More Travels With Lynn, Come along ...

Our journey continues and I do my best to create a blog post from the train and ferry boat from England to Ireland.

 These photos of my art, However, are not in correct order. But I will tell the story in this crazy order anyway. Bear with me.

Many of you have told me in previous weeks posts that you are enjoying traveling along with me this way. I hope you find your visit to parts of England as fun as the earlier parts (posts) were.

We've jumped ahead here to our brief stay in the greater London area. To say we were in culture shock when we got there would be an understatement. ( having just come from the quiet, peaceful, relaxing seaside villages there)!

hope some of the drawings tell their own stories, as this other earlier train ride to London, where I caught these women talking.

Oh this was my disaster breakfast morning when I cut into a canned tomato and it splashed all over my Sketchbook Skool T-shirt and had to be hand washed before we could leave for Hampton Court!

Ah, we are in order here, as we arrived in Hampton Court eventually, and I made a quick sketch of a small part of Henry VIII's castle. I've decided I must have been a brick layer in a previous life as I love drawing bricks. 

    

Now we go back a few days to saying goodbye to Ann Hyde of Sketching William the Lurcher, and Paper, Paint, Pencils & Pens blogs. We'd said hello to Ann and her husband Graham and their dog, Wiiliam four days earlier. It was an awesome visit. Ann and Graham picked us up from the train station, when we found we couldn't rent a car for this leg of the journey. They drove us to our AirBNB, they fed us lunches and dinners each day, Ann and I drew every day by the sea together. They live in the most indylic village of Willacombe. It was quiet, quaint, relaxing and beautiful. Our friendship grew. I played cards with Graham, and he teased me relentlessly about myfears of cars driving on the wrong side of the roads.  Saying goodbye was not easy.

Here are some of the spots Ann and I drew at... Cawley ...

Lynmouth,

And the Valley of the Rocks..

I so enjoyed just hanging out with Ann and Graham and of course  William, who I finally got used to his jumping up and kissing me on the mouth. 

I think he likes me! 

Ann and I at one of our drawing spots by the sea. That's me on the right.

This next "out of order" cartoon shows my most difficult day of walking for what seemed forever and was actually several miles by foot, with my big backpack on from a ferry boat from France to England, where we tried to rent a car, but the place to do so was closed.

Finally we got a train, then a taxi to our airBNB only to find I had to climb a mountain of stairs to get to our room. I crashed there, needless to say and after a good nights sleep was re energized to push on the next day again. 

These last two pictures show some difficulties we encountered in getting there, but it all worked out grand in the end. Most of this trip has been picture perfect, peaceful, beautiful, mind boggling amazing and fun. But as life in general it does have it's ups and downs, often with hills and back burdens involved. The good news is I'll be going home with new leg muscles I never knew possible before.

 One last shot at Saint Mont Michel where we also were in heaven with all we were seeing and doing in France.

We actually had this view  from the window of our AirBNB ... A charming place, in Huisness , a quaint small French village. Narrow roads, stone houses, flower boxes... 

In the morning of our second day there, we awoke to fog. We took the two mile walk out to the island and watched Mt Saint Michel gradually appear out of the fog ... a lot like Brigadoon! 

Next stop Ireland, out last country before heading home. I have a few pages to fill in my biggest art journal and hope to do it there. I've finished one smaller journal and started a third that Ann gave me. These memories will make me happy for the rest of my life.

                                                         @@@@@@@@

Many of you know my dear friend, Cris Marlow, of A Country Life. (Her blog) I just heard from her this morning telling me she is in the hospital following an auto accident, she was rear ended, and the accident resulted in her having a broken hip. 

She is scheduled for surgery for a hip replacement tomorrow. I'm sure she'd love hearing from you. I'd suggest going to her blog and leaving a note there. Thanks. We need to help lift her spirits! 

Lynn