Archive for the 'Britain' Category

The Kilt Project: Belt Buckle

We’ve recently added quite a bit to our kilt collection here.  The project has moved on since the last time I posted about it., and hopefully I will catch you all up on it soon. Today, though, I’m highlighting Paul’s belt buckle.

Belt Buckle

Belt buckles for kilts have all sorts of designs on them, from celtic knots to Scottish saltires, to the rampant lion or a clan crest. We picked a nice Scottish thistle design for Paul’s belt buckle.  I really like the thistles on it and think compared to a lot of the design’s I’ve seen, it’s quite unique. You can’t see it here, but the belt also has a Scottish thistle design, and Paul’s sgian dubh also has the shape of a thistle on the hilt.

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Wildlife

Along with the foxes, there seem to be pheasants everywhere in this country. When Paul and I first got our car and drove around every weekend like it was going out of style, it was nice to see the birds everywhere, but also sad to see how many ended up as roadkill. Seriously, they were everywhere. Ever since, I’ve been trying to get a nice shot of one – with my camera, guys, the camera! – but haven’t had any luck. With as prolific as they are you would think this would be an easy task, but they’ve eluded me so far.  I think I’m just a bit too obvious about how I go about it. I never could walk quietly in the woods!

Well, I finally got a shot at one – with the camera!!

And here’s my pheasant:

Pheasant

I was finally able to get a lovely picture while I was visiting friends near Leeds. We made a trip to Harewood House while we were there, and that’s where we found this old boy just hanging out along a path.

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Angel of the North

Here’s a recent picture of the Angel of the North. Our sojourns with Flat Stanley finally allowed me to take some photos.

The Angel of the North is a large piece of sculpture that is just off the A1.  We’ve driven by this piece of art a couple times, when we go up to Scotland on the route that takes us past Newcastle. We don’t normally go this route, so I’ve only been by once or twice. The weather has never been particularly good, or we’ve been in the frame of mind “must get to Dundee,” so photographing it has never been foremost in our minds. This time, however, we made a special stop to capture Flat Stanley in front of this artwork, and a quick pic for my blog. So, here you go!

Angel of the North

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So many sheep!

One sheep, two sheep, red sheep, blue sheep! I mentioned that there were numerous instances of sheep over our bank holiday weekend. I thought I would give you a sample of some of the pictures I got of said sheep. Notice most of the time they’re walking away from me. For some reason, they didn’t seem to want to pose for the camera. Go figure.

Sheep walking away

More sheep walking away

Tresspassing on sheep territory

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Three Brethren Walk

So, Paul and I went to the Borders for an Easter break this year. We weren’t counting on good weather at all, being April in Scotland, so we were pleasantly surprised when we had full on sunshine for the weekend.

We had two options at our disposal, take full advantage of being in Scotland and find a good pub, or take advantage of being in Scotland and do some outdoor activity. So, we decided to go on the Three Brethren Walk, a walk up a big hill with three cairns at the top. And boy was it something.

Here’s the view down the first hill in the walk that we went up. This was a wooded area and there was a stream running along side this road. Once at the top of the hill, the scenery changed slightly.

First view on Three Brethren walk

The hill leveled off and there was a nice bit of flat space to walk down, with a nice stone wall along side it. The landscape opened up here as well, and the ground gradually sloped upwards.

Stone Wall Path

And another scenic picture of the heather and the inclined walk. Not to mention the sheep. There were sheep all over the place, and I can’t tell you how many pictures of sheep I have. But there were lambs everywhere as well, so I think the excessive photo taking was justified. The landscape here just continued in a similar way, with more and more heather (the dark bit on the hill in the distance). And the path became increasingly rougher and steeper.

Three Brethren path view

And after the last arduous bit of the walk, we were greeted by the three brethren (cairns) at the top of the hill and a glorious blue sky. Once up there, we took a break and had a look around and enjoyed the view.

And what a view it was, too. Three Brethren View Overall, it took us about 3 – 4 hours (we didn’t time it precisely!) and the walk was around 9 miles long. What a great walk, apart from the wet foot. But that’s a story for another day.

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