Penrith England February 2003

For Vanentines day, I rented a car and surprised Kim by taking her away for the weekend. The destination - Penrith, which is in the Lakes District in Northern England. The interesting thing about the lakes district, is although it is very beautiful, there is only 1 lake. Sure, there are a lot of what look like lakes, but these are only "waters". The difference is the size, and the waters are too small to be classified as lakes.

England - Muncaster Castle - One of our points of call, was Muncaster Castle. This is a nice castle with truely beautiful sourroundings. It's up on the side of a hill. At the castle, they are also interested in conservation and breed red squirrels and owls, which is a really interesting pair if you think about it. No owls or squirrels were harmed in the taking of these pictures.

Here is a red squirrel in one of the breeding pens. They have two pens - the right pen for breeding, and the left pen for releasing. Currently in Britain, the grey squirrel has been taking over the red's range is now almost extinct.

He's quite a round little fella.

The next three pictures are from the south side of the castle.

And looking at the castle from one of the gardens.

Looking at the castle from the north side.

This was an interesting little sundial in one of the south gardens. And, hey, the time was actually pretty close. I guess it didn't take into account daylight savings time.

On the north side of the castle was this little walkway that overlooked the valley. Along the route were bird feeders and other wildlife watching posts.

In the valley below and on the grounds, they feed the herons. In the air is a heron.

The little river zig-zags thru the country side.

In this field is where they feed the herons and other wildlife. They feed the herons where, as this way they don't eat the fish in the river, which keeps the fisherman quite happy.

This is looking south, or to the right of the above pictures.

In the grounds, they also have a owl sanctuary.

Here are the brown owls which live in India, South China and South East Asia. They live in the highland and lowland forest.

Here is a hawk owl which live in Northern Europe and Europe Asia. These were actually quite hard shots to get, as he didn't want to be photographed. He said that he had to speak to his agent, but I said I was with ET, so we got a couple quick pics, and we were off to see the other stars.

Here is the little owl, which lives in Britain and Western Europe. He lives in woodland, parks, cultivated areas and semi-desert. We searched and searched for this little guy (or gal - can't really tell from this distance). We eventually found him just as we were leaving. You can't actually tell from this picture, but, he's only about 6-8 inches high. He is actually quite a quick little owl.

They had the cameras on this little guy, so you could watch them in their natual settings. Unfortunately, he was only about a foot from the camera, so all you could see was his furry chest. Didn't make for very good viewing. He is quite a cutie tho, isn't he?

Who's the pretty bird? Whooo is it?

In this pen, they were trying to increase their numbers. There was 1 male and four females. Good odds I'd say.

These two had been up allll night, and weren't in to watching the tourists. Nap time anyone?

Here's a long eared owl. I am not sure what type of owl he is, so I'll just call him Charlie.

These are the Savigney's Eagle Owl who live in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East. They usually nest in the ground, as they are scared of heights. They like to diet on mammals, lizards, scorpions and insects. I think that's a really good diet, cause there's no way that I would want to live on that.

Any guesses what this guy does for a living?

The picture above and the two below are Short Eared Owls. They live in Europe, North Asia, North Africa, and North America, and live in open moors, plantations, grassland and marshes. The third owl in this picture stole their ears at night.

To finish off the trip to Muncaster Castle and the owls, is a pair of Snow Owls.

England - Lake Windermere - This is looking up Lake Windermere, with the wildlife exhibition just on my left.

This is looking directly across the lake.

At the lake, there was a little cafe on the first floor (second to everyone in NA) that we had lunch. The cafe was nice, but unfortunately there was a birthday party for about 20 8-year-olds and about 15 parents. Now, we were able to get a table, but the staff was totally frazzled and barely had time to think.

Can you find the moon in this picture? It is there, honest, but it's just really hazy and it just blends in.

The sun is setting on the lake, and the birds are going home for the night.

At the lake, they had an aquarium and other exhibits, including (as you will quickly see) otters. They also had fish, a shark and lobster tank, and other interesting exhibits. Look at this little poser. I mean, there is no worse ham then an otter... He waved at people, hid from them, and generally just played with them. There was two a couple of months ago, but now there is only one.

Ah, look, he's smiling for the camera.

And, now he's waving good-bye. Bye from Lake Windermere and the otter habitat.

England - Silloth - Silloth was just one of those little towns that we littlerly just got lost in. But, in a good way. We knew that we were close to the ocean, so I just kept heading West, and when the major road disappeared, we continued thru an industrial park.

Here we are looking at this poor little sail boat that is trying to make it to Ireland. You can notice that you can see Ireland's coast in the distance.

The wind was mighty feirce that day. Argh Billy!

It is nice to see more and more windmills popping up. These obviously aren't as big as the windmill farms in Palm Springs, but it's a good start.

This is a bit further up the coast in Sillot, looking back towards the industral estate and towards the windmills.

And, this is looking more towards the city. There's a wee bit o' frost on the steps, but still nothing to write home about (whoops, guess I did, didn't I?) It was nice to see a maintained seawall. We really miss the one in Vancouver.

England - Carlisle - We stopped off at a little diner on our way home in Carlisle. In the feild were a bunch of lambs that were chasing, and then being chased by an old mare. It was more of a game of tag then anything. Quite amusing.

Scotland - Craignethan Castle - We had a rented car, and a full tank, and most of the afternoon off. Rather than just take the M8 home, we decided to take the backroads and follow the river to Glasgow. We stumbled upon Craignethan Castle.

Here's a little description, before I show you any of the castle. Don't try to read the first one to carefully, as I have blown it up on the second pic.

This is the first view of the castle, as you come over the hill.

Here's a little closer view of the main castle, and it's ditch and walls.

Here is the Dovecot Tower. It is one of the two projecting towers protecting the main entrance into the outer courtyard. The upper floor has been a dovecot.

The castle has a gun-emplacement. I'll let you read the poster, as it gives a better description than I could.

Here is a closer view of the outside of the emplacement.

This is Kim in the grand hall. Behind me would be where the musicians would play, and straight ahead of the camera is where the King and Queen would have their dinner and parties.

Below is the Inner Courtyard, aka The Close. The main courtyard is surrounded by a barmkin, or wall of reasonable strenght. Much of this barmkin was cast down to the ground after 1579 and the great ditch filled in.

This is looking down into the kitchen. Sure, it's big and spacious, but where's the cooker, or the microwave, or even the sink?

This was the North-West Tower. This and the other barmkin towers provided accommodation for retainers and domestic staff. The spiral stair led to chambers on the upper floors.

The next picture is looking out towards the valley to the south.

The last two pictures are looking at the valley below, opposite the above picture.