me & geography: headed north, heading south.

Hard to believe I've already been gone a month though I've packed in enough to have been gone for three. We followed up our trip to London with a week stint that took us North through York, Durham, Newcastle and Edinburgh back South to visit some of my family in Lincolnshire (who were amazing but I'm very sorry to say I was too busy catching up to take pictures). I've also managed to catch up with Lucy and Lou from my Australian adventures last year which was fabulous. Justin headed west to Vancouver this morning and will hit LA for a few days on his way back 'home' to Melbourne. Tomorrow I head off to France where I will be greeted by my third cousins and, it seems, piles of snow. I've had to change my flight from today to tomorrow as the airport I was going to had closed down and Jim and Jane had lost electricity... so, off to a good start, let the real backpacking begin.

Aysgarth all-boys school... Just was invited to do a talk so we stayed in this amazing old house (where I had my very own massive room with ensuite old-fashion bathtub that I took full advantage of), had breakfast with the boys the following morning and explored the grounds.

York's main Cathedral... York was a lovely town but we were only there a short time so I don't have all that much to say about it.

Durham - Standing with Douglas Davis (Just's prof) looking across at the Cathedral and castle that the university was built around... also the setting for the first Harry Potter... and I thought Western's campus was beautiful...

A look across to Lindisfarn, a holy island that is home to an ancient Celtic monastery... we obviously didn't make it across. The road across is flooded most of the day this time of year.

Looking off North-East coast of England on a very windy day.

Just and little sis Marie-Claire at Edinburgh Castle. Fell in love with this city.

What better way to kill time during sound checks and between gigs than to tie knots in your hair... bring on the dreadies! (Ian and Just in Newcastle)

Newcastle's Angel of the North. Nessie left Scotland with us and acted as second captain next to TomTom, the amazing Sat-Nav, that made the twisty, round-about ridden roads of England close to stress-free. Only on one stretch of highway did TomTom start screaming at us to take sharp lefts and turn around as he seemed to think we were driving through a field... we forgive you TomTom.

This is the main river that runs through Cambridge, where people go 'punting' what we in Canada would call running-out-of-gas-in-your-fishing-boat-and-having-to-push-along-off-the-bottom-using-a-big-stick. Picture taken from inside a warm pub on a favourite day.