So far I haven't mentioned
anything about the difference in travelling on the roads in England.
Remember they drive on the left there. Most of the time we were
on fairly wide roads but it did feel a little funny being on the
side of the car where the traffic is coming at you as a passenger.
Hein said that driving is actually easier being on the left of the
car when you are on a narrow road because you can get a better perspective
of how far from the edge you are. And if you imagine that you are
always overtaking traffic, you won't forget which side of the road
to drive on. I did have one frightening moment though when I wasn't
paying attention and looked ahead to see a car coming at us with
no driver! Forgot the driver sat on the other side of the car over
there, too.
The reason I am mentioning the
roads here is because most of the roads we had to travel on to get
to the Lakes were winding, one-car-wide with two-cars-passing, hilly,
(not my cup o' tea) roads. I was happy for the picnic stop. Not
only because we sat near a stream where we could listen to the water
rolling over the stones, which is always a pleasant place for a
picnic - but because I could get out of the car and off those roads
for a bit.
These next two pictures show
a couple of the gorgeous views that we saw while  travelling
around the Lakes District. Rolling hills and meadows. What fascinated
me the most were the walls that are built out of stones. This has
been done here for hundreds of years and there is nothing holding
the walls together except for expertly placed stones. On some hills
you can see row after row of them which separates the areas where
the cows and sheep are. Each separate area belongs to a different
rancher and on most of them there are breaks in the walls so that
the animals can go between them. The way they know which animals
are theirs is that each rancher has his own color painted in a dot
on the backs of the animals. 
I was glad to hear that's what
the dots are for because one night I ate lamb for dinner and the
next day I saw a darling little lamb in a meadow with a red dot
painted on him/her. I worried that she/he was slated for the next
meal.
This picture on the right shows
a little more detail of the stone wall. You can see how these stones
are simply stacked with no morter holding them at all and naturally
there is also a wire fence adjacent to this wall because it lines a
road. That dosen't totally prevent the animals getting out, though,
because we saw a few sheep that had escaped that day. I wish we had
gotten a better pic of a hillside with many rows
of walls, though.
Now for some fun!
Everyone always talks about the ghosts at all of the hotels, etc.
in England. Well, we saw one at our friend's house!
 This
first photo is of the wood burner in the fireplace of the sitting
room. Hein, Eunice and I were sitting by the fire one evening chatting
and I looked through the door and saw a little girl as plain as
day. Hein saw her right away, but Eunice couldn't see her and thought
we were crazy. Hein went to get his camera and Eunice went behind
me to see it from my angle. By then the little girl was brighter
than ever. The pictures below are what the camera also saw.
The shadow of the girl
was actually on the glass door, but because of the intensity of
the flame, she looked just like she was hovering right in the flames!
Spooky!
And, here is what we saw in the fire!
This is the photo
that came from the camera - all I did was lighten it a bit.
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Here I just drew a square around the girl so that it would be a little more clear.
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And
this is the little girl isolated into a picture by herself.
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Next we go to the wedding. Next
page
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