Thankyou for bearing with me...

From top to bottom on the left: NW Bear and church, SW Bear, SE Bear, and the big picture is the NE Bear

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

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I'm back from a holiday with Jim and I'm also ready to be back blogging!
I've been missing you all.

I do still have energy work to do but I think it is now going to be less all-consuming. I don't talk about it much here because its not easy to explain in words.

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The last week we have spent in Scotland.

On the way up we stopped for a night in the Lake District. The "bears" above are from Dacre's churchyard. There are four very old carved stones and the story told is that the main figure is that of a bear.

Going from NW, anti-clockwise, the bears are:

The first one is a sleeping bear.

It looks to me like some sort of creature clutching a post. It either has no head or is holding its head down behind the post.

It is the first of the "bears" visible as one enters the churchyard from the village which might explain why the story starts with it.

The second one is said to be a bear which has been awakened by some sort of creature jumping on its back. So far I've read or heard that this creature is a cat or monkey.

The "bear" is still holding its post. Its head is up and to me it looks as though it is protecting its post jealously.

The third bear is said to be attempting to shake off the creature from its back.

It certainly looks a bit miserable to me. But I couldn't see it shaking!

Still holding onto that post with grim determination.

Incidentally there is a great looking castle in the background of this one.

The fourth and last "bear" is said to have eaten the creature and is very happy with itself.

Or it may simply have got it off its back.

The post is still held onto safely.

Some people say this one looks more like a lion with a mane and a pointy tail. It is definitely grinning.

The "bears" might be Viking or older. I've put up more pictures of Dacre's Bears and Churchyard on flickr.

We stayed in a B&B in the Lake District with wonderful grounds. I was up to catch the dawn light:


1. Misty Dawn Chorus, 2. Dawn on one of Land Ends' ponds, 3. Sunrise, 4. Lake District Dawn

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

I love the Lake District but this holiday's goal was to enable Jim to achieve his ambition of climbing all the mountains of 3000ft and above in Britain and Ireland before his 40th birthday (which is this Thursday, May 24th) and he'd already done the ones in the Lake District long ago. There are 313 of these mountains and its taken him nearly 20 years - on Saturday he completed the last one with various friends who have been up other Munros with him. (The Munros are the mountains in Scotland over 3000 feet). Despite foul weather they all made it to the top of Ben Chonzie (3048ft) and appeared to enjoy the day!

Jim is the one with his arms upraised in triumph!

This is Jim's photo from flickr taken with a remote control so all those who went to the top of this final Munro with him are in the picture. Later most of them joined us for a celebration meal at the Achray House Hotel which did a wonderful dinner for us.

I'm not in the picture as I have not been up any of the Munros. I prefer less steep walks. I enjoyed the holiday and took loads of photographs - some of which will appear here and even more of which will end up on flickr in the next few days.

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Oh I am glad to be back blogging. It'll take me a while to catch up with you all but I look forward to it!