Border Collies (by Emmy and London)

One of the reasons we went to England was so we could see the Border Collies.  They were everywhere! We got to pet a lot of border collies and here are some of their names:

·         Taz

·         Finn

·         Bob

·         Holly

·         Buster

·         Molly

·         Jay

·         Lou

·         Fly

·         Zola

·         Mist

·         Jake

·         Alfie

 

• Kippie

And those of the ones we can remember.  We loved seeing them, but our favorite sheepdog that we’ve seen in our lives is Mick (but our second favorite is Mist).

 

With Kippie

With Bob

With Finn

With Holly

With Zola

With Alfie

 

Going Home

What can you say about leaving?  It's always a sad, sad day to leave my family on the one side, but a happy, happy day to see Stevie and home and the other side.

After landing in Philadelphia, clearing immigration, collecting our bags, clearing customs, rechecking our bags, walking across the airport to our next gate, we found we were to have an unexpected delay in returning home.  The dreaded words "CANCELLED" were written on the board!  They offered to fly us to Seattle via San Francisco getting us in at 1:00 in the morning, which I adamantly declined and instead opted for an overnight stay at a hotel.  We made the most of it with only our carry-on baggage and Emmy and London even had a swim in the pool.  They thought it was so funny to sleep in their underwear!

We were treated to some good sights from the plane including Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Tetons.

Grand Tetons

So after one cancelled flight, one lost bag and 37 hours of travel we are home sweet home!

Day 15

Our last day in England.  Boo hoo.

Last night, my dad’s best friend, Geoff, called to say that he would be more than willing to take Cannon to Joderell Bank this morning so we sent the two of them off on their own adventure.  Joderell Bank is a member of the Merlin Group of radio telescopes project which is a way to pinpoint and clarify celestial radio signals.  In other words it's a really big telescope to hear things from outer space.  You could detect a cell phone signal on Mars with it!

 

 

 

The two of them had a good time exploring the discovery center and then enjoyed a pub lunch together.

 

While Cannon set off on his own fun time, I packed up a little before heading out to Quarry Bank Mill with Lindsey.  We met up with my cousin, Matt and his family there.

 

Quarry Bank was a textile mill that was in full swing during the Industrial Revolution.  What a fantastic way to live history!  Although I’m not sure Emmy and London really thought of it that way…

That's the water wheel that provides power to the mill behind them

The mill is in a beautiful, idyllic setting and has been lovingly restored but I think the beauty of it today might belie the horrific working conditions of yesteryear.  They still have a lot of the machines that were used and fire one or two of them up to demonstrate.  The noise of just one machine running was loud, it’s inconceivable as to how loud it would be when a massive room of them were all running at the same time.

The mill is really well set up so that the history of textile production from home spinning to industrial machines is demonstrated in very realistic conditions.

 

After going through the Mill, we had yet another picnic on the lawn next to the mill.  We then had time to let the kids run around and play and go to the playpark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tamsin and Elijah

 

 

Me and Tamsin

 

 

Playing in the playpark

 

 

And of course, have an ice cream.

 

 

 

Just as we were finishing our ice cream, Sandra, Sally and Cannon joined us.  Unfortunately, Matt and Tamsin had to leave to pick up Isaac so they headed out with Emmy and London while the rest of us stayed to have a stroll along the river.

 

 

Baby Thomas

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent packing up and saying those dreaded good-byes.  We’ve had such an amazing trip and we hate to leave.  Everyone has been so kind and generous and we’ve had so many memorable, fun times!

 

Day 14

This morning we had a lovely visit with my dad’s best friend from childhood, Geoff, and his wife Barbara.  My dad has known Geoff since before he was married and in fact, Geoff was best man in my parent’s wedding.  When they found out we were here, they called to see if they could visit.  We had a nice time catching up and chatting over a cup of tea.

Later in the morning, Don came by to pick us up and take us on our daily adventure.  Today we were heading to the Blue John Caverns near Castleton.  Blue John is a rare mineral that is found in only one place in the world and that happens to be a half hour or so from my aunt’s house!  It’s a beautiful stone that has hues of blue and yellow running in veins through it.  I remember visiting when I was younger, and my mom relates that the first piece of jewelry my dad ever gave her was a ring with Blue John.  Today, sadly, they are running out.  In fact our guide said that within the next 3-4 years there will be no more Blue John to mine.

We started the afternoon with a picnic on a hillside overlooking the town of Castleton.  Yet another picnic in yet another beautiful spot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After filling the kids' bellies (temporarily, anyways) we went on a fascinating tour of the mine.  We went down 300 feet into the earth – good job we’re not claustrophobic!  The guide told us all about the formation of the caves, pretty interesting stuff.  Like where we were standing used to be at the equator before millions of years of continental drift landed us in northern England instead.  And the cave used to be the bottom of the ocean evidenced by the small, fossilized sea creatures in the walls.  One part of the cave used to be a powerful whirlpool and the limestone rock was worn away in a corkscrew formation.

 

 

 

 

Only two veins of Blue John are left, one of which will be left for posterity so that people can see how it was.

 

 

That's unmined Blue John

  

I think London was most taken by the information that back in the hay day of mining (1700-1800s), kids of Emmy’s age would be sent down to mine.  It wasn’t until child labor acts were passed in 1819, that it “raised” the working age to 9 at which time he would have been lowered into the cave in a bucket with nothing but a candle on his head and a pick to mine the stone.  And he would have done that for 12 hours a day, six days a week.  I offered to leave him in the mine to work, but they declined…

 

After seeing the mine, we went into Castleton to look around, have an ice cream and take some photos.  Oh, it was such a cute little town!

 

Driving into Castleton

 

The road to Castleton

 

The castle Castleton is named for.

 

 

 

In a shop in Castleton, some things made out of Blue John.

 

 

 

Another ice cream!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning scenery

 

Later we went over to my cousin Sally’s house.  We walked down to a park for the kids to play and then had dinner with her and Alex.  She offered us a homemade dinner or fish and chips – guess what we chose!  This makes three loads of fish and chips in 2 weeks – aren’t we naughty?

Fish and chips in the garden

 Playtime afterwards!

Unfortunately, the good-byes began tonight.  Richard was to be busy all day tomorrow so we had to say good-bye tonight.