Hoad Sweet Hoad

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The very first photo I took in Ulverston way back in March 2009

Since last time Mumsy was here, we went on a whirlwind tour of England/Scotland, we decided to stay close to Ulverston.  I took her to some of my favorite places – Birkrigg Stone Circle, Gillams, Market Street and the Hoad.  Since I had already written about Birkrigg but somehow, inexplicably have only written a brief paragraph with no actual photos of the Hoad, I decided it would be the perfect subject for today’s blog.

Perhaps the most recognizable part of Ulverston is the Hoad.  In fact, it kept me from getting lost my very first day in Ulverston.  I decided to take the train to Kevin’s rather than have him pick me up and unwisely decided not to write down directions or even an address of Kevin’s brand new flat (that I had only been to once back in March on his house hunting trip).  Also, I had no idea where Ulverston was in relation to the other towns around me, and thus did not have any clue as to when would be an appropriate time to gather up my belongings and prepare to disembark the train.  However, as I looked out the window with jet lag forcing my eye lids closed, I saw the Hoad.  Just in front of the Hoad, I saw a 3 story blue building.  I assumed that Kevin was the only one with a blue building in that general location and thus I was able to get off the train in the right location and wander towards the Hoad in the direction of the blue building and find the flat. 

 

Built in 1850 from stones taken from Birkrigg Common (right down the road), the Hoad commemorates the life of Sir John Barrow – founder of the Royal Geographic Society.  For many years, he served in various countries as a foreign secretary.  Mini Deal would be interested in the fact that after the very short lived acquisition of the Cape of Good Hope, he served as a secretary in Cape Town, in charge of settling disputes between the Boers and the native Africans.

Fortunately for the Hoad but unfortunately for me, it has been wrapped in scaffolding since shortly after Kevin’s arrival in the UK for major repair works.  However, in August, the repair work was completed.

While I walk up the Hoad at least once a week while here, this week marked the first time I had seen it without junk all around it.  Needless to say, I have taken quite a few pictures.  Its unfortunate that the inside is only open on Sundays because I would have loved to take a walk up and see the panoramic views of the area.

View of the Hoad from Birkrigg Common.  Look at all the snow on the fells!  No wonder its so cold.

This morning it snowed and I rushed to take a photo.  Kevin was less impressed and greeted my cheers of “Snow!” with a grunt.  He’s still sleeping…

Mumsy enjoyed our hike up the Hoad as well.  Last time she was here, the weather was rainy and the Hoad was covered in scaffolding.  However, I made the rookie mistake of asking her which way she wanted to go to the top and she chose straight!

Sooo steep

Mumsy likes taking pictures of the Hoad as much as me.

Happy British Thanksgiving

 

Due to the fact that Kevin was VERY annoyed at my post on Thanksgiving, I’ve decided to try and appease him with a serious post about our delicious Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  Note: I was too busy drooling over the food and talking to remember to take pictures, so I’ve stolen these great pictures from two lovely American wives Holly and Pat.

For the third year in a row, the wonderful Braddylls Arms in Bardsea (just up the road from Kevin’s place in Ulverston) has hosted a Thanksgiving meal for the Americans over here.  The Braddylls is a great little restaurant with a beautiful view over Morecambe Bay and even better food.  We’ve eaten there several times and I have never been disappointed.  The food is well cooked and showcases locally sourced ingredients.  Therefore, when I heard that the annual Thanksgiving Feast was held at Braddylls, I was excited. (Last year, I cooked Thanksgiving for Mini, our dear friend Katie and some of our friends from Ulverston. Give Thanks 2009)

The proprietress June goes all out for this occasion, sourcing ingredients from France (pumpkins) when not available here and providing a variety of wonderful decorations for the room.  For me, one of the best parts was arriving early with the other “ladies of leisure” (aka unemployed American wives) to set up the room.  I think we did a fantastic job!

The food was, as expected, wonderful.  I especially enjoyed the real Creamed Corn (it was literally fresh cut corn in a cream sauce.  WAAAAAY better than the disgusting canned variety.)  It was great to spend Thanksgiving with friends and fellow countrymen (and a few Brits to boot).  I ‘m just sad that I couldn’t convince Kev to stay another year so that I could enjoy the food again next year.

The best thing on this plate was by far the sweet potatoes.  MMM

We let a Brit carve our turkey.  Luckily (for him) he didn’t mess it up.

One of two photos I actually took.  The girls next to me looked at me very strange when I pulled out a camera to document my food.  Little did they know that this is one of my hobbies.

Glorious pie!

 Somehow we wound up at the kids table.  I blame Jen.

I’m thankful for…

In honor of the ongoing debate regarding Twilight versus Harry Potter and which is better, and given the fact that I am currently in England, the land of Harry Potter,  I’ve decided to do a special edition of the blog dedicated to the very subject.  Harry Potter and Twilight are probably two of my favorite things in the world and in keeping with the Thanksgiving Theme, here are the top 5 reasons I am thankful for each:

Harry Potter

5. The Weasley Twins

 

Like myself, they know the value of a good prank.  Some of their better works include the fireworks that crash together and spell “poo” and the swamp in the corridors of Hogwarts.

 

4.  Hermione Granger

 

She makes hardworking bookworms look cool.  Think about it, she was one of the main reasons Harry Potter  was able to defeat Lord Voldemort.

 

3. The Scenery

Filmed at some of the most interesting and picturesque locations throughout England, the film is a treasure trove of places to visit.

 

2. The Cast

 

 

 

The cast of Harry Potter is like a Who’s Who of British Actors. 

Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Kenneth Branagh, John Cleese, Emma Thompson, David Tennant,  Brendan Gleeson, Michael Gambon, Gary Oldman, Julie Christie, Ralph Fiennes, Imelda Staunton, Helena Bonham Carter, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson  and of course Robert Pattinson.  I think all of the British Film Industry has been in these movies.  Except Hugh Grant.  Wonder what he did to piss off the Harry Potter directors…

 

1. Speaking of R-Patz

JUST SAY NO!

The number one reason I am thankful for Harry Potter is the fact that I can watch R-Patz without K-Bot  ruining it with her blinking, lip biting awfulness. 

 

Twilight

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!  Kevin has pointed out that this blog has nothing to do with England, so I’ll return to regular blogs tomorrow. 

Robin Hood’s Wall

Sunday morning brought a bit of sun, so we thought it would be the perfect time to explore the elusive Hadrian’s Wall (Vallum Aelium to my Latin comprehending friends. (Yes, I know more than 1 person who can read Latin.  Seriously.)   The proprietress of our lovely B&B (Brookside Villas – definitely check them out if you are ever looking for a place to stay in Hadrian’s Wall area) sent up up the road to Birdoswald Roman Fort for a good view of the wall. The fort was closed for the winter, but the view was amazing-well worth the trip.

Buddy!

It’s  not a day with the Lesters if we I don’t take a ridiculous picture

Mumsy didn’t appreciate my crazy picture and made me act normal.  BORING!

Ridiculous pictures must run in the family.  Gaga eye!

After my Mom and I thoroughly annoyed Kevin with the sheer number of photos we took, we headed off to Steel Rigg, an excellent base for hiking along some of the most impressive sections of the wall.

Hadrian’s Wall started its lifeas an earth wall and spanned the 80 Roman miles from Solway Firth to the River Tyne. In 122 AD, the Emperor Hadrian commissioned the building of a stone wall with milecastles at every Roman mile and turrets interspersed. (FYI- A Roman mile is 1620 yards, compared to the current 1760 yards per mile. There is some debate that it is due to the shorter stature and smaller feet of the Roman soldier since they measured distances in paces.)  Designed to keep those pesky Scottish barbarians out and the locals from stealing their sheep, it had a ditch at the front and at the back.  The ditch at the front served to increase the difficulty of scaling the wall while the ditch set a distance from the backside of the wall served to keep the livestock close to the wall and make it difficult for the citizens to sneak in a steal a sheep or two.

When the next Emperor Antonius came into power after Hadrian’s demise, he was not content to let Hadrian have all the glory and fame, building his own wall further into Scotland called the Antoine Wall.  However, the Scottish were much more successful in destroying the wall and very little remains today.  Even in death, Hadrian managed to outshine Antonious. 

Now that everyone is asleep from my history lesson, here are a few of the better pictures:

One of the milecastles

Turret

Tsk tsk Kevin, standing on the wall when it clearly tells you not to.  At least I have my wicked sweet Whalers hat to distract from the fact that you are BREAKING THE RULES!

Aww nuts!  Mom caught me being nice to Kevin…

About half way through the walk, we reached the famous Sycamore Gap.  Famous for what you ask?  It’s famous for being used for filming of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves with the terrible Kevin Costner.  Not only is Kevin Costner a terrible actor, but the geography of the director is seriously off.  First, he lands at the White Cliffs of Dover, then two seconds later he’s at Hadrian’s Wall in order to head to Nottingham?  Did they even look at a map before they filmed this movie?

Hadrian’s Wall Scene from Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves

 

Nevertheless, it was neat to see where they filmed the movie.  I have only seen it once or twice back in the day so I probably wouldn’t have picked it out on my own, but those people who may be a bit more into this movie than me (I save my allegiance for the fantastic Disney version) probably will have recognized it right off the bat.

 

Sadly, none of us climbed the tree.  If only we had Mini Deal with us.  She would have been up that tree like a monkey.  After we viewed the tree, we tried to decide if we would turn back or keep going on the loop.  Since I come from a long line of non-decision makers, this was a bit difficult.

This is what Kevin looks like when his wife and mother-in-law won’t make a decision.

Since we all decided that we could walk forever, we decided to continue on and complete the loop.  Shortly after passing Sycamore gap, we headed down and then across a farm, which afforded a great view of the wall from the perspective of potential invaders.  You can really see how imposing it would have been. 

 

This sheep is named Cailin

To Rome and Back: A Lester’s Tale Part Two

 

One of the first trips we took when Kevin first moved to the UK was a trip to Northumberland to see Hadrian’s Wall. (To Rome and Back: A Lester’s Tale) What was supposed to be a simple road trip turned into an epic saga when we were unable to find the wall. (How we missed the wall when it is huge and well marked is beyond me).    Therefore,  when we thought about what we would do with Mumsy when she was here over Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good idea to try and find the elusive wall once again.

This time, we had post codes, maps and advice from fellow travelers.  Instead of being an epic trip over misty mountains with the tricksy Gollum GPS, it turned into a civilized drive on the highway. If only Frodo had a GPS and detailed directions, his trip to Mordor would have been far less eventful.

We started out the morning with a visit to Vindolanda Roman Fort.  An auxiliary fort, Vindolanda served to protect the Stangate (Military Road) that spanned between the River Tyne and Solway Firth and followed behind the legendary Hadrian’s Wall.  The fort holds two claims to fame.

1. The largest remaining Roman ruins in Great Britain
2. The oldest example of ink writing found in Britain

The site was quite impressive and it featured a really great introductory video that discussed the history of the site and a reconstruction of what the site once looked like.  It also had a great “Bird’s Eye View” of the wall. The only disappointing part was that the museum was closed for refurbishment.  However, this was probably the best news Kevin had ever heard as his tolerance for museums is much less than mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lassie –go get help. Kevin’s fallen in the well

 

 

 

 

 

 

A reconstruction of the old timber fort

 

After visiting Vindolanda, we decided to head just up the road to Vercovicium (for those of you uncultured Non-Latin speakers -Homesteads Roman Fort).   Not to be outdone by Vindolanda, this fort has its claim to fame in the fact that it is the most complete Roman fort remaining in Britain. I found it to be far less impressive than Vindolanda.  However, this may have been due to the fact that I was wet and cold at this point and in need of some food. 

Although Vercovicium was less exciting for me based upon the actual site, what did set my heart skipping was the wide stone wall heading off into the countryside.  Finally, we had found Hadrian’s Wall.  Given its impressive size and large spans, I am still shocked we couldn’t find it.   Since we were all wet and freezing we decided to save exploration of the wall for the next day.