford Cathedral - III

Nearly all of the burials in the cathedral are bishops. This one, setting under the stained glass, I thought made an especially nice image.

Hereford Cathedral - II

This is huge place with really enormous stained glass. The height of the ceiling over the crossing is impressive.

Hereford Cathedral

I pointed out two to the more amazing things to see in Hereford Cathedral yesterday... the Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library. Today we start our walk through the Cathedral itself.

Hereford Cathedral - Mappa Mundi and Chained Library

The cathedral in Hereford is famous for several thing. One of the wonders I've yet to see touted is the marvelous ironwork on the front door.

About the Village

The village of Stow-on-the-Wold is small and holds few things that are amazing to photograph. However, it is a place to see and just take in the village atmosphere. This nondescript building has a plaque that reads...

St. Edward's Church

Our next house sit was just outside Stratford-upon-Avon as you keen observers will remember from the few postings I made back in September of my morning runs through our small village. This gave us a jumping-off place for exploring the Cotswolds just to south.

In the Cotswolds, is a the village of Stow-on-the-Wold. In this place is the medieval church of St. Edward.

Peebles, Scotland

For those of you who are wondering what just happened...I figure you've already had a lot of time jumping around this year as I keep switching from the present to various places/times in the recent past...so another interruption in linear time is not a big deal. I missed this entry util too late to correct before you saw subsequent posting. So here is our last entry from our trip to Scotland.

St. Oswald's Church, Grasmere

In the village of Grasmere stands St. Oswald's church. A church of some description has been here since 642 (no leading "1" in front).

Levens Hall Topiary and Flowers

Just keeping the large sculpted bushes in the proper shape is a lot of work, never mind getting them into the right shape to begin with.

Levens Hall

In the village of Levens, just a few miles south of Kendal, near the entrance to the Lake District, sits Levens Hall. While the inside is pretty amazing, I did not visit the house itself. Rather, I opted to have a go at the gardens.

Kendal Castle

Just east of the town of Kendal in Cumbria (where the Lake District is located) are the ruins of the Kendal Castle. We see so many castles with lush grass growing inside, it is sometimes hard to image how the working castle actually looked.

Ambleside

Most of the photos one sees from the Lake District are taken on moody days with dramatic clouds or at sunrise or sunset to provide fog or some other scene enhancing atmospheric addition. On our visit, we did not get up early or hang around on location until after dark. And we were blessed (?) by clear blue skies.

But do love me some reflections in a completely still pond.

Into the Lake District!

 After leaving the Dunbar area, we headed south towards our next house sit and this took us through the Lake District. Naturally, we had to spend a few days to see what this as all about.

Robert Smail's Print shop - Seeing the print machines

We learned about a couple ways that printing was actually done. the first is using this hand-operated press.

Robert Smail's Printshop - II

One of the first things we learned about was typesetting by hand. Here, you see what it looks like to see the type put in the form.

Robert Smails Printshop

In the small town of Innerleithen, Scotland stand the print shop of Robert Smail. Founded in 1866.

Gladsmuir Church and Cemetery

The remains of the church sit in what is now a well-manicured cemetery.

Gladsmuir Church

Just along the A199 stand the Gladsmuir Church. Actually, there are two of them. The older one built shortly before the creation of the parish in 1695 stands to the north of the newer one which was built in 1839.

Eyemouth Harbor

Just down the road from Coldingham is the small harbor of Eyemouth. There is a small restaurant there where we had lunch. The harbor mostly looked pretty treacherous to me.

Coldingham Priory Gravestones

The priory is only a few ruins and most of them are fenced off from the public to protect them. However, there are several gravestones worth a look.

Most of the ones one which you can discern any detail are no older than Victorian era.

Coldingham Priory

Just a little ways north of Eyemouth in Berwickshire, Scotland is the village of Coldingham. Here we find the ruins of a medieval monastery. The church still stands and is a Church of Scotland, the rest of the priory is in ruins around it.

Last Look, Rosslyn Chapel

Instead of a dull, dirty grey as is usual in old stone churches, this place is vibrant and colorful. It a piece of antique eye-candy.

Around the Front of the Chapel

The detail in every portion of this place is simply amazing. The more I look at this photos, the more small carvings I see.

Rosslyn Chapel

In a small town of Roslin, Midlothian, not so very far from Dunbar, we find an amazing 15th century chapel. The Rosslyn Chapel, founded 1446 by Sir William Clair.

Whitekirk, St. Mary's Church

As we continued back from North Berwick, we stopped at Whitekirk, no doubt named after the appearance of this small medieval church. While the original structure on this site dates to the 12th century, construction on the current structure began in 1439.

Tantallon Castle

Tantallon Castle was begin in the 1350's by William Douglas, one of the most powerful men in Scotland. He inherited from his father and his uncle, 'Good Sir Jame' of Douglas, a close ally of Robert the Bruce. By 1358, he became the first Earl of Douglas, by which time the castle was well underway.

Above, we see the reconstructed bridge leading to the Mid Tower, the main entrance to the castle.

A Visit to North Berwick

We took a drive up the coast of the Firth to the north and west of Dunbar to the small town of North Berwick. Here, we find the Scottish Seabird Center. It turns out that it mostly a place to have a cuppa (which we did) and few souvenirs (which we also did) and support the Center's activities. Town wasn't large or terribly interesting. But there were things along the shore that I found photo worthy. Above is a much closer view of Bass Rock that you saw the other day. It is white on top from all the bird poop.

The Parish Church Cemetery

There are many secrets hidden in plain sight in the cemetery. Above is a family history that started in the18th century and ended almost a century later.

Dunbar Parish Church

We get a different view of the history of Dunbar when we visit the parish church. W. Archibald gave his young life for his country in 1944.

Leaving Dunbar Castle

From the area around the castle, we see that the neighborhood has gotten a lot more crowded than it was in the 16th century.

Dunbar, Scotland

Our next trip was to Dunbar, Scotland. This turns out to be an interesting place to visit. Across the street from our pet sit, is a golf course (naturally, we're in Scotland) and on the other side of it is the Firth of Forth. Out behind the clubhouse is a stone fence between us and Bass Rock. The flowers add just the right decorations.

Inside the Castle

Inside the castle, we find the remains poorly lit rooms (small windows make it easier to heat) surrounded with cold stone walls. This is just the sort of place one would find lots of tapestries hanging on the wall to help keep the people inside warm.

One of the towers still has functional stairs and I took one for the team and climbed up. Also, I figures there would be a few fun photos from up there. See what you think.

After the English civil war, many castles were dismantled or partially or wholly destroyed. Here, on the interior buildings and the drawbridges were razed leaving us with the castle in much the condition we see today.

And so we say goodby to Bodiam and to England for this trip. This ends our summer adventure. But fear not, more adventures in the UK are on tap and will be coming your way in the not too distant future. And, of course, There are still photos from the Nome trip to show you along with those from our trip to Albuquerque. Lots of adventures to report.

 

Bodiam castle Exterior

The photo above is an interesting juxtaposition of the old and new. Notice the contrail across the sky above the castle. the original residents would certainly never have seen that!

Walking into a Fairytale

Most of the castles we've visited have laced a still functioning moat. Some had no moat, others have a big ditch that may or may not have once been wet but are not dry. We now make a visit to a real moated castle that looks just like it came from a fairytale. This is Bodiam Castle.

St. Mary's in Rye

This church is graced with outstanding stained glass windows. While the chandelier is not special, it fits well with the space and adds its own touch of elegance.

St. Mary the Virgin, Rye

We made another visit to Rye to do a bit of shopping and I visited the church that sits on top of the hill on which the old town is built: St. Mary the Virgin. This is the parish church of Rye and has been here for over 900 years.

As you look uphill along Lion Street, you see the tower of the church that holds this clock. It was installed in 1561 and is one of the oldest working church tower clock in the country. The present clock face and the two so-called "quarter boys" were added in 1760. The figures above and on either side of the clock strike the quarter hours but not the hours, hence the name.

A Last Look as St. Thomas the Martyr

Many memorials fill this wall.As you can see, they are Victorian in their style.

St. Thomas the Martyr

In front of the church, where the nave once stood, is now a churchyard filled with gravestones.

St. Thomas the Martyr, Winchelsea

Near the coast between Hastings and Rye is the small town of Winchelsea. Originally on the coast, it was destroyed in 1287 be a terrific storm. As a result King Edward I relocated it inland to the present site on the Hill of Ilam. It was named as one of the Cinque Ports (the original five were Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich; King Edward added Winchelsea and Rye) that were to prove so important in Edward's many wars to keep and expand this kingdom.

 In the center of this small, neat town is the church of St. Thomas the Martyr.

In St. Mary's Chruchyard

Outside the church, is a cemetery that reflects the surrounding community.