Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Relentlessly North from South Larnarkshire to Montrose and on to Inverness

It's comforting to return to a place, Blackwood in South Larnarckshire is the home of our old friends, Marie and Ernie Bonner, so good to see them again. Their church too is familiar, we were there on Sunday morning and then set out after lunch for Montrose to catch up again with our friends the Tulleys and to stay with Will's mum there. We ate tea-cakes with them and then taking a walk along the beach we saw a huge old white Lighthouse at the end of the Spit. This family are shortly going to emigrate to New Zealand with their 4 children so there is lots to discuss.

Next day we drove up the coast to Aberdeen visiting along the way an old but still functioning oat mill driven by a water wheel. Further on we took the walking track down to Dunnottar Castle, perched on an Island, high up on a grassy knoll and only just attached to the mainland by a tiny isthmus. Here were extremely steep cliffs covered with fern and moss, but with a well built much used track. The farm house at Inverarnie is high above the road and very welcoming. Dinner even included a starter course with Haggis! So we are well and truly in Scotland. The high hills are really just bare rock, granite, and smothered with loads of purple heather. Everything is so picturesque and in many ways similar to South Otago; especially the weather. The following day we visited the McQueens on a nearby farm where my friend Christine grew up. The served us Pheasant and took us to see the Covenanters' Hollow where secret services were held for the Faithful with lookouts on nearby mountains watching for Redcoats in the 18th Century.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Ayrshire on the South West Coast of Scotland



The famed Gretna Green is the first town over the Scottish border and since we'd driven directly from North Wales it was time for a stop. So we drove over to the blacksmith's shop where so many elopers had been married in days gone by by the licensed blacksmith there. Now days couples are frequently married there just for the fun of the venue.

Arriving in Prestwick on the coast just north of Ayr we were taken by our friend Peter Smith to a huge old house overlooking the sea and the Isle of Aran. His kind friends Arlene and Jimmy McInnes put on an excellent dinner including seafood that Peter Smith had caught.......crab claws and mackerel pate on traditional Scottish oat cakes. They even served New Zealand white wine.

History is everywhere in Britain and Scotland is no exception so we were taken to some places relating to King Robert the Bruce who lived about 700 years ago. And then to a young Covenanter's grave behind an old church, he had been put to death in 1688, it makes you realise just at what cost our freedoms have been gained. There was a huge old Abbey, now in ruins but still recognisable just on the side of a country road surrounded by fields. Nathan was keen to explore a castle of the Kennedy clan perched on the cliff a bit to the south of Ayr; a lot of it is still intact and you could go through much of it and Nathan climbed up on to it at several levels. It looked fabulous against the sunset.

Many of the place names in this area are also ones we know from Christchurch as this is where the Deans family came from who first settled in Christchurch. Strathavon = Straven, Kilmarnock and of course the Avon River.

Well, we've finally purchased a Sat Nav but that doesn't mean an end to getting lost.... by no means! We ended up in a dead end street and then down on the waterfront; hopefully we'll get the hang of it soon.

I saw an excellent exhibition at the Kelvin Grove Art Gallery of the Glasgow Boys' work done 1880 - 1900. It was 'en plein air' with a natural everyday life look about it, quite a pleasant and memorable way to spend an afternoon.

Monday, August 16, 2010

In and Out of Wales


Strangely we had to drive south back past Wrexham where we had only just come on Wednesday. We headed through Cheshire and into Northern Wales but only for a short time and then we found ourselves welcomed back into England again. We're staying just outside a village called Chirk. The home-schoolers that we know here are a family we couldn't connect with five years ago, it just didnt seem to work. However they reminded us they did transport a suitcase for us to London in 2005. The Birds have a small business selling home-school books, so they travel about quite a bit to do this, on Saturday they will be in the North of Scotland attending the Highland Games where they will both be participating in the Marathon events. Lots of people we know know them, so its really great to meet them at last. Their home is White Cottage, one of a row of cottages built immediately on the road side, an extremely narrow strip of tarseal which runs up the hill from the river. The small hamlet is surounded by hills of fields of long grass, and dark green forests. At the bottom of the lane is the small river, which is the border of Wales. The Birds own another house a short way down the hill from where they live, which they use for storage, and for visitors. It's kind of like what we would call a batch but it's actually been someone's home for a hundred and fifty years until now. It's very kind of them to let us use it and we are having a very pleasant stay here.

I've been doing a bit of smocking on blue gingham for a four year old girl. And this evening I found time to re-cover my bible, as it had been looking quite tatty. We went for a walk in the evening up over the hill, and were swooped upon by four inch bats, (not brick bats). Now Pete and I have seen bats before, but Nathan.... or shoudl I say 'I' because, Nathan, (me) is actually the scribe tonight, this lol... cause mum cant type fast : -) so, Nathan was quite scared (sure...).

It was semi dark, and the moon was luminous. Well, actually there was no moon in sight, but it was still luminos... And I'm pretty sure it felt luminous... Or maybe it was the single street lamp...

As it was nearing to 10:00pm, we desided to turn around and go back to the cottage, as being stuck out in the dark, on a narrow road, with bats and mosquitos flying about, sight seeing was not first class priority.

Nathan, (me) kind of wrote this with Mum dictating (kind of like Napoleon... kinda), and decided to 'spice' it up... ooh! So, exuse the, well, the New Zealand-ish-ness of it : -)

I had to do some editing on Nath's scribe work! : -)

We went to the Quinta church where the pastor, Digby James is an expert on George Whitefield so Peter had a great time with him. During the afternoon we had a walk along the canal and over an aqueduct as well a sthrough a 1/2km tunnel where the canal runs under the railway. A splendid walk and good weather to boot. It turns out that Peter's cousin Cyril and family have just had a holiday on a barge on this canal.

The evening meeting was in a home and here Peter gave a seminar on Rest Home Ministry.


Across the Mersey


Wednesday morning was a mad rush from Ludlow to Manchester; three and a half hours driving to meet the 7:20am bus to pick Nathan up from an all night trip from Karlsruhe in Germany. It certainly was great to see him! He was measured today and he's 6 foot one, the tallest in the family now I think. We buzzed in and around Manchester chasing a car part which didn't exist; well at least not in a form that was of any use. It's unbelievable what these Breakers (wreckers) try to hock off as quality secondhand parts! We think they are probably overstayers working under the table as their yards have no proper signage and all deals are done in cash.

In the afternoon we visited The Science and Industry Museum where we saw huge steam engines and all the paraphenalia of the cotton mill industry. This is so much more fascinating as it is where the series 'North and South' was set. I came away with samples of calico in various stages of production from raw fluff to fine-spun threads.

Our road atlas is about 15 years out of date which made navigating that much more challenging as some roads and motorways have been renamed. So we're driving on the highway and the road splits and we don't know which one to choose and come to an abrupt halt on the cross-hatched median right in front of the concrete barrier! Well I'm happy to report that we're still alive and somehow arrived at our destination.

So we've spent the last three days with old friends on the Wirrol across the Mersey from Liverpool. It's been a great catch up. Nathan's had a cold and Peter has fixed the last job on the handbrake. We've done plenty of talking and enjoyed a full Moore curry this evening after the little ones had gone to bed.

Tomorrow we head back South for a bit to Wrexham in North Wales.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

ANCIENT LUDLOW IN SHROPSHIRE

Saturday took us through the Cotswolds - an area renowned for its gorgeous villages - we had already visited many of these and on this occaision went to Bourton-on-the-Water where Benjamin Bedome had ministered during the Evangelical Revival; he was one of a handful of Baptists who were involved and he was greatly used at that time. We also visited Stratford-on-Avon, the birth place of Shakespeare which was quite a delightful spot. We saw the half-timbered house where he was born and brought up; Quite a large house with diamond pattered lead-light windows.

That night was spent with a couple who live in the country near Hatton where we saw the 27 locks that work together to lower barges a long way over a very short distance. Next morning at` Emmanuel church at Leamington-Spa we met Sharon and Bill James and then had lunch with them before travelling due West to the ancient town of Ludlow in Shropshire. And it truly is incredible with so many half-timbered houses 500 and more years old. There's the huge castle where Catherine of Aragon lived and stone bridges. We're staying in a stone house 200 years old; the walls are so thick and we're sleeping on the 2nd storey but there's a huge cellar as well where the servants used to live, launder and cook.

We took a trip today to Worcester where my Great-Great-Grandfather was the lock keeper and he took the draught of the barges to calculate how much weight was in their load and what the tax would be, so we went to see the lock, built again of stone and it's still in operation, probably more than 200 years old. They built these mechanisms to last. We also got some good blackberries today.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

North of Bristol Near Chipping Sodbury

Heading north from Bath on the A46 we crossed the M4 which is the main motorway East/West from London to Bristol. Bristol is a key port city right next to Southern Wales by the River Severn; it was for many centuries the second city to London. We took the small back roads so that we could drive through lots of villages. The road are indeed small in the sense that they are narrow, well to us NZers anyway, and it's always a challenge and slightly frightening when a car or lorry (read truck) is approaching from the opposite direction; you just have to breathe in and hope he's noticed you and will squeeze past safely. Our hosts for these two nights are the Tully family of Charfield who are members at Westerleigh but are emigrating to NZ in 11 weeks. Will has a job on the staff at Massey University in Palmeston North. They have 4 young children and are both vets (in the animal sense, not the war!). We took a long walk across a deer park with Louise and the children. The deer are not so shy as in NZ and posed for photos at a range of about 30m. There was a hunting lodge in Medieval style, not sure how old it would be. There were also great views of the Severn and surrounding country. The following morning we popped out to a car boot sale where Peter was able to buy some much need tools as he has a few jobs yet to do on the car; which by the way is going really well. We're so thankful for that. Needless to say I had to be very restrained about purchasing and was just able to pass up a Portmerion serving bowl for which was only asking a pound!