Floating down to Camelot

Comical lions!

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 14:21:39 GMT

Only a month late...

Our wedding anniversary in mid-August usually coincides with the joust at Carisbrooke Castle, so we've taken to going there on or near the day. It's always the same - we're getting to know the minstrels' songs very well by now (mind you, many of them are the Steeleye Span versions of traditional songs) - but always fun. It's a "real" joust - i.e. a genuine test of skill, not a scripted drama with heroes and villains - and very proud of that. They repeatedly told us how authentic they were, not at all like other co-called "jousts" around.

This amused us very much, since a few days later, we were planning on going to just such a so-called "joust," and were expecting to have a whale of a time. Which we did. :-D

But first... Comical lions! (With bonus comical kings, comical nymphs, comical nakedness and comical being ripped to pieces by dogs.

( Comical lions! )

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Castles, mountains and level crossings

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 09:30:44 GMT

After dithering for a while, we decided on North Wales for our now-traditional late June holiday, since you can never go wrong with castles and mountains. We wanted to go to a slightly different area than last time, when we stayed mere inches from the Menai Bridge, and - after much more dithering - ended up settling on Criccieth, lured there by a Balcony With A View.

( Castles, mountains, level crossings and wind )

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Unbridled woodwork

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 18:34:13 GMT

We were on holiday in North Wales the week before last - a week in Criccieth, followed by two days on the borders on the way home. I'll write up the rest of the week one day, but I have so many pictures of the various comical creatures of Plas Newydd that I thought I'd put them in a separate post.

( Comical creature carvings )

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The Lake District

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:19:39 GMT

Agh. Once again, I fail dismally in my "I'll try to be better about posting and reading" resolution. I never even finished writing up our Cotswold Way holiday, and here we are, returned from another trip. I'm still writing it up, though. When in the Lake District, we were trying to remember details of our previous holiday there in 2017, and my then write-up caused us much amusement and cries of, "oh yes, I remember that!" Would I remember a single thing in life if I didn't write it, I wonder? (And how much has been forgotten over the last few years, when I've been so bad at doing so.)

Oh well... Last October, we had a weekend in Grasmere for a family gathering, which reminded me that the Lake District has been my Best Place Ever since I was 8, and obsessed with Swallows and Amazons. So we duly booked a week in Grasmere, staying just a few hundred yards from where we'd stayed in October.

( Lake District: an enormous post with pictures )

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Following the acorn from winter to summer - part 2

Fri, 17 May 2024 17:26:53 GMT

Part one was here

( And now for part two... )

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Following the acorn from winter to summer - part 1

Wed, 15 May 2024 16:08:45 GMT

Oh dear. I've really not done well with that whole "let's get back to reading and posting things here" resolution of two months ago. So here I am, returning to my usual habit of coming here only when I want to post another immensely long post-holiday write-up. Maybe I'll do better from now on...

Anyway... We needed to be in Bradford-on-Avon last Saturday for a day of dance, and didn't fancy doing it as a day trip, so decided to spend a week walking there from the north Cotswolds. Well, the thought process wasn't quite as simple as that, but... well, that's really what it boiled down to.

( Following the acorn )

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One does not simply walk...

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 10:51:15 GMT

For a while now, Facebook has been giving me adverts for a Walking to Mordor virtual challenge, and I've been very tempted, but put off by the ridiculously high price. However, half way through January, I decided to give it a go. Ever since I finished my Walking All The Paths project a couple of years ago, I've done rather less walking than I used to do (although still quite a lot) and I was keen to encourage myself to do more. I'm very, VERY motivated by challenges like this.

(TOO motivated, really. There was that time when I resolved to walk 1000 miles in a year. Lazily refusing to spend even two seconds working out the actual monthly average, I thought, "that's about 100 a month," which quickly became "I have to do at least 100 miles every month, or I have Failed," which quickly became, "I need to get to 100 miles as early as possible in the month, so I reassure myself that I won't fail," and quickly saw me doggedly striding around Cowes at all hours, come hell or high water, determined to get my miles in. I'd reached 1000 miles by early July, if I remember correctly.)

Anyway... Justifying it by the fact that we always do Dry January and February, so were spending less, I bought all five challenges for the price of 4. (The Shire to Mordor is broken up into 5 stages, each one sold separately.) I'm now nearing Rivendell.

It is indeed ridiculously expensive, and I'm not that sure what you get with the money. You get an app, but it doesn't live track your walking; that has to be entered manually, or else by synching with other exercise apps. I'd kind of hoped that I'd be out walking and my phone would ping me to point out that I'd just escaped being eaten by a murderous willow tree, or something, but the synching only happens at the end of a walk. You can engage with a community, but I don't want to do that. Every now and then you get "postcards," but they're just stills from the movie, with a new sentences of description. (The same company does loads of real-world virtual challenges, too - Land's End to John o'Groats etc. - so I guess postcards from the real world places you were "visiting" would be more interesting.)

But, even so, I am enjoying it a lot, and it's definitely getting me out walking a lot more. I reached Bree (140 miles or so) and got my first medal, then moved on to Challenge 2: Bree to the Doors of Moria. This is when it got odd. Since I was walking, it put me in "story mode" - 90 miles, in which you walk a few miles on either side of a key location, then teleport a hundred miles on to walk a few more. This was not at all in the spirit of "walking to Mordor," so I switched to "long mode (recommended for cyclists)" and was promptly hit with a 680 mile challenge instead. Cue a LOT of extra walking. I've started doing a mile before work and a mile straight after, as well as the mile at lunch I was already doing, but I think that's quite a good thing for me, really. And I guess it means I'm getting more of my money's worth, since the whole thing will take a lot longer.

The medals are undoubtedly lovely, though. The first one is large and shaped like a hobbit hole surrounded by green scenery. On the other side is a metal envelope with a hinged metal flap, beneath which is a little hidey-hole that contains a real One Ring. :-D

And, yes, if you're wondering if I've learnt the lessons of my Walk 1000 Mile obsessive behaviour, and have learnt how to be rather more measured this time... Of course I haven't! "Got to get that Ring a little closer to Mordor," I say as I head off into torrential rain at lunch, determined to get that mile in OR ELSE. (Although, to be fair, I'd planned to walk a quick 2 mile circuit round the block this morning, before heading off to an afternoon of dancing (we're walking there and back - 5.5 miles each way) but am writing this instead, so perhaps there's hope for me yet.

It's just a shame that the countryside is full of unmitigated squelch and all the interesting paths have fallen into the sea over the winter. I'm getting rather fed up of cycle paths, old railways and pavements.

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The Steve Who Was Promised

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 14:52:25 GMT

I've not been here for months. I dimly planned to rectify this with a New Year's Resolution, but forgot or failed to. So I'll just have to pretend it's 1751 and we're still starting the year on March 25th, in which case, go me!, I'm two days early - gold star, pat on the back, and so on.

Anyway... Not coming here is Bad, because not only does it mean I don't get to read any of the interesting things other people post, it always means that in years to come, my life will be a blank to me. I'm forever having to check back on my old LJ to remind myself what on earth we did on past holidays etc.

Oh well. I'm not going to attempt a retrospective to catch up on what I've missed. But I will post a few of those things that have prompted me to think, "I should do a post about that," before going on to... not. (Honestly, don't get your hopes up. I'm talking items of supreme lack of consequence, here.)

So without further ado, here is the inconsequential (but pleasing) Saga Of The Steve Who Was Promised.

( The Steve Who Was Promised )

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A holiday in the Peak District

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 16:27:37 GMT

One day I will post something that isn't a belated holiday write-up, but today is not that day. Once again, there will be far too many words and pictures, and a good few comical lions. There is also a guest appearance by my other favourite art thing: the drunken eagle.

So. Four weeks ago, we had a week in Derbyshire, staying in Ashford in the Water. My grandma lived in Derby throughout my childhood, and my mum is a very proud Derby... um... Derbyite? Derbist? ("The best county IN THE WORLD!"), so I had many childhood excursions to the southern reaches of the Peak District. However, I have to admit that our main reason for choosing Derbyshire wasn't nostalgia, but convenience. We'd vaguely intended to go to Suffolk, but Pellinor had a conference in Birmingham on the last Friday in September, so it made sense to choose somewhere for which Birmingham was en route.

( Derbyshire dales, rain, mines and, naturally, comical lions )

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Comical lions and the Other Place

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 11:11:08 GMT

A few weeks ago, we had a long weekend in Cambridge for our wedding anniversary, going there by way of Hatfield House and returning via Audley End. Typically, most of my pictures ended up being comical lions.

( Comical lions, grumpy angels, a heron, a Wheel of Doom, and some towers )

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Hadrian's Wall

Sun, 09 Jul 2023 19:35:35 GMT

The week before last, we walked Hadrian's Wall. This being a National Trail, it meant following the sign of the acorn. Within a few hours, we started calling this "the unicorn," accidentally at first, but soon deliberately. "Hadrian's Wall Path" became "Hadrian's warpath," so here is an account, with pictures, of our adventures following the warpath of the unicorn.

( The warpath of the unicorn: a truly enormous account )

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Dancing and walking

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:55:46 GMT

The weekend before last, we had a day trip to Chichester for a Day of Dance. We'd intended to go by train from Southampton, but then they announced a train strike. Pellinor keeps a car on the mainland, so the choices were, A, drive there and back, with him having No Beer! at a Morris event! :-O B, go with the rest of the side on an epic journey involving several buses and a hovercraft. Or, C, stay over in Chichester. Since Pellinor was due to go LARPing not far from Portsmouth on the Sunday, we went with option C.

( Dancing in Chichester )

Then, on Sunday, Pellinor headed off LARPing, detouring briefly to drop me at Portchester Castle, which I'd indentified as a good starting point for my planned walk back to Southampton.

( Walking from Portchester to Southampton )

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Another belated holiday write-up, but only a month late, this time

Sun, 11 Jun 2023 19:30:19 GMT

Yesterday I posted 8 months late about a short holiday we had in Jersey last October. By that standard, today's post is barely late at all, since it's about a holiday we had in early May, in the Wye Valley.

Yes, early May. That time when it rained virtually every day - remember the Coronation? - before turning to non-stop sun the day after we came home.

( Dodging rain showers in the Wye Valley: an overlong account, with pictures )

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A very belated write-up of a long-ago holiday on Jersey

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 17:31:06 GMT

Dearie me. I've not posted for nearly a year. I keep meaning to, but you know how it is. The longer you leave a thing, the more daunting it gets to start. I've not been reading things, either, so apologies if I've missed big things. I will attempt to do better from now on.

But, first, I'll start with winding the clock back to last October, when we had a few days on Jersey. (We had a wonderful week on the Isle of Man in June, so last year's theme was clearly off-shore tax havens. As far as Vodafone is concerned, they're All The Same. "Welcome to Guernsey!" it said when we arrived on the Isle of Man. Throughout our four days on Jersey, it sent us a constant barrage of messages welcoming us to Jersey, Guernsey or France, sometimes all three within 5 minutes. But, disappointingly, not to the Isle of Man this time.)

ANYWAY... I know it seems silly to post about a holiday 8 months after it happened, but it's been demonstrated several times lately that I completely forget everything about a holiday unless I've got a blog post to refer back to, so for my own future reference, if nothing else, here goes:

( A few days on Jersey )

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Walking around another island - part the third and last

Wed, 06 Jul 2022 15:50:19 GMT

( Mountains, ritual sheepfolds, seals and photobombing insects )

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Walking around another island - part 2

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 19:45:39 GMT

Days 2, 3 and 4 of our Isle of Man walking adventure, in which we encounter many, many hills, get attacked by the Black Dog, meet a water bull and a buggane, see a windswept wedding, and did I mention the hills?

( Hills, hills and monsters )

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Walking around another island

Sun, 03 Jul 2022 10:52:38 GMT

Back in the winter of 2019, we were discussing holidays and said that we fancied walking Hadrian's Wall. However, the trouble with that is that we would need to book accommodation months in advance - we're not prepared to do the full on "carrying your tent on your back and camping in the wild" option - which would mean that you're then committed to each day's walk, no matter what the weather.

Then I was flicking through a colleague's Country Walking magazine and saw an advertising feature on the Raad ny Foillan, the Isle of Man coastal path. It had never occurred to me to go to the Isle of Man before, but it looked really good, and since it's a circular walk around an island, it could easily be done by staying in a central location and travelling back by bus every day. It occurred to us that this could be a very good test run for Hadrian's Wall, but one with a get-out clause, in that we didn't HAVE to walk every day, if weather and/or sore feet intervened. We went from initial idea to booking it within just a few days - very much an impulse holiday.

As I said, this was back in the winter of 2019. Then 2020 happened, followed by 2021, so our "impulse holiday" ended up being the holiday of Damocles, constantly there, constantly being postponed, constantly looming over us with its possible Covid-related complications. As the much-postponed date drew nearer, I really doubted we'd ever get there. We were flying there by Easyjet, who were cancelled planes all over the place. We were due to take the train to Gatwick, travelling on a train strike day. Several colleagues got Covid the week before the holiday. But we got there in the end. I almost kissed the ground in relief!

( Days one and two of a walking holiday on the Isle of Man )

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Winchester choir stalls and other fancies

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 18:20:14 GMT

We had a day trip to Winchester on the first day of the long Jubilee weekend. Our first trip was to the museum where, it being half term, activities were happening. As we approached, a family with a small child were talking to the Roman soldier who was stationed outside. As we queued, the small girl charged in, bypassed the short queue, and declaimed in a VERY loud voice, "we're coming in! We're going upstairs to make a crown and do some lovely activities." She repeated this many, many times - it was always "some lovely activities" - and earnestly told the staff that these "lovely activities" were upstairs. "And then we're buying a wooden sword," she said, many, many times. Pellinor and I were highly amused, and when our turn came to be served, we let her family go first, saying that we couldn't be so cruel as to delay by even a minute her "lovely activities." All was all in her delivery, really. We both found the whole thing hilarious.

Later, we were having lunch at a very good pizza place just opposite the museum, and saw her come out, complete with crown and wooden sword. The Roman soldier got attacked. (Mind you, I think he deserved it. We'd just witnessed him taking advantage of a quiet moment to write "romanes eunt domus" on the ground, clearly trying to frame the People's Front of Venta Bulgarum.)

Anyway, after lunch we went to the cathedral, which offered up no comical lions, but a very comical unicorn and many other comic delights.

( The comical creatures of Winchester )

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North Devon (with added Cornwall): part the third and last

Sun, 29 May 2022 17:17:08 GMT

Here is the last installment of our North Devon holiday. I never got round to writing up the holiday we had last summer, which is a shame, since my memory is dreadful, and unless I make a written record of what I've, I forget all about it. I've frequently had to refer back to my old holiday write-ups to remind myself of where on earth we went and what on earth we did when we got there.

Anyway. Here goes:

( North Devon: the final part, with a short guest appearance by Cornwall. )

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North Devon: sea, sunsets and scary sheep

Thu, 26 May 2022 15:48:59 GMT

Resuming from where I left off, with us at the bee place...

( Sea, sunsets and scary sheep )

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North Devon: Knightshayes and the happy bees

Sun, 22 May 2022 09:34:27 GMT

We had a week in North Devon the week before last. We broke the journey en route with a night in Tiverton, with visits to a Victorian Gothic pile and a bee farm.

( Gothic fancies and the bees )

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A natural history of dragons

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 19:35:17 GMT

I very much enjoyed this series by Marie Brennan. Set in a Victorian style era, it is the memoirs of Lady Trent, a much-respected naturalist, looking back on the discoveries she made in their younger years, during the course of adventure-filled journeys to far-flung corners of the earth. The twist? The subject of all her scientific enquiry is dragons - but not magical dragons. This is a world in which dragons are just one more variety of wildlife, little different from tigers or wolves or bears. Her interest in them is to understand them For Science. The series is classed as fantasy, but it reads as a historical novel, just one set in a world that never was.

The setting is not an AU version of our world. The geography is different, with different country names, different leaders, different histories and different religions. However, most of the places visited have clear parallels in our world, as reflected in the language, names and social structure. "Ah, that's France. That's China. That's Indonesia," you can say, as different places are mentioned or visited. The main character's homeland very clearly equates to England in early Victorian times. Just like real Victorian England, it's a society dominated by rich men. Lady Trent is a pioneer, and has to fight sexism every step of the way.

The author has a background in anthopology and archaeology, and it very much shows. Most of Lady Trent's journeys involve stays with people whose social structures and values are very different from what she's used to, in interesting ways. Archaeology and ancient language is a strong thread running through the books, with some scenes carrying a strong Indiana Jones vibe - but an Indiana Jones who actually adheres to archaeological good practice. There's some romance, too, and some humour, and a solid cast of supporting characters who grow and change along with Lady Trent over the 20 or so years covered by the series.

I enjoyed it all very much, so much so that I immediately went back and read it all over again.

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Arms, armour, ducks and doors

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 18:32:03 GMT

As well as spotting comical lions, last weekend we made Bronze Age swords!

But before that, we revisted the Weald and Downland open air museum, which was basking in glorious weather. The main attraction of the place is the many dozens of historic domestic buildings which have been carefully demolished and carefully reassembled on the site, minus all the modern additions that they had acquired over the years. Confronted with all this history, what did I photograph? Ducks and a fence.

( Duck bottoms and a wiggly fence )

And then, on Sunday, we made swords! This was an all-day workshop at Butser Ancient Farm, done with a backdrop of battling Anglo-Saxon re-enactors and a half-built wicker man. (I meant to photograph the massive nestbox on a prominent dead (or dead-looking) tree overlooking the farm, but forgot. It truly was an enormous nestbox, large enough for a small dragon. Apparently it was there for owls, but no owls had bought it yet.)

Anyway... There were just two of us on the workshop, and we both worked together to make one sword, then another. A lot of the time was spent making the mould out of sand - piling it in, pressing it down, hammering it down, putting in more sand, hammering it down again, rinse and repeat. Then we made bronze out of copper wire and old tin tankard fragments, poured it into the mould... and within less than a minute, there was a sword, solid and ready to pick up with pliers and plunge into a vat of water. Yay!

But now comes to hard part: polishing it. We started the job on site, filing away the thin edges where the metal had seeped out beyond the edges of the mould. My sword didn't have much of this, but Pellinor's had a lot. But it will be hours and hours of hard work sanding and scrubbing and buffing before they're good shiny bronze. I've done odd hours here and there. The sword's getting quite a bit smoother, but my fingers seem to be, too, since the fingerprint recognition on my phone has stopped reliably recognising my fingerprint. (Time to rob a bank, perhaps?)

( Sword pictures )

And, finally... while we were sitting on top of Portsdown Hill near Fort Nelson (a lovely view of Portsmouth; I could have sat there for hours just looking out at the vista below us - a view that was too big for a photograph to do justice to it)... Anyway... we were talking about comical lions, and Pellinor, whose live roleplaying character (one of them, anyway) has a winged lion as a badge, said it would be nice to have a winged lion on his helmet. "But I don't know if it would be possible..."

Challenge accepted.

( A winged lion sitting on a hat )

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Comical lions!

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 19:19:52 GMT

We had a few days on the mainland last weekend, as Part 2 of Pellinor's 50th birthday celebration. I'll post about the rest of the weekend later / tomorrow (we made swords! Actual swords!) but as is now traditional, here are the Comical Lions in a post of their own.*

* Other comical animals are available.

( The Comical Lions of Fort Nelson )

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Wordsworth in wellies

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 16:06:29 GMT

At Christmas, my parents had rediscovered some school work books from my first couple of years at infant school. I was particularly amused by my "book on travel," which started unsurprisingly with pictures of transport, lists of travel methods, drawings of road signs and short accounts of walks around the local area.

And then suddenly, with no explanation, is this:

It MUST be Wordsworth, surely. There's the Lake District scene in the background. There's the daffodil. There's the... wellies? Why is Wordsworth suddenly gatecrashing a project on modes of transport? The pages on either side are no help, since they're both about pirates. To be honest, I'm not really sure what the pirates are doing there, either, but at least they hang out on ships, so might presumably have been introduced by a teacher in a ship-themed lesson.

I was clearly enamoured of these pirates, since they do rather take over the rest of the project, elbowing their way into odd spaces in between dull pictures of road signs. The piratical stories do leave something to be desired, though. Just before Wordsworth, we get this: "Once upon a time there were some pirates they kept on fighting with some people." Afterwards we get "Once upon a time there was a red pirate he was very poor for he did not have very much money so he looked very thoroughly and saw a cave."

The project ends on this note: "Once upon a time there was some bad pirates he had lots of money and gold he stoal Mr Catley's car he was cross he hit the pirates croo he was mad he did not like it at all." (I don't know who Mr Catley was. Not my teacher, anyway.)

( A few more pictures )

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