Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Going to Ireland in Two Days!

Sixty-four travelers from the western slope of Colorado will be visiting Ireland next week, and I will be on the tour bus, too.  We will arrive in Dublin on October 25 and coach over to Adare, about and hour and a half west of Dublin by coach.  Here is where we will be staying -- the Adare Castle in Limerick, Ireland:

Photos of Adare Castle, County Limerick
This photo of Adare Castle is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This site says:
The castle was probably begun in the 1190s and initially comprised a large square tower and an enclosing D-shaped fosse, together with a hall block to the south in an outer ward.
Villas surround the 650 acre castle property, each with three bedrooms to a villa.  Our group will share these modern villas with all the comforts of a 5 star hotel.  There is a posh restaurant inside the castle, a clubhouse and bar. Golfing is one of the highlights of Ireland, and this property contains the Adare Golf Club championship golf course commissioned by the Earl of Dunraven in the 1890's, but Linda and I will likely be searching for yarn in the little town of Adare during our "off hours."

We will make day trips, and Linda and I will extend our stay for three days, ending our journey in Dublin.   We will be there on Halloween night, staying at the Wynn Hotel in the Temple Bar area, which is apparently a real party place.

Day trips include visiting the cliffs of Moehr;


and a visit to a woolen mill!!

Also included on the docket is a trip to Kilkenny and Bunratty with a medieval-style dinner in the Bunratty Castle in the evening.

Then there is Dingle, and  a tour of the Dingle Peninsula on the way to the Blasket Island Center. Dingle was the setting for the movie "Ryan's Daughter" and is a market town and fishing port.

And of course we are going to Blarney and the Blarney Castle where the magic stone gives the gift of eloquence.  I don't think that we'll be allowed to kiss that stone because of new sanitary regulations.  But here is a picture of me kissing it in 2005, when it was still allowed:

(at Blarney Castle, Nancy with guide in 2005)

Kissing that old stone was not for the faint of heart, so my Scrabble buddy Darlene took this picture because she had no desire to stand in the line, kiss that stone, or get that mythical gift of the gab.

Enough for now, but more pictures upon our return from this trip sponsored by Chamber Discoveries.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

High Water in Colorado

Driving over to Denver for the weekend holiday, I was amazed at the high water levels on the Colorado River.  In Grand Junction, one local walking and biking path has been obliterated by the mountain water runoff.
(photo by Gretchen Daughtery - Daily Sentinel)

Telluride's Daily Planet said:

A Hazardous Weather Outlook published by the NWS for eastern Utah and western Colorado indicates that recent warm weather has accelerated snowmelt in these areas, increasing runoff into local waterways. Many rivers, such as the Arkansas River near Leadville, are surpassing their banks.
As I was driving solo, it was a bit dangerous to take pictures of the Colorado River overflowing its banks, but I did manage a few by just holding the camera up and to my side, then clicking away.  Here are a few shots.
(in Glenwood Canyon)


(Just off Interstate Highway 70 at a rest stop)

(picture by UpthaCreek)

Whitewater rafting was a popular activity on Saturday, July 3.  I saw lots of rafts on the river with adventure seekers galore and honked and waved at a few from the sidelines.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Texas Road Trip over Holiday

It was time to see family.  So by air and automobile, Texas was the destination.  From Colorado, where our temperatures were in the 40's (F) to Austin with high humidity in the 95+ (F) degree range, it was a definite change of scenery.
From Austin to College Station, from College Station to Waco, from Waco to Austin again: nothing but troubles driving.  I got lost more than a few times, but I surely went past many little cemeteries along the way.  And the scenic drive to College Station was lovely.  It is all in how you look at it. Listening to Mazie Dobbs and Pardonable Lies made the drive time shorter.

NEVER trust the Bing maps! The Bing map was ten exits off just in my first venture out from the airport to Round Rock, Texas to visit the parents at Parkview Meadows where they recently moved. An hour wasted on I 35 just trying to find the correct roads. Grrr.

I took lots of pictures.  Just a few here..
My brother Chuck and sweet SIL Karen McCarroll

Chuck has his own blog that you can reference at this link.  He calls it I'm Not Drinking O'bama's Koolaid, so if you are also in this mind frame, you might get a kick out of his editorial snippets and cartoons displayed.  He  is the brother with all that artistic talent that I previously referenced on this blog post
a picture of their east Texas evening skyline in College Station, TX
Aunt Mary Mays who lives in Waco, TX

Above is an oil painting of Texas bluebonnets that I remember from my earliest childhood that Aunt Mary has in her newly remodeled apartment where she now lives with her grandson and his family.

In all, I got to see both brothers and SIL, one nephew and his darling young family, my father and his wife, my sister, my aunt and various distant cousins, the youngest of whom was six months and an absolute doll.

Remember the blanket knit for him?  (Ravelry reference is on the bottom of the post)
It was good to visit and catch up on family issues.  It was even better getting home.  You know what I mean.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Picasa Web Album Photos

Just found that Google has an inbed code for pictures that are uploaded to their albums. 

Here are pictures from October (167 total) from London, Bath and Wales (Cardiff, mostly, and some in Tenby)



CRAFTLIT TOUR 2010 (London, Bath, Wales)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Dylan Thomas and a few Pictures from Laugharne, Wales

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) Poet
Hometown: Laugharne, Wales

Thirty-one Craftlit fans (thank you, Heather Ordover found here and here and here and here and thank you, Holiday Tour Guide Dianne Read-Jackson) saw Dylan Thomas' hometown, house, and boathouse in Laugharne, Wales.  His boathouse was where he wrote and spent the better part of his days.

A bit about Thomas:
Dylan Thomas, often described as a "classic Welsh writer", never actually learned the Welsh language himself. Though he achieved much notoriety during his short life, he received little financial gain. It was only after his death that his work truly began to be appreciated. There is no doubt, however, that he is one of the great English (language) poets of the twentieth century, arguably the greatest poet of our time. Dylan Thomas' incredible use of metaphor, meter, and a comic wit, allows his work to stand alone, balancing a reckless neo-Romantic sensuality against the more staid Puritanism of his time and culture. Thomas' lust for life and love of drink may well have contributed to his premature demise, yet his work remains, a testament to both his skill and mastery of The Word.
Are you familiar with this?  It is a quick reading by Dylan Thomas himself of one of his more notable works:


Dylan Thomas - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Uploaded by poetictouch. - Watch original web videos.





The stage play, Under Milkwood, was a mystery to me when I was first assigned it as a class project in a 20th century literature class.  So I bought the CD (an original New York recording from 1953 which Thomas narrates himself).  His voice is unique (yes, an understatement) and I get lost in his voice, but with a little concentration, it becomes more understandable with its mischievous use of language.

Listen!

Peter Ffrench, tour guide extraordinaire, gives a blessing to Craftlit travelers at the end of our journey. Peter is a retired actor with a flair for the dramatic.  He was knowledgeable, friendly and a true extrovert who was thoroughly loved by all of us.

This 30 second mp3 file is definitely worth a listen, although it was recorded on a noisy tour bus.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Pictures and Music Accompanying the Craftlit Tour

Please sit back and relax as you tour through London, Bath and Wales on the Craftlit Tour:

Monday, October 11, 2010

Oliver! Stage Play

A quick message to say the stage play Oliver! that the Craftlit group saw in London last week at the Royal Drury Lane Theater was over the top!

The synopsis of Oliver Twist can be found here

Charles Dickens wrote Oliver! which was published in 1838.  Why did he write it? Look here:
To make money - it's what he did for a living.

He wanted a subject which would appeal to his audience - readers of Bentley's Miscellany, which was published monthly. He probably based it on the account of the life of Robert Blincoe - an orphan whos story of his life and hard times was popular in the early 19th century - but Dickens's work had originality and it is probably the first novel to have a child as the protagonist.
Dickens used his novel to draw attention to social problems, particularly the Poor Law and child labour.
What struck me was the familiar song "As Long As He Needs Me" that the prostitute character Nancy sang to both Bill Sykes and then later to Oliver could be interpreted as strongly anti-feminist in its lyrics because Sykes regularly mistreated Nancy.

The complete lyrics to the song are here:

As longs as he needs me 
I know where I must be 
I'll cling on steadfastly 
As longs as he needs me 
As long as life is long 
I'll love him, right or wrong 
And somehow I'll be strong 
As long as he needs me 

If you are lonely then you will know 
When someone needs you you love them so 
I won't betray his trust 
Though people say I must 
I've got to stay true just 
As longs as he needs me 

If you are lonely then you will know 
When someone needs you you love them so 
I won't betray his trust 
Though people say I must 
I've got to stay true just 
As longs as he needs me 
(lyric provided by John Bol)

Wow!
Some of us at intermission ...

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tintern Abbey

William Wordsworth's poem Tintern Abbey
.........Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
Here is a description of the area in Wales around the abbey:
The hills around the Abbey are covered with woods, changing colour with the seasons. The land upon which the Abbey is set makes the most of the sunlight, the Abbey receiving the benefit of the last of the sun shining down the Angiddy valley.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Going to the UK today

Packing just one suitcase and one backpack for the CRAFTLIT TOUR , I'm off today to walk the streets where classic English authors walked.  London, Bath and Wales are the destinations.

Now if I can just remember which of the many little fabric and plastic bags, sacks and envelopes contain those necessary travel accessories in the luggage, we're all set.  (It will be like playing Concentration when looking for those aspirin or that iTouch recharger.)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Color Saturday

We took a little drive yesterday up past Powderhorn Ski Resort and on to the mesa east of Grand Junction, CO.

Petraglyphs beside CO 141:



Husband on left and friends on right ... a few fish in the lake.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ink Jet Printer for Maps on a Tote Bag

Craftlit followers are going to London, Bath and Wales in October.  Being part of that entourage, I decide that a tote bag was needed.  To track our journey, I printed out Google maps on either side of a purchased tote to show the cities we will tour.

Included on the map are places visited and written about in the UK by Jane Austen, Louise May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley and others.  These are just some of the authors that Craftlit fans have been listening to over the past couple of years, and just a few of the cities referred to in the classics by these authors.

We are also planning on meeting up with other knitters in the UK at various pubs and yarn shops, whiling away our visiting time with our Craftlit neighbors across the pond.

Here is the website that helped me create injet printing of the maps on scrap fabric.

First, I Googled maps for London, ensuring our "home hotel", The Rembrandt, was the center of the map.  Then I took a screen shot of the map, downloaded it and placed a few titles on the maps.

Similarly, for the second map used on the reverse side of the tote, Wales in the UK was Googled, with the Cardiff Hyatt as our central point of departure for various tours.

This is what I came up with for each side of the tote:

Fabric was ironed, freezer paper adhered to the fabric, and then the fabric/freezer paper was fed into the ink jet printer.

Then the maps were printed out onto fabric adhered to the freezer paper.  After printing, the paper backing was ripped off and discarded.

After splitting open an inexpensive canvas tote bag, the fabric maps were sewn onto the outsides, secured with an applique edging over a corded ribbon for additional glitz.

Behind the map, a border of "foreign coin" fabric was used as a border for the map.  After sewing on the maps and borders and ribbon,  the tote was sewn back to its original shape.

Step One: Canvas tote scissored down the side

And the finished bag:
One side of the bag
Reverse Side

This will holds lots of fiber which I hope to purchase on tour of English and Welsh knitting shops.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dallas Arboretum in Pictures

It was a privilege to see the Dallas Arboretum, all 66 glorious acres, and to have an escorted personal tour by two informed docents at the park now owned by the city of Dallas, Texas.

Frommer's says:
Dallas may not be celebrated for its cool green beauty, but the area around White Rock Lake, and more specifically the Arboretum and Botanical Garden, is a welcome oasis. Just 15 minutes from the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Dallas are nearly 70 acres of carefully planted and groomed gardens and natural woodlands, interspersed with a handful of historic residences, that meander along the banks of the lake. The Jonsson Color Garden features one of the nation's largest collections of azaleas, which bloom spectacularly in spring, and nearly 6 acres of chrysanthemums in the fall. And while North Texas is not exactly New England, October and November are as ablaze in color as anything you'll see in this neck of the woods. If you find yourself in Dallas during the torrid summer (or spring and fall) months, the Palmer Fern Deli is a secluded, shady spot where mist-sprayers drop the temperature at least 10° to 15° -- reason enough for a visit here...
One of the more intriguing vignettes consisted of gardening architectural features replicating Beatrix Potter's cottages where her beautifully illustrated imaginary friends live (in the large Children's Garden).

Gigantic Peter Rabbit consisted of ferns and grasses, and even a living rendition of a carrot:

This is Mr. McGregor's potting shed.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

These two adorable sisters in their pink tutus were the absolute sweetest thing I found in the garden. Their mom and nanny were taking them on an outing for a phototgrapic shoot, and allowed me to take their picture.

More pictures later....it was an incredibly hot and humid morning, but glad the opportunity presented to see the Arboretum.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Get-Away with Friends, Alpacas and a Fiber Mill

The past few days were spent in a cooler weather clime of  Hot Sulphur Springs, a small Colorado mountain town.  A trip over the Continental Divide and to the top of Trail Ridge Road outside Estes Park provided us with outstanding scenery.  This is a picture of a glacier field at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park, at an altitude of over 12,000 feet above sea level, where it was cool and rainy:
Outside Granby, Colorado, friends Dotty and Natalie found a fiber outlet alpaca farm, mill, and store called The Lonesome Stone.  Owners Marv and Linda Dewey of Lonesome StoneNatural  Fiber Mill and store have over 70 alpaca on their ranch.

Here are some young alpaca catching a few sun rays between rain showers in the high country:


Linda Dewey, one of the working owners of Lonesome Stone, was kind enough to show us around the mill, explaining the carding process of the wools all the way to the hand painting of the finished yarn.  This is Linda with one of her two Great Pyrenees who work with her in the mill:

More photos of the inside of the mill:
(this is a picture of the bottles of concentrated  dyes used in the hand painting of the yarns, a few of which are shown below, along with a shot of some yarns available for sale in the front of the mill:)

Yes, we spent a few dollars on some luscious yarns. But more of THAT later!

Thank you, Linda, of Lonesome Stone, and Dotty and Natalie for a great trip!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Antiquarian Books for Sale

Over the past five years, I have held onto some old books for a friend.  She told me to try and sell them if I could.  No book establishment in our small county was interested in purchasing them.  But some one MUST want them, right?

Today, I sent this brief email to Great Britain to the bookstore of Addyman Books in Hay on Wye in Wales and a similar one to Rose's Books, a purveyor of old children's books. 
For Sale:
FROM SEA TO SEA, Rudyard Kipling, copyright 1899.. very good condition; on the flyleaf it says "Mattie A. Weaver, Xmas 1899" handwritten in black ink (Doubleday & McClure Company, New York, 1899) There are TWO copies of this book, with the same handwriting on the flyleaf
ENGLISH LITERATURE , ITS HISTORY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR THE LIFE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD, A TEXT-BOOK FOR SCHOOLS by William J. Long, Ginn and Company, copyright 1909 (The Athenaeum Press, Ginn and Company Proprietors Boston USA)(fair condition, wear on all edges and the front hard cover is well worn; pencil writing on the inside of the cover)

CHILD-STORY READERS PRIMER BY FRANK N. FREEMAN, GRACE E. STORN, ELEANOR M. JOHNSON. W.C. RRENCH, COPYRIGHT 1927 BY LYONS AND CARNAHAN - This is illustrated with color pictures. The name "Annie Laurie" is written on the fly-leaf. Very good condition.
If interested, I can provide pictures of the books in an email attachment.

I will be in Hay on Wye, Wales in October, 2010 and plan on visiting both bookstores. Hay on Wye is renown for its reputation as a book lover's haven.  "Hay-on-Wye has become world famous for its secondhand and antiquarian bookshops. At present there are approximately thirty major bookshops in the town some specialising whilst others carry general stock." (it says so here)

Maybe they will buy these books and have them in their warehouse(s) by then; one can only hope.