Rudders at Home

Paul and I recently went to Tunisia for some fun in the sun, North African style. We spent 10 days there, and enjoyed it immensely, despite the last three days in which I was dreadfully ill. (Yes, I needed the drama of “dreadful” ) But I’m over that now. We went mainly for a relaxing beach holiday, and Tunisia being on the Med promised that. But it also promised a bit more.

We enjoyed the Med and the pool, spending the majority of the holiday there. Here’s a pic from the casbah in Hammamet.

But we also enjoyed the desert. While we were in Tunisia, we spent two days of trip exploring the country. I believe I’ve seen 75% of that country now. We even spent a night in the desert, under the stars in tents! Pretty nice, I think.

The trip took in El Djem, a well preserved coliseum, and then went on to show us some cave dwellings and places which were Star Wars. We also took in a camel trip, which Paul and I opted out of, but Paul did get some nice Camels for me.

The best part was seeing the sun rise on the Sahara. Yes, yours truly was up at 4:30 am in order to see the sunrise at 10 past five in the morning. And it was worth it. Check it out:

Isn’t that beautiful?

Our trip in the desert ended that day, seeing a beautiful oasis featured in The English Patient.

It was a good trip overall, lovely weather and much more to see than anticipated. There are even more photos in the gallery, if you’d like to gawk a bit more.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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. 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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Sometimes I love being miles and miles away from home. It means I get fabulous care packages and very often they’re are filled with everything I ask for. Around Christmas, I received a package from home with some home made table mats in them. So, this time, I got a table runner to match. Have a look:

My mother made this, just for me. Aren’t I a lucky girl? And it fits on my coffee table perfectly. I now just have to make sure I don’t spill anything on it! Thanks Mom!

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