Blackwell Grange Darlington

... In its stark beauty it makes this old Protestant feel quite at home but, this ain’t our church. It was built to the honor of St. Cuthbert, a very early saint from Landisfarne who died in 687 C.E. and was buried twice, first in the Anglo-Saxon church at this site and then in this new Church. (The problem with being a saint is they won’t leave you alone.) It is even more solid and beautiful than I remember. You really ought to check it out if you come up this way.

... pubs in Osmotherley.

The picture is one Him & Her took on their walk - but why anyone would want to photograph snails having their lunch is beyond me!!












Got back home around 5.00pm and then they tucked me up for the night, taking care to do all they needed to settle me down for a long rest.

... didn't charge for the spoke, or for truing up the wheel, so things were going well! But then Brian had to do some additional 'tweaks' like changing the break pads, so it was a hour or so before we were on the road again. My bike needs new breaks as well, but it was too expensive to replace them at this shop.

After cycling awhile, the landscape finally started to level off. What a difference that makes ...

... so I couldn’t see. Drops of water formed on the end of my rose and blew off with the wind. Pedaling upstream through rivers of water that had formed on the road and were flowing DOWN in the opposite direction. I tell you, Ireland has nothing on this! I only had 1 dry spot left on my body - that which was directly in contact with the seat of my bike. And that was what we cycled for the first 2 1/2 hours of the day.

Supposedly the ...

... very long time in Thirsk.

On Monday morning we had a very tearful time saying goodbye to my Mum, Dad and Emma. We are hoping Emma was none the wiser as Mum took her out for a walk and we packed and moved out while they were gone.

No one could have prepared us for how it feels to say goodbye to family. I was obviously ...

... Singapore - Hotel Re
Cairns - The Bellview
Sydney - Vibe Hotel
Auckland - Ventura Motel
Fiji - Rydges Hideaway Resort
LA - The Queen Mary

It was time for one last very yummy breakfast in the kitchen at Lang Farm. I'm not usually someone who likes eggs very much, but their scrambled eggs were so delicious I had to have eggs and bacon again for breakfast, and Mark had some as well with some tomatoes and mushrooms besides. We found out that the secret behind the yummy food was that they were very careful when sourcing their ingredients - the eggs were from free-range organic hens, the bacon from specially produced ...

... see in that area.... there are tropical Islands, elephant treks etc so that`s a possibility.

Also just bought a travel book on Peru yesterday, with thoughts of maybe visiting the Inca Trail...
We`ve got a world map covering our kitchen wall, and have started to mark places and add pictures of places, to give us an idea of where we can go....

... s side on cars here. I had forgotten about that but it's not really that weird to see. I'm trying not to think about it as a difference. We had our first touristy stop before we even got to the house. The Angel of the North, a large statue, was just a little ways away from the route to the house so we stopped and looked. Apparently the controversy that every public art piece has comes with the Angel too. Some locals love it, some hate it and think it's a waste of money. Whether ...

... heading off to the different clubs. I thought that this energy might come from the fact that Durham's home to a major university. However, school was out of session when we were there. So, I guess that the town is just active by itself.

We spent some time at the Silver Street Bridge, admiring the view of the towers of the cathedral looming above the trees and the River Wear. The setting is as dramatic as I had read. We followed a path along the river to the ...