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travellarge

~ After two years of turmoil, a homeschooling family embarks on a big adventure

travellarge

Category Archives: United Kingdom

And We’ll Never Be Royals…

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by travellarge in United Kingdom

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Longest reigning British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, Things I learned from the Royal Family

We don’t care, we’re not caught up in your love affair.

(The words of singer Lorde)

Spoiler Alert: This post has nothing to do with travel or food and pretty much nothing to do with homeschooling so if you’re out at this point, I’ll understand.

Well, I don’t know what happened but it’s been close to a month without a new blog post.  Since coming back from the big road trip to the East Coast, I have been busy foraging and preserving.  It is still peak season, but I am finally able to come up for air.

The apples I picked with a friend.

The apples I picked with a friend.

At one point, I had gathered so much free fruit that I was storing it on toboggans in my garage!

Concord grapes and Mirabelle plums on a toboggan

Concord grapes and Mirabelle plums on a crazy carpet

Also, we’re full swing into homeschooling activities.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Annual Not Back To School Picnic which takes place on the beach on the first day of school.  Hundreds of homeschoolers came together to enjoy swimming, laughter and cake.

Yes, I’ve been busy but being busy has never stopped me from blogging before.  For once, I just didn’t have anything to say.  I guess miracles do actually happen :-)  Then this morning, I woke up and blop, a fully formed blog post was in my head.  The topic is a bizarre one, I’ll grant you that but when the Sandman plants a complete essay in your head, you go with it:

No matter where your sit on the monarchy spectrum, there are things to admire about  the modern-day Royals.  Not about The Royle Family – a wildly popular and absolutely hysterical British TV series from 15 years ago.  We don’t admire those Manchester cretins.  I’m talking about the House of Windsor.  Quite fitting, seeing that Queen Elizabeth II just became the longest reigning British monarch.

Trust and Faith:  Members of the royal family have to have confidence in their staff.  When they are on official business or travelling, they have to trust their staff with their lives.  When I travel and my spidey senses tell me something is fishy, I remove myself from the situation pronto.  But when that happens to Prince Charles, he just has to Keep Calm and Carry On.

View from top of Harlech Castle

View from top of Harlech Castle, Wales

Self-Confidence:  Diana was the darling of the media and the public, until they turned on her and started publishing pictures of the cellulite on her thighs.  How hard it must be to have millions of people actively working to bring your mood down.  It’s only a matter of time before William and Kate will have to thicken their skins.

Grace:  There are complicated etiquette rules to follow when meeting royals.  However, many people never got the memo so royals may be faced with all kinds of behaviour they find startling or off-putting.  They also may be given ridiculous gifts or foods they don’t care for.  In these situations, they don’t make a stink, they graciously put everyone at ease.

Self-Restraint:  The modern royals can eat and drink whatever they want and they don’t have to lift a finger if they don’t want to.  But they don’t live that way.  They keep themselves trim and fit and that must be difficult when you are so rich and powerful you could just sit around in your underwear eating blocks of cheese like George Costanza.  The Queen is almost 90 and she is still riding horses for Pete’s sake.  If we think it’s difficult to eat well and exercise, how much harder it must be for them.

Friendship: Will and Kate appear to have close friends and to cherish family.  Will grew up royal so that must have always been an issue and Kate now lives a completely different life from the one she grew up with.  I find it impressive that with all that, they still seem to be successful friends and family members.

In summary, we’ll never be royals – phew!

A Royal Flush (sign inside charity shop washroom, Grand Manan, New Brunswick)

A Royal Flush (sign inside charity shop washroom, Grand Manan, New Brunswick)

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Day 13: Derry

13 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by travellarge in Accommodation, Handmade, United Kingdom

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Couch surfing, couchsurfing, Derry, Handknit hats, Londonderry, Northern Ireland

The 14 days of Valentine tribute to the love of couchsurfing continues – but not for long!

DAY 13 – DERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND

HE: Lecturer about Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”

Geese and chickens right in front of the cheapo Beauvais Airport, France

Geese and chickens right in front of the cheapo Beauvais Airport, France

After we left Balagny-sur-Therein, we drove to the airport and caught a cheapo Ryanair flight to Dublin.  We picked up a rental car and headed north.  We had booked an apartment in central Derry so we didn’t stay with Rockclimber but he was willing to host our car so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking.  When we arrived, he told us that he wished we hadn’t booked the apartment because we could have sorted ourselves out in his flat.  He had listed his maximum number of guests as two but he would have absolutely fixed things for all six of us to stay.

One of the famous Bogside murals, Derry.

One of the famous Bogside murals, Derry.

We had a great time touring the city with Rockclimber and then enjoying a pint in his hipster bar.  Derry was one of our favourite places of our whole trip and Rockclimber was certainly one of the reasons why.

Coronation Street film set?  Nope, these are houses in the Bogside, Derry.

Coronation Street film set? Nope, these are houses in the Bogside, Derry.

Rockclimber’s hat is warm because he is pretty much bald and Northern Ireland is cold, windy and rainy.  The style is hipster-ish which I think suits him.  He’s definitely not a full-fledged hipster but ish about sums up his degree of hipsterness.  The hat is knit in Cascades Jewel and knit on 5 mm/US 8 needles.  The pattern is the Jewel Earflap Hat available for free from Cascades.

Rockclimber hat

Rockclimber hat

hat derry2

The earflaps make it hipster-ish.

Today’s Quote of the Day comes from Greg the Yoga Teacher.  Greg always has an eloquent way to describe things and man, could I relate to what he said today.  For those of you unfamiliar with yin yoga, it is a form of passive yoga where you are supposed to relax every muscle to really stretch.  Poses are held for 3-5 minutes and you are supposed to feel constant discomfort.  As soon as you are comfortable, you should stretch a bit deeper.  That discomfort is called “playing the edge”.

When doing yin, I like to think of my body as a bunch of squabbling children.  Some are goody goodies, some are annoying, some are attention seekers.  But you still love them all equally.  The thing is to figure out what kind of vibe to send out that will get them to become harmonious.

 

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Day 6: Durham

06 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by travellarge in Accommodation, Handmade, United Kingdom

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Tags

Couch surfing, couchsurfing, Durham, Handknit hats, Ravelry, Woodcraft

The 14 days of Valentine tribute to the love of couchsurfing continues.

DAY 6 – DURHAM, ENGLAND

HE: University Professor
SHE: Community Nurse
CHILDREN: Son, Son, Daughter

You may remember County Durham as the setting of the movie, Billy Elliot.  Or you may remember it from Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners program.  County Durham is the place in England with the highest rate of health problems among school children. Where is it?  North.  In England.  Way North.  Most people admire it for its UNESCO World Heritage Durham Cathedral.  For us it’s the accents.  Oh, those Durham county accents.  I swoon just thinking about them.

Tynemouth, not far from Durham

Tynemouth, not far from Durham

Our next couchsurf was with a family committed to Woodcraft.  Haven’t heard of it?  Well, we hadn’t either but it is a UK organization dedicated to bringing children closer to nature.  Woodcraftie welcomed my family and made them feel at home.  My family attended a Woodcraft meeting and Fahbio was swarmed with questions about homeschooling.

THANK-YOU!

Woodcraftie is a bit of a vegetarian tree-hugger.  Which is good because this part of England needs more conscientious objectors who refuse to buy into the turkey-twizzlers and cola that feed this part of the nation.

Venice chasing sheep in Northern England

Venice chasing sheep in Northern England

Her hat is knit in forest-coloured Berocco Ultra Alpaca Tonal.  Again, 5 mm/US 8 needles.  The pattern is called, “Graham” and the designer is Jennifer Adams.  It’s a practical hat that you can throw on when you need to run out and chain yourself to an old oak.  Or when you need to dash out to see someone with dementia.  She is a community nurse after all.

Onlyboy models the slouchy eco-hat

Onlyboy models the slouchy eco-hat

The pattern is a free download if you a member of Ravelry.  Which by the way is completely free to join.  Remember the days when you would have to buy $8 Vogue Knitting to get your patterns?  Ravelry is a blessing to knitters everywhere.

 

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Day 5: Bangor

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by travellarge in Accommodation, Handmade, United Kingdom

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bangor, Couch surfing, couchsurfing, Handknit hats, Wales

The 14 days of Valentine tribute to the love of couchsurfing continues.

Venice models Bangor hat

Venice models the Bangor hat

DAY 5 – (IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE NEAR) BANGOR, WALES

HE: Psychiatrist
SHE: Accountant
CHILDREN: Son, Son, Son, Daughter, Son

When we left Arras, we took a sabbatical from couchsurfing.  First, we stayed one night in a B&B in Calais waiting to drive through the Eurotunnel and another night in an impossible to find cottage in England.  Then we spent 2 weeks on a narrowboat in England and Wales followed by 2 weeks in a lovely Welsh cottage on the salt marshes.

Us, in the chunnel

Us, in the Chunnel

Walk towards Ellesmere

We spent two weeks here.  Well not, here, here but here and there and then back here again.  Basically we went wherever we felt like going in our narrowboat, crossing from England to Wales.

Our next door neighbour in her nest

On morning when I exited the narrowboat, I almost stepped on this swan!

We spent two weeks in this sweet cottage in Wales

We spent two weeks in this sweet cottage in Wales

We added our own personal touch to the gorgeous view

We added our own personal touch to the gorgeous view

It wasn’t until the very end of May that we packed up and drove to Bangor.  Again, I’m going to keep this brief because I have previously blogged about our two blissful days couchsurfing with this family.  You can read about it here.

This is the view we had from our Bangor couchsurf

This is the view we had from our Bangor couchsurf

I will say though that there were four adults and 10 children living in that house (including us) and we had an absolute blast.  Our Onlyboy was thrilled to be surrounded by teen boys and their Onlygirl was ecstatic to have some girly friends to play with.  It may be a few years before we see each other again but I believe it will happen.

DIOLCH I CHI!!!

Venice thought this warning on the potty in Bangor was hilarious.  I thought it was ridiculous.

Venice thought this warning on the potty in Bangor was hilarious. I thought it was ridiculous.

Adds a little edge to the Disney feeling of the place

Now this is a Welsh warning that makes sense.

Geez, I almost posted this without any word about the hat!!  Caught myself just in time.  WelshSWMBO is a vivacious and hilarious woman who happens to love the colour green.  Especially lime green.  She’s blond and stylish so I knit her this hat on 8 mm needles/US 11 in Estelle “Drake” (70% wool, 30% acrylic).  I hope she likes it!

hat bangor

hat bangor3

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