New England...Check

 I have been working on visiting all fifty US states and this past weekend I was able to check off the elusive New England three, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Due to some plan changes I also was able to check of the pesky little state of Rhode Island. 

 Saturday was the MAINE event!  Lighthouses and Lobster with Sun and Surf. State number 43 checked off my list…only seven more to go!

States 44 and 45 checked off today! New Hampshire and Vermont did not disappoint- and I am bringing home some “Sugarbush” farm organic maple syrup. However,  I will not be bring home cheese from said farm as I have already devoured the extra sharp aged cheddar! 🤗

Three states were not enough to check off my list…I needed to make it an even four! State number 46…Rhode Island was checked off ! Old cemeteries, where family members were located and then a quick drive to Colonial Newport. Then it was back up to Massachusetts to see Plymouth and more lobster. 

Ron and I woke up earlier on Tuesday morning, September 7th 2021 and headed back to Boston for our flight home...but we had to make a few stops along the way! It would be a shame to come all this way and not to see the hallowed battle ground where the first shots for freedom from tyranny started on April 19, 1775. As I stood and read the inscription on the Minutemen Monument I was deeply moved by the loss of life for the freedoms that I currently enjoy. I am grateful to my father who taught me to always respect and honor those freedoms and all those, then and now, that gave everything to preserve this nation.

How I love stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner, by Francis Scott Keys. The words move me and have sink deep within my heart. As I walked these sacred grounds and thought of the last verse to the song my heart was filled with emotion and my tears flowed freely.

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation!

Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto - "In God is our trust,"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

One to Sixty One

From 1 to 61 and still some things never change! I am very grateful for all the years in between, even the hard painful ones! I am blessed beyond measure. Happy Birthday to me…I made it through another year. 

Life has been full of challenges but those same challenges have created a strong, independent and self assured woman.

I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother and a "Nana!"

I know who I am, what I am and what I want to become.

I am capable of doing hard things

I value trust and honesty in myself and others.

Jane Austen, my favorite author, once wrote, “... I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” That statement is true for me, I love deeply and my tender heart is both a feature of strength and of weakness. One might say that I think with my heart, I feel with my heart and I love with all my heart.

What would l tell that little one year old Heidi, sitting on the car? I would tell her...

Life is going to be a grand adventure, full of love, laughter and many tears. You will endure, you will grow and you can enjoy all that life has to offer, so continue to grow and become someone, that in sixty years you can be proud of. You go this Heidi!

I am SIXTY ONE today and I am PROUD of who I am and the incredible life that I have lived.  I am not perfect, but I am ME! 

The Winter Sea

Slains Castle built circa 1664

I have read The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley twice in the last three years.  It was Ms. Kearsley description of the North Sea coastline of Scotland, Cruden Bay and Slains Castle that had me planning a trip to Aberdeen, Scotland. The story is about a current day author writing a story about the 1708 Jacobite uprising and the unsuccessful landing of King James back into Scotland. The novel switches from past to present flawlessly.

I fell in love with the detail description of the castle, the ruins and the Scottish coastline.

My Visit to Slains Castle

Looking south to Cruden's bay

Cruden Bay - Harbor Street

Dunnottar... Done

After reading a few novels, one called The Winter Sea, all set in the Northeastern coast of Scotland I dreamed of visiting. One of my favorite stops was Dunnottar Castle on the cliff coastline of the NorthSea in Stonehaven, Scotland.  The stone castle was built by Sir William Keith in 1390.  The castle is rich in history and is said to be be built on consecrated ground.  The Scottish Crown Jewels were held at Dunnottar. Mary Queen of Scotts, Oliver Cromwell and the Jacobite uprising are just a few people and events that are associated with Dunnottar Castle.

The day we visited the Scottish Lords were smiling down with sunshine.  It was stunningly beautiful.

Original stone floor circa 1400

Looking out from Dunnottar to the North Sea

Dunnotter Done and Didn't Disappoint!

Now Entering Scotland

Early English novels had many fair maidens traveling across the border into Scotland to elope with their true love.  In Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, Lidia is said to have gone to Gretna Green to elope with Wickham,  Gretna Green is just over the English border and historically the first village in Scotland. 

According to Wikipedia "in the 1770s Scottish law allowed for "irregular marriages", meaning that if a declaration was made before two witnesses, almost anybody had the authority to conduct the marriage ceremony. The blacksmiths in Gretna became known as "anvil priests", culminating with Richard Rennison, who performed 5,147 ceremonies. The local blacksmith and his anvil became lasting symbols of Gretna Green weddings."

 

How romantic... Not a shot gun wedding but a Blacksmith wedding.

Now we are entering Scotland....the the GAMES begin!

The Romans are coming...

Let's start with a short history lesson....

Old Roman Fort

In 55 B.C. Julius Cesar, Roman military general, invaded Britannia for the first time and by 43 B.C. Britain was under the Roman Empire and would remain under Roman occupation for the next 350 years.  In 122 A.D. the emperor Hadrian commanded that a wall be built as a defensive fortification on the northern most boundary of the  Roman Empire.  It became known as Hadrian's Wall, it runs 73 miles across northern England, from the North Sea to the Irish Sea.  Today it is the largest Roman artifact anywhere.



 Due to the fact that England was under Roman rule for almost 400 years one can still visit the ruins of Roman forts throughout England today.

I love history and I love ruins...

Old Roman Fort - Bath House - Northumberland National Park

Hadrian's Wall -  only 1,896 years old....Standing on History !

Bronte Country - An English Adventure

"If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad." 

Jane Austen from her novel Northanger Abbey.

We I last left off we were deep in Dracula Country, which I am grateful to have left as our next adventure took us to Bronte Country.  While I am a Jane Austen fan I do like to change it up a bit and read a Bronte novel. By that I mean, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  I am not a big fan of Wuthering Heights by her sister Emily, nor her sister Anne's novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Charlotte Bronte completed four novels, Anne wrote two and Emily just one.  by far my favorite it Jane Eyre and as I have read it many times, watched the different movie adaptations I longed to see the moors of which she describes. 

Finally I was in Bronte Country...

Ron and I took a step back in time and visited the Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England; the home of the Bronte family from 1820 -1860.  Charlotte's father became the curate for the church in 1820 and the family moved to the parsonage. Today the parsonage holds much of the original Bronte household items as well as manuscripts, journal and photos. I loved everything about Haworth and the surrounding countryside. 

What is not to love about Bronte Country...Nothing