Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Snow in North Carolina
Stephen Walking on Ice
Yesterday at our Grandmother's house the ice on her pond was thick enough to walk on. This is very rare for North Carolina. (Safety Note: The ice should be at least three inches thick to walk on, and you should not test it in the middle of the pond. :) We actually had already tested it)
Finally, Snow!
We finally have snow in NC! We woke up and we looked out the window(because snow was predicted,) and there it was. Joshua and I immediately went out and started playing. We had two snow fights, the first one was won by me, and the second by Joshua. Here are some pictures we took of the snow:
Snow on the ground
Our cat(she got a vole)
Our road
Our yard
Our fort
Our roof
Our car (it was half-scraped for ammunition)
Snow on the ground
Snow on a plant
Snow on the roof
Snow in a pile
Scotland - Day 7
Today we went to the city of Glasgow which is the capital of Scotland. We went there to see the Glasgow Cathedral, the John Knox memorial, and the David Livingston memorial there. When we went there they were having a school service, so they told us to come back in about 15-20 minutes. We got to hear the pipe band playing for the service. While we were waiting we saw the David Livingstone memorial in front of the cathedral. David Livingstone was a Scottish Missionary who went to Africa.
This is a picture of the statue of David Livingstone at Glasgow Cathedral
After we looked at this memorial and read everything on it, we went to the Necropolis (which is a graveyard), and we walked up to the top of the hill to see the memorial of John Knox, who was a great preacher in Glasgow and was one of the great Reformers. John Knox helped write the commentary notes in the Geneva Bible, which is the Bible the Pilgrims brought to Plymouth. His statue is on top of the hill looking over the city of Glasgow.
Then we walked back down the hill, looking at the graves until we got to the bottom, and then we started walking towards the Cathedral. When we got to the Cathedral there was almost nobody there, so we went in. We walked around the Cathedral until they told us to leave because they were having a wedding. We got to see the wedding party arriving dressed in kilts. We spent about 1 1/2 hours in Glascow and then we went to Bothwell Castle. Bothwell Castle was one of my favorite castles because it was the biggest castle we saw.
This is a picture of the statue of David Livingstone at Glasgow Cathedral
After we looked at this memorial and read everything on it, we went to the Necropolis (which is a graveyard), and we walked up to the top of the hill to see the memorial of John Knox, who was a great preacher in Glasgow and was one of the great Reformers. John Knox helped write the commentary notes in the Geneva Bible, which is the Bible the Pilgrims brought to Plymouth. His statue is on top of the hill looking over the city of Glasgow.
This is a picture of the statue of John Knox preaching to the city of Glasgow
Then we walked back down the hill, looking at the graves until we got to the bottom, and then we started walking towards the Cathedral. When we got to the Cathedral there was almost nobody there, so we went in. We walked around the Cathedral until they told us to leave because they were having a wedding. We got to see the wedding party arriving dressed in kilts. We spent about 1 1/2 hours in Glascow and then we went to Bothwell Castle. Bothwell Castle was one of my favorite castles because it was the biggest castle we saw.
This is a picture of the outside of Bothwell Castle
The construction of Bothwell Castle was started in about the middle of the 1200's, by Walter of Moray. The castle was never finished, but many people built on it. it was seiged several times by King Edward I. We spent about 1 hour at Bothwell Castle. We had walked around the outside of it the day before because we had arrived at closing time.
This is a picture of Joshua playing on Bothwell Castle
The construction of Bothwell Castle was started in about the middle of the 1200's, by Walter of Moray. The castle was never finished, but many people built on it. it was seiged several times by King Edward I. We spent about 1 hour at Bothwell Castle. We had walked around the outside of it the day before because we had arrived at closing time.
This is a picture of Joshua playing on Bothwell CastleScotland - Day 5
On March 13 we got up and drove to Stirling, a town in the middle of Scotland. There was still very much snow on the ground, so there were not many people there. I enjoyed this a lot. Here is a picture of the front of the castle, from the parking lot. We took this picture when we came back later in the week when the snow had melted.
To the right, out of this picture this is a statue of Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce was one of the very famous early kings of Scotland. He was made king after William Wallace died, who I will talk about in a little bit. Here is the statue in the snow looking over the town of Stirling:
Bruce and his father were on the side of the English at the beginning of the war, but they switched when the Scots won. When he decided to finally be on the Scot's side, he was continually being beaten in the battles. He tried seven times to drive out the English and free the Scots, and seven times he was defeated. When he was in hiding in a cave, he watched a spider on the wall trying to spin a web. It tried seven times, and the eighth time is succeeded. Therefore he was encouraged to try again and he succeeded. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It was taken a few days after the previous one:
Here are some pictures from inside the castle:
First a picture of me in front of the Forework built for King James IV in the years around 1500. This is from the first time we went there:
Some guns on the Grand Battery, which is part of the Outer Close which is one of the two main courtyards.
There where statues of Kings on the wall of the palace which was built for James V and was started in 1538.
During one of the sieges of the castle, some of the statues were knocked out of place:
We video-taped (or thought we did, more on that later) one of the speeches I did to our family on Scottish history. Here are a few good scenic pictures we took at various times from there:
After spending 4 hours there, we went to Wallace Monument, a monument to the Scottish hero William Wallace. When we got there, they were not selling tickets at the bottom of the hill, because the walkway was icey and slippery, and many people were turning back before they got to the top, but the Horns pressed onward and upward.
At the tower there were three levels.
There was a room about William Wallace's history. They had Wallace's sword in a case:
There was a room of Scottish heroes, and one about building the monument. When you climbed 220 feet and 246 steps you reached the crown, or top. It was very cold and windy there since it was sleeting, snowing, and freezing rain. I got really cold when I did my speech on the battle of Stirling Bridge out there.
Stirling Bridge was Sir William Wallace's first large engagement with the English. He had fought in several small battles, one of which we visited later. The English held Stirling Castle and Wallace was on Abbey Craig, the place where the Wallace monument now stands. The English decided to attack the Scots over a narrow bridge. Here is a picture of the battleground: (the old bridge is right next to the new bridge, which is in the middle of the picture).
Wallace waited until some of the English went over the bridge, and then attacked. He drove them into the loop of the river and destroyed them. The other English which had not crossed retreated back to England. This was one of my favorite battles. I enjoyed this day of our Scotland vacation.
To the right, out of this picture this is a statue of Robert the Bruce. Robert the Bruce was one of the very famous early kings of Scotland. He was made king after William Wallace died, who I will talk about in a little bit. Here is the statue in the snow looking over the town of Stirling:
Bruce and his father were on the side of the English at the beginning of the war, but they switched when the Scots won. When he decided to finally be on the Scot's side, he was continually being beaten in the battles. He tried seven times to drive out the English and free the Scots, and seven times he was defeated. When he was in hiding in a cave, he watched a spider on the wall trying to spin a web. It tried seven times, and the eighth time is succeeded. Therefore he was encouraged to try again and he succeeded. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It was taken a few days after the previous one:
Here are some pictures from inside the castle:
First a picture of me in front of the Forework built for King James IV in the years around 1500. This is from the first time we went there:
Some guns on the Grand Battery, which is part of the Outer Close which is one of the two main courtyards.
There where statues of Kings on the wall of the palace which was built for James V and was started in 1538.
During one of the sieges of the castle, some of the statues were knocked out of place:
We video-taped (or thought we did, more on that later) one of the speeches I did to our family on Scottish history. Here are a few good scenic pictures we took at various times from there:
After spending 4 hours there, we went to Wallace Monument, a monument to the Scottish hero William Wallace. When we got there, they were not selling tickets at the bottom of the hill, because the walkway was icey and slippery, and many people were turning back before they got to the top, but the Horns pressed onward and upward.
At the tower there were three levels.
There was a room about William Wallace's history. They had Wallace's sword in a case:
There was a room of Scottish heroes, and one about building the monument. When you climbed 220 feet and 246 steps you reached the crown, or top. It was very cold and windy there since it was sleeting, snowing, and freezing rain. I got really cold when I did my speech on the battle of Stirling Bridge out there.Stirling Bridge was Sir William Wallace's first large engagement with the English. He had fought in several small battles, one of which we visited later. The English held Stirling Castle and Wallace was on Abbey Craig, the place where the Wallace monument now stands. The English decided to attack the Scots over a narrow bridge. Here is a picture of the battleground: (the old bridge is right next to the new bridge, which is in the middle of the picture).
Wallace waited until some of the English went over the bridge, and then attacked. He drove them into the loop of the river and destroyed them. The other English which had not crossed retreated back to England. This was one of my favorite battles. I enjoyed this day of our Scotland vacation.
Wintry Weather
We have had only two really small snow storms. They were both about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and melted very quickly. One night it rained, but then the rain froze on the trees and plants. It looked nice. Here are some pictures of one of the small snows:
Those are Kater's footprints in the snow on the back deck. We hope that we will get more snow later this year.
Here is a picture from the small ice storm:
Those are Kater's footprints in the snow on the back deck. We hope that we will get more snow later this year.Here is a picture from the small ice storm:
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