St James' Cemetery

Finally got one of my goals completed on last Wednesday! I found St James' Cemetery in Liverpool and was able to tour the cathedral and the cemetery. It seems strange in its location because it was just sort of in my face the whole time, I just didn't walk up the road far enough. It was worth it and waiting for it made me respect it more. The cathedral was wonderfully, so huge and with so many corners to explore. The peacefulness of the place in the middle of a city was also interesting. When you walked in, you sort of forgot where the cathedral was placed because you couldn't hear anything of the outside world once you were inside. I don't think I can describe it any other way then saying it was spiritually up lifting. Maybe I would say I felt closer to God as I walked around and saw the alters and candles, but I think maybe it was more of a case that I was so relexed.

Of couse the cemetery held more intersted to me and it didn't fail. The cemetery is sunk below the natural ground level of the city, so you get to walk in a small valley whilst the city carries on life above you. They have rearranged the gravestones so now they line the walls of the cemtery, but 99% are still readable and in good condition. Also there are some very interesting gravestones- due to famous Liverpool people being buried there, but what touched me most was the hopstial and ophan headstones, which listed lots of young people and childen, who must have been all buried in that plot on top of each other. I'd neverf really seen anything like that before, but I've learnt enough history of Liverpool to understand the harshness of life in the 1800s' so I moved on to another intersting feature in the cemtery.

There is Liverpool's first and suriving freash water spring, right in the heart of the cemtery and also family crypts placed into the oppsite wall and split into two different levels. It is hard to see who these belong too because most of the gravestones are missing or have faded with time. The cemetery is a relfective place and there lots of people just chilling on the grass and whilst I was buy taking photographs, I left my friend reading Shakespare on a large rock in front of some of the headstones that had not been removed.

I try to explain my interest in graveyards and cemteries everytime to people or whilst I write. It's differcult for me to explain, because I know peoples' feeling about suit places, but to me its a place to get closer to nature and think about the past. It's nice to remember people who are no longer with us and think about your own life.

A Flowery Suprise

This is Bob, the cactus. He use to have his own blog, but it became to difficult for me to write 4 different blogs, so I forced him to stop writing.....he spiraled into depression and I thought he'd never been happy again. But then during my last break from uni, I replanted him in a bigger pot and it seems that though he's not been writing his blog, he's happy enough.....I came back after my long weekend at home to find that he had flowered!

I know that he can flower, he has done so before, but this time he seems to have gone a little crazy and has had a lot more flower buds then I've known him to have before! Seems that my student house bedroom window sill gets a lot of sun and that's the only reason I can come up with. Unless because of the bigger plant pot he's become a more mature cactus.....

Still tho, its brightened up my room and my day! The weather is bad out there today and I most go for a walk and then up to uni. Its another guest lecture tonight. The uni is running this summer program all about the Romantics, but with a very different light to the normal. I went to the one last week about how the Romantic writers showed people with mental and physical disabilities in their works. It was pretty interesting and this one tonight looks even more interesting.

I've very little else to do right now. I've kept myself busy with a scrapbook about my first year at uni and in reading novels for 3rd year. I'm on my 4Th now - Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I watched the movie first and when I started reading the book, I got more interesting in how Woolf writes. Seems that its more good then I first thought. Also its so short that I'll soon have it finished!

Think its time to go for that walk now, getting cabin fever stuck in this room.

Formby Woods

Its been too long again, but I seem not to be able to find the time, of late anyway. Hopefully I'll have some time now because very little is currently happening. Everything seems to be winding down to summer and the holiday plans. I should be glad for the break, but I feel lazy not doing anything, so I've been reading the set novels for my 3rd year, I'm on my third one now- The Moonstone by Wikie Collins and unlike Oliver this one is more hard to read. I'm not getting into it and so far its taken me just over a week to read 166 pages....but there must be 200 words per page, as the writing is so small and a great many things are happening within them. I must push on though and it might get better later on.

Anyway, I've chosen to write about Formby woods today because I've photos for it and it was the highlight of last week. Its a national animal reserve in-between Liverpool and Southport and is a pine forest really. There are lots of trails through the trees and you sometimes can go off the path, but they are led to the sand dunes and to the beach.

Its less then an hour away from my student house by train and since the weather was okay and we were bored, it seemed a good place to go for lunch. We took sandwiches and ate them on the dunes whilst playing in the sand and joking about moving dunes. That's what most of them are-still growing dunes but it was funny to picture a dune getting up and moving around.

Pine trees

Then we walked back across the beach and drew somethings in the sand, as you do. We got back to the train station and decided to go for tea in Southport....how that place has gone down hill is shocking. I've been before, but this time we went to the pier and all the seaside places. It seems you can do very little there now and what's left is just an empty shell of by gone days. There are things where you can picture the place being once alive with people on holiday and having fun, but now and I guess like many places around Britain, it has fallen prey to the growth of aeroplanes, package holidays and the British peoples' urges to 'escape the country/weather'.

One of the walks at Formby

So many people are missing out and what England has to offer! So what if the weather isn't so good as Spain or the USA? Many places in England are soaked in history, most of it very exciting and you don't have to dig so deep-even in your pockets! to find it. That's why this year I'm grateful that once again I'll be holidaying in England, a place in Cornwall I've never been before and who knows what I might discover there?

Train map To Formby

21st birthdays, oh how they roll around.

Hey, been busy again, mostly with playing Sims 3 and reading Oliver Twist. You know that Charles Dickens guy so manged to capture a whole image of the time he lived in. Twist is packed with so much detail that you can picture yourself standing in London 1838, watching the Artful Dodger and his pals pick the pockets of the rich. Plus you also feel so sorry for poor Oliver and deep down you sort of realize that the life Oliver has wasn't fiction for some children.....

Moving on to my title then, I helped celebrate my close friend's 21st birthday on Tuesday. He turned 21 on Friday, but it was easier having the party on Tuesday. We went out had a few drinks and then headed back to the student house for pizza and cake. I made the cake myself, though it didn't turn out as I planned.....

Mostly that's been my week....

Bolton Abbey

Been busy again and also ill. I got a cold off my friend though I knew something had been hanging over me for a little while, but I was busy and didn't really have the time to give in. Now though I'm just getting over a mild cold, though I'm suffering from lack of sleep due to noisy housemates......Anyway, I had my exam on Monday, which was my last thing of the year really, but I'm not sure if I've passed or not. I ran out of time and messed up the ending. I'm not really sure why I didn't have enough time, I know what I was going on about, but I think I tried to pace myself too much so that I didn't miss something important out. Still though, its done now and I'll know on my birthday if I've past 2nd year or not. How rubbish is that? Then I go on Holiday - 2 weeks camping in Cornwall. That should be good!

Anyway, today my post is about an outing that I had with my family-minus 1-a few weekends back, on bank holiday Monday weekend. Just image for a few minutes that you've gone back way in time and your standing in almost untouched British countryside. Its a mild spring day, though the sky is cloudy, it still feels warm and some times there are a few drops of rain and a refreshing breezy which carries with it the scent of damp woodland, wild garlic and soil. You here the bells of a monastery and the chiming of a clock.

You are walking down a road, past fields and already old oak trees, when you come across a tall boundary wall. You see a little wood door, which is half open, further down and decided to investigate.....You step through the small door and your breath is taken away by a view of sheer beauty. You see before you wide open fields through which cuts a mighty river and hills towering above you and covered by so many different trees that you're not sure if you can name them all. The fields are home to some sheep and other farm animals, which you can hear adding their voices to that of the birds and a strange humming sound which seems to rise and fall in pitch......

You turn and a twisting path catches your eye, but it also spies something else, a building hidden by tall trees almost too perfectly. Its old and made from stone and wood. Suddenly you figure out that the humming is the sound of the monks singing and curiously, you let your feet take you through the fields and towards the Abbey. You keep the arch of a massive window in your sights at all times, but the path leads true and soon you are turning upwards towards the side of the Abbey.

You can see it clearly now and also some of the massive stones and columns that are part of the structure. The monks are still humming and there's a slight ringing in your ears and then.....things began to change around you and all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a ruined Abbey. You pause, looking down at the stumps of columns that line your way and wonder what happened here......

Moving through the archway, you find yourself in a room and looking up you can see the sky and the clouds sweeping across it. Your feet take you to stand in front of that massive window and you feel something.....worry? fear? guilty? you are not sure, but it seems that the window is staring down at you, judging you and yet all you can see is the sky and the hill covered with trees, wonderfully famed by the stone window.

Turning, you nearly bump your leg against something and staring down you see a row of stone coffins led against the wall and which, when the sun shines through the window can fall upon. You quickly hurry through, but the path leads straight out into the graveyard. As you cast you eyes around and take in the old moss covered gravestones, who's names have been erased from time, you feel a kind a of peace settle over you. You drift through the graveyard, taking in the names of those who wished to be buried in the grounds of such a holy place. Then your feet led you out and down towards the river.

Its a slow winding flow of water and there's a man fishing in the middle of it. There seems to be a pathway made out of stones that cuts across the natural flow of the river. You watch for a few minutes as a daring young man runs across the stones. You think he might be some warrior in training, showing off to his peers. Next to the stones is a bridge, you think its safer to cross there and so do so. Then you are climbing upwards, following a path that leads through the trees and climbing so high that soon you can stop and slightly turn back to view the Abbey.

Then you continue, moving swiftly and keeping an eye out for hobbits and such creatures which may be lurking under or in the trees. Along the way you discover some fallen down trees, which once most have been very mighty, but now lay in pieces across the floor. You see something sticking out of one of these trunks and as you get closer you see that someone has hammered 2p coins into the brittle wood. You ponder on this, but can come up with no reason to why someone would do this......Money Trees? Then you walk on, following the path higher and deeper into the woods......

A strange smell reaches your nose as you began to come down from the hill side. You believe you know it, but can't really put your finger on it. Then as you reach a small stream, you realize its garlic and looking around you, you see wild garlic growing on the woodland floor. The stench is very over powering, even for garlic lovers and you quickly move on, but at least you feel a little safer walking through the woods...vampires won't harm you here!

Stepping out of the woods, you follow the great river and soon reach a bridge which you cross over and then you began to walk back, but this time on the other side. There's more wonderful woodland and twice you think you can hear children laughing above your head, but you know you are alone......Then as you look below you and see the river, you also see a strange sight....weird rock formations on that side of the river. You go down for a closer look.....

Then you continue your walk and climb back into the woodlands, suddenly you find yourself at a clearing a large cafe and shop. You take a break, drinking warm/cold drinks and eating sandwiches/ice cream. Then you pause at a sign post to figure out which way to go now....

You decided against going to there and decided to head back to the Abbey, taking a path which leads back to the main road and all to a memorial fountain. There you study the gargoyles that decorate the top of the fountain, before winding your way back to the Abbey......

The end

The Thin Executioner comes to town.

I've been mega busy since posting my field trip post and that's mostly to do with my uni work. Last week was so crazy, I had work in and work to finish off and on Tuesday I handed in two essays and tomorrow I've another one due in! I need to finish that other one tho, because it's a short story I re-wrote, so it just needs a little bit more.....

Anyway, today Darran Shan was in Liverpool 1 Waterstones signing his new novel - The Thin Executioner and I being a fan, decided to drag some friends along to the book signing. I was looking forward to a nice afternoon in Liverpool doing a bit of shopping before popping into waterstones, but so typical of the British weather it was raining! And it was the second worse kind of rain-that fine stuff that soaks you even before you've had a chance to notice it's really raining! (the first is that large, sudden down pour stuff, that makes you look like a drowned rat.) So we cut the shopping trip short and headed for Waterstones.

Where we met Darren Shan! It worked out okay, because we had time for hot chocolates and cake, before we brought the book and hurried into the already growing queue. We stood for 4o minutes there, chatting and poking the books that were on display around us and then talking to random people in front and behind us. Then at 5pm, he started sighing books and the queue moved up. It took us 20 minutes to get there and then he was mega happy to sign books and meet his fans.

Also it seems he has a weird thing about strangling people and writing strange notes in the books.....but still I guess every message is different and he seemed to be enjoying himself!

I got him to sign a book for my brother too, because it was only fair....

We ended up coming back home after that, the rain was getting heavier and though we got vouchers for Burger King, we had food at home. Now though, I need to go off and do some more work and then I'll finish Pieaces of Eight, which has taken me awhile to get through because I've been busy reading other stuff and writing about it! But I have like 2 chapters left and then tomorrrow, I can start my new book!