hawkshead and a bit beyond

 The gorgeous village of Hawkshead is just a few miles

north of Hill Top Farm.

I would think that Beatrix frequented this village quite often

and there is a small museum here of more of her drawings

and paintings.

Love this view!

 This was a surprise!

William Wordsworth lived and went to school in this little village.

 According to the tour guide at the school,

the boys had 2 hours of "down" time each day.

They brought their pocket knives to school and spent that time

carving everything in sight!

This is where William himself sat to do his "studies"!

 No space is left unmarked!

 More of the view.

 We got lost on the way to our campground so we ended up taking

a very short ferry across Lake Windermere.

 That worked out quite nicely!

hill top farm

 The next morning we picked up our camper van

and off we went - to England!

First stop - the lake district and

Beatrix Potter's farm.

(This is not her farm - by the way!)

 This area did not disappoint!

 The gardens at her farm were wild and beautiful -

perfect English gardens.

 Her lovely house.

No pictures allowed inside but the house was

full of her life and what inspired her paintings and stories.

 The B.E.S.T. traveling companion EVER 

and left-hand-side-of-the-road-driver

extraordinaire!

 Her beautiful village.

 Off to find our camping spot for the night.

I guess we're not as far from Canada as we thought!

glasgow

 At the beginning of August

Howard and I flew away to celebrate our

30 years of wedded bliss!

Our first stop was Glasgow, Scotland.

Being of Scottish descent, I have always wanted to visit Scotland

and finally the time had come. :)

We had an afternoon and evening there before we picked up

our camper van the next morning.

 We wandered this old city and just enjoyed

looking at the buildings and feeling the energy

of the people - lots of people - SHOPPING!

 I can't say that I've ever seen a building permanently decorated

like this!

 I knew this was in Glasgow but I had forgotten about it until we came upon it.

Here's an explanation of why this poor Duke has a traffic cone on his head:

 "The pictured statue was built in 1844, honoring Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the two-time Prime Minister who was also the field marshall who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. And for more than a century, it remained unbothered. But starting in the 1980s or thereabouts, the statue found itself home to a new tradition: residents of Glasgow would regularly place the cone atop the Duke’s head, ostensibly as a testament to the Scottish sense of humor. Over the years, the conical hat has become a part of the local culture; for example, in celebration of Glasgow’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, a pair of statue-climbers took down the orange cone and replaced it with a gold-painted one."

one of ours

 Almost a week ago a 10 year old girl - a former student of mine -

was hit by a car while riding her bike.

It was dark and she was on her way home from AWANA.

The story is not yet entirely clear what happened

but what is clear is that Charity's skull was

crushed and a large portion of it had to be removed after

being airlifted to Children's Hospital in Winnipeg.

That was last Wednesday.

The word went out and people began to pray.

Our students and teachers prayed.

Charity's little brother is in grade 4 in our school

so we've been praying for him as well as

his family and older sister who was with

Charity when the accident happened.

On the weekend, Charity's sedation medication was

decreased to allow her to start waking up.

The doctors could see signs of healing that they could not account for 

less than a week after she suffered a serious, life-threatening

head injury.

Her head/brain was damaged where memory and personality

are located.

Charity is a bright, happy, beautiful little girl - inside and out.

Please pray for her if she comes to mind.

another update

Well. Two eggs hatched and two did not.

It is amazing to see how quickly these

little creatures have grown.

The parents have been highly stressed with me

trying to take pictures

and I was as well because they kept flying at me

and screeching!

Fortunately they were out hunting crickets

this morning when I went out.

I will save the eggs and the nest and take them to

school in the fall for my first day

of morning devotions with my grade 3s.

What a wonderful creation lesson it will be!