On My Own in Morpeth

Allen and Anna had to work on Mon - Wed, despite Anna still feeling quite ill, with a cough that wouldn't let her sleep.  Allen had some time off in the afternoon Monday, because he had to work in the evening.  So he came home and took me on a long bike ride.  I got to ride the electric assist bike!
We went through town, which was a bit terrifying.  I had to ride in traffic, all on the left side of the road, and going through traffic circles, trying to figure out what direction they were coming at me from!  The electric boost to get going from a stand still really helped me keep from slowing down the cars, and to get up some long, tough hills.  We went out of town to a lovely rural area with sheep (of course), an old church, and a castle ruin.  We also played Pokémon Go together.  So fun.  Also plenty of exercise for me!
Then I made some dinner, left some for Anna, and went to bed early.
Tuesday I made bacon and cheese scones from a cookbook Sue had given Anna, and went down to the end of the town without consulting James, had tea and got my nails done.  When I got home I discovered I'd grabbed the shed key instead of the apartment key, so I spent some time resting in the back garden area, and then went across the street to the big grocery store called Morrison's (yes, James, Morrisons), got chips and played Sudoku until Allen got a chance to run home quickly and let me in.  Then he had to dash back to the clinic for an emergency.  Thanks, Doc!  We had leftovers for dinner.

Wednesday I had a scone for breakkies and walked hunnerts of miles all up hill to the train station and was whisked off to Durham.  There I walked down, down, into a little city/village of winding, cobblestone streets, across the bridge and up the hill on the other side to the University, which was built from and next to a castle.  At the University Library I toured the Archaeological Museum all by myself with a folding stool provided so I could sit in front of each exhibit and read every single thing.  Someone 5 or so years ago did a bunch of scuba diving under the bridge I had crossed, and found artifacts going back hundreds of years, because there was a market right on the bridge, so lots of stuff got chucked over.  Next I walked over to the Durham Cathedral, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I didn't get much time there because I had signed up and paid for a 2:15 tour of the Durham Castle.  It was small, but very interesting, having been added on to several times by whoever was ruling at the time.  The King of England back around 1066 didn't want to deal with this northern city right on the (then) border with Scotland, so he sent up religious leaders to be Prince so and so.  They got murdered, one after another, until the King sent up an army and decimated the local population to teach them What's What.  That put a stop to the nonsense for quite awhile.  The next excitement we heard about was during Henry the 8th's time, when the Catholic Bishop Prince had to switch quickly to Church of England and have the rosary painted out of his portrait in the chapel, leaving him clutching air.
I had stopped down in town for a meat pie and tangerines, so I had a picnic in the square, and found a bus back to the train station.  This train didn't go straight through, and at the station where I changed, some people were making a movie!  I got to see the actors and a little girl actress with the cameras running, and lots of staff all over.  I took a few pictures of the little girl, and her mother came over to ask me what my intentions were of doing with the pictures.  I told her to show to my daughter in law, and she was ok with that.
Back at Allen and Anna's apartment I repacked my two huge suitcases to leave next morning (at 2 a.m.), and Allen went out for Chinese Mu Shu Roast Duck, noodles and blackened seaweed dinners.  The weather was so good we ate outdoors at the back garden.  The neighbor and some big birds came by to see if they could get any of it.
Poor Allen had to drag my huge bike box out of his shed and strap it to the top of his car, load it with all the suitcases, and drive us over 2 hours to Edinburgh to arrive by 4:30 a.m.  The EasyJet was half filled with men going to Prague for "Stag Parties."  They really take the Bachelor Party over the top with 4 day weekends of drunken debauchery which makes them pretty unpopular in Czesky.  The guys surrounding me in the tail of the plane were already smashed at 6 a.m., and as soon as we reached cruising altitude they stood up en masse to take a pee.
Next Post - Prague!!!

Scotland is for Lambies

Sue and David are Anna's parents.  They are living in a cottage on the estate of the Duke of Bacchleugh and the Marquis of Queensberry.  Sue's hens are named Henny Penny, Nasty Netta and Timorous Tess.  Their cat is Alfie.  I slept on a futon in the living room, which was nice and comfy.  But I accidentally closed Alfie in with me one night, and when he decided it was time to get out, he nearly scared me to death.  I screamed, but no one heard, so I was unrescued and had to save myself.  He had jumped onto the windowsill, so I thought someone had come in through the window to get me.  Well, I kind of screamed myself awake, so maybe it wasn't really as impressive as it sounded in my head.  Wicked wee beastie!  As they say in Scotland.  Or so I've heard on Outlander.
They had made us goulash with locally sourced venison and hare!  It was the best I ever had.  It deserved a more auspicious name than goulash.  Actually, I think David made it.  But Sue had made lots of other food to go with it, all terrific.  After dinner we watched the first part of a show called Ordeal By Innocence, based on an Agatha Christie book.  But they changed who the murderer was!  Is that even legal?  So we made lots of guesses, and were all proven wrong.
Saturday morning we had homemade granola with homemade yogurt, plus fresh fruits like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and mango.  Yum! David drove us all to a castle ruin called Caerlaverock. We walked all over, took lots of photos, and exclaimed over the sun, which finally made an appearance.  Next we stopped by Sweetheart Abby, under scaffolding for repairs.  We peeked in and walked around the outside, through the graveyard.  The stones were enormous.
Next we drove to the John Paul Jones museum, which was the size of a cottage.  There were several little dogs to greet us, and sit on our laps while we watched a video for 20 minutes or so about his life.  Although he was from Scotland, he is the Father of the US Navy.  There were a few artifacts and model ships.  Several years after he died and was preserved in alcohol in France, he was exhumed and had an autopsy.  The booze had kept him looking much like had had in life, but gruesome.  There were photos.  He was reburied in some naval spot in the US.
Around 3 pm we had lunch in the town of Beeswing.  Isn't that sweet?  Allen and I split a roast beef sandwich and a bowl of chicken noodle soup.  There was a gift shop connected to the café, and in it was a carved chair with a high back that was made in Malawi.  That amazed me, because Allen and Anna are headed to Malawi in June to vaccinate street dogs against rabies for some magazine, and it was too weird of a coincidence.  I took a picture of it, plus some of the other items for sale that seemed unusual to me.
Home for a nap, and then we walked up to the Duke's castle (one of the many places he can live when he chooses), and took pictures.  Mostly I was after baby lamb pictures.  They are so stinking adorable I could just eat them up.  Many had black faces, and all had spray paint on their wool already.  When we first got up there, Sue told us there had been caretakers out in the field helping a ewe give birth.  I wanted to go see, but was coaxed away.  We tried to see the garden but it was locked up for the night.  Later we went out to dinner at a restaurant with the Duke/Marquis' name.  I had fish and chips again.  I was up over 8000 steps that day, and impressed with myself, but little did I know what was to come in Prague!!!  We saw part 2 of the Agatha Christie show and called it a night.
Sunday I did 11,000 steps.  We had Haggis and eggs for breakfast, then drove to a lake and did a 3 mile walk around it.  When we got back to Morpeth we did another 1 1/2 mile walk along the river.  Allen made us curry for dinner.  Then the last part of the Agatha Christie show, and the murderer was revealed to our shock.  But then we felt we should have suspected that person all along.  I wonder who Agatha made the murderer be, because the person in the show seemed perfect for it.

The reason there are two fireplaces on top of each other, is that there used to be a wooden floor between them.

In the bottom of this tower prisoners were kept for months at a time - political prisoners of high rank.

This is the back of the castle, where the swamp can be found.  The attackers got their trebuchets going and knocked holes in the wall. I have no idea how to spell that.  Or where they found the big rocks to put in it.

This is where David had bought the locally sourced venison and hare we had in the heavenly goulash.

This is the chair from Malawi we found in Beeswing, Scotland. 

This is a photo of a poster, that's why there is a big footprint on it. 

The Duke of Baccleugh and Marquis of Queensberry's Castle.  One of many estates he owns all over these parts. 

Sue and David's half of the cottage in Thornhill on the estate of the Duke of Bacchleugh (back-loo).

I wants one!

Starting is the Hardest Part

Maybe we're too old for this.  We retired early, but we're still going to work - hopefully.  We are leaving our family and friends, but we'll make new friends, and everyone has promised to come visit us.  We don't speak the language.  We're trying, we're studying.  Czech is really hard.  They have 40 letter/symbol combinations in the alphabet, and sounds that don't exist in English.  Everyone speaks English in Prague, don't worry.  We'll see.
We've gotten to visit with all 4 of our adult children in 2018, and no one lived nearby anyway.  So we didn't really see them all that often.  But still.  We have family who are getting pretty old.  Can they hang in there until we get back?  When will we be back?  Who knows.
Do we have enough money to live on if we don't find work, or it doesn't pay well?  We'll see.  We are told we are very brave.  But maybe we're just too chicken to chicken out.
So here we go.
I left the USA on April 11, 2018, and flew to Edinburgh.  It was a very cheap flight, and it was miserable.  I couldn't sleep, but I'd taken an Aleve PM, so my brain kept shutting down and jerking back awake.  What a relief to land and find Anna!  I had brought my bike in a huge box, plus 2 suitcases, and they wouldn't fit in her little car.  It would cost 120 pounds to store it at the airport for a week.  But only 45 or so to have it shipped to Allen and Anna's house in NE England.  Plus about the same again to fly it from Edinburgh to Prague next week.  Maybe I should have bought a new bike when I got here.  Too late now.

I made it through the day with just a tidgy nap.  Anna helped haul all my luggage around, including up the stairs to my lovely spare room.  Morris the cat seemed to remember me and gave me a warm welcome.  We hadn't seen Allen and Anna, our oldest son and his wife, since they left Boston to live in the UK last October.  Bart is very jealous that he isn't visiting them with me.  It's lucky for me Anna works part time, and could come fetch me, almost 3 hours drive away, on a weekday morning.
Allen is a "locum" Veterinarian, which is like a long-term fill-in position.  It pays well, and he gets the apartment and a work car as well.  He works long hours, with some overnight and weekend time as well.  Anna also works long hours on the days she is in, working for a Veterinary organization that provides care for low income people's pets.  We walked into the downtown for Fish and Chips the first night.  Heaven.  Poor Anna has a cough, and is so tired with some bug that she ends up on antibiotics at a Dr. appointment the morning after I arrive. I slept until they got back around 9:45 and they gave up on me waking up on my own and knocked on my door.  And we're off!
Allen has taken the day off (Friday) so we can tour around in the morning, and then drive west to Scotland to visit Anna's folks, Sue and David.  First we drove east to the coast, to Craster.  The weather was chilly, foggy, and windy.  It made the ocean so impressive, with big waves and mountains of foam piled up on the rocks.  We were headed toward a castle ruin called Dunstanburgh, and it looked very mysterious in the fog.  I think Heathcliff might live there.  But the field along the way was spotted with sheep and if they could survive it, so could we.  Goodbye nice clean blue sneakers.  Hello grey, gritty, slippery sneakers.  Thank you, Allen for keeping me from falling in the muck.  Actually, I loved the whole adventure, and felt very intrepid.  I love that word.  There weren't any little baby lambs, although we'd been seeing them all along the drive.  My professional vet guides think they were yearling sheep, like teenagers.
By the car park there was a shed with hot food and tea.  Allen and Anna ordered a smoked fish on a bun.  It wasn't called a bun, exactly.  It was called a bap.  I thought a bap was a baby's bottle.  I was close.  It's the shape of the Momma milk provider.  Cute.  The fish was tasty, but salty, and I worried about tempting the fate of the kidney stones again, so I let them finish it after one bite.
We took lots of pictures, did a lot (for me) of walking, and then headed on to Thornhill, near Dumfries.

Craster, England on a foggy, windy morning in April

Summer cottages, some available for rent

Anna and Allen

This is the new color of my previously blue sneakers

No one seemed to be out fishing today, so here are the traps.  This little sheltered cove was created in memory of a WWII soldier, by his friends and family.

Terrace and fireplace for locals and visitors to socialize and watch the sea.

I love this curved bench.