England - The Lake District

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Even amidst fog and rain, The Lake District still manages to place you into another realm, and despite the relatively high numbers of people in the towns and villages, the fells are still very much a place of solitude and tranquility.





Above is the Castlerig stone circle, estimated by historians to date from about 3200 B.C.




Among the noted people to call The Lake District home were the poet William Wordsworth and writer/illustrator Beatrix Potter. At the time of her death, Potter left fourteen farms and over 4,000 acres of land to be conserved in the National Trust.

England - Bamburgh

Arrived in Bamburgh at the foot of her dominant Norman castle and massive sand dunes - beaches that go on forever, from one horizon to the other, and hardly a soul to be seen on this vast stretch of beautiful sand.


Northumberland's greatest heroine Grace Darling was born in Bamburgh and lived on the Farne Islands - just off the Bamburgh coast. Grace was a lighthouse keeper's daughter who along with her father William, saved the lives of nine victims of a shipwreck in 1838. This monument to Grace is erected in the graveyard of Saint Aidan's church in Bamburgh.
Definitely sitting in the top ten of my all-time favourite songs is this one by Dave Cousins of The Strawbs - here's a verse ...

You have been my lighthouse
In every storm
You have given shelter
You have kept me safe and warm
And in my darkest nights
You have shone your brightest lights
You are my saving grace
Darling I love you

England - Wooler and The Cheviots

England - Berwick Upon-Tweed

An old city that lives its life securely and comfortably within the confines of a 16th century wall. The city's aesthetic qualities have been a source of inspiration for many artists over the years including the painter L.S. Lowry. If approaching Berwick by land, one must cross the River Tweed on one of the city's three architecturaly significant bridges.

The Tweed's estuary provides safe harbour for ocean-going ships and boats as well as a fertile fishing ground for Atlantic salmon. Fishermen still use methods used centuries ago, and row out in small boats to set their nets. They gather in the nets from a point on shore or from rocky out-croppings in the estuary at low tide.

England - Newcastle Upon-Tyne

The quayside is cleaned up, the Georgian architecture is magnificent (as is the acclaimed Millenium bridge over the Tyne) - and the people as warm, helpful and hospitable as ever.

13:05 to King's Cross from a beautifully restored and renovated 19th century Central Station (the one Mark Knopfler sings about in Fare Thee Well Northumberland).
A once pragmatic and purely utilitarian interior shrouded in fallout from decades of industrial grime, now sparkles under fresh paint, wonderful light, and flowers - lots of flowers.

England - Nottingham

stopped in for a pint (by the canal side, not Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem) – John Smith's Yorkshire bitter – served in a “Coors” pint glass???? Friar Tuck must be rolling in his grave!

856 To London England

856 out of Toronto – the overnighter to London – it's been a while!

A big 777 being serviced and readied for flight – reminds me of a queen bee in her sovereign seat, being attended to by her many workers (and like any society, the drones are also present) – ready to ingest her latest load, a micro-representation of humanity, seemingly as differing in their purpose as in their appearance.

Arrived in London to rain – daylight struggling to let its presence known - who would have thought?

Buddhist monk on Oxford Street - or just a fashion statement? Their bags are similar afterall.

The nation is indeed under the watchful eye of millions of CCTV cameras; some would argue for the betterment of the country's social behaviour, others lament the erosion of "the right to privacy."



The irony - check out the slogan on the front of the white bus!
These guys were gridlocked in a traffic jam at the time - and going nowhere!