Newcastle Science Museum
It's been a while since my last entry, and things have slowed down a bit this last month. The weather has turned and daily we check to see if we will be encountering a grey and rainy day. We can't complain too much as we have been pretty lucky overall, but it has forced us to stay indoors some days which isn't always a bad thing.
We are now in a village called Garforth which is basically a suburb of Leeds in the Yorkshire area of the UK. Garforth is a quiet village full of charity shops, a butcher, a few bakeries, and pubs (of course). To help with some of the down time I was able to find an opportunity to volunteer with the Neighborhood Elderly Team (NET) which provides social activities for the elderly as well as in-home visits, phone calls, etc. It is a wonderful program that I wish we had back in the states, sometimes just a few hours spent with friends can change a persons outlook especially for the elderly. I volunteered twice a week for 4 hours, serving coffee, chatting, helping with trivia (although I knew hardly any answers as they were all British related), it really served me more than it probably did them and I had a blast.
A yard in Garforth. All done with plant pots
Something about fall and baking
There is so much more to England than just London and since we were here for three months we decided to see some sites that most Americans don't do while on vacation. Transportation here is pretty expensive so we decided to buy a Rail Rover which allowed us to travel 4 days within 8 days; lucky for us the never checked so we traveled for 6. We have now visited both the east and west coast (Blackpool and Scarborough), spent a day wandering in York with our friend Ralph who I think bought something in every shop he passed. Wandered upon some of the most charming villages I have ever seen such as Newcastle, Hebden Bridge and Harrogate, and had it not been fall they may have looked like any other town. The orange, yellow and brown colored leaves were the perfect backdrop for the architecture that spanned hundreds of years, truly breathtaking and a must for all. We did all of this sans a car using only local transportation such as trains and buses.
York river front
York Minster
One of many stained glass windows
The fall colors
Ralph and his infamous photo pose
York once was a walled city
Laura and Ralph on the train
Along with finding a volunteer opportunity I also had the chance to work with a life coach. The timing was perfect. I am on a 9 month adventure with the desire to be more present in my life, to do what truly makes me happy, so no excuses about time or energy as I have a lot!!! It is a work in progress and every day I am reminded of the gift I have given to myself and to be grateful for what I have. The bonus is spending every day with Laura and our 2 year old daughter for 9 months, watching her explore and discover, grow and develop. It has been amazing and some days a little challenging I won't lie.
The Newcastle millennium tilting bridge
Newcastle city center
Avoided this :)
The Newcastle castle
Newcastle
Newcastle has as many bridges as Portland
We leave Garforth on the 28th and head to Bristol which is west of London. We will be close to Bath, Cardiff and places like Stonehenge and according to Laura we will get to see the most recent Banksy piece. We will be able to enter the Schengen area again on November 13 and will start out in Malaga Spain and hopefully some warm sunny weather.
Scarborough
Playing in the sand
Harrogate
Fall beauty
It's not about the gift it's about the gratitude
An amazing backdrop
Harrogate park
Downtown Harrogate
My life!
