365 Project - week 18

[curiouswombat]

Not all the pics are from the small island this week - I've been off-island to bring D-d home from York for the summer.

So - under the cut are a couple of pics of the realities of living on an island, York Minster, and the girl herself -



Monday - after a discussion about fuchsias last weekend I took this picture from the car whilst in a queue of traffic along Governor's Road on Monday - the red is a fuchsia - and yes, it is about 12 - 15' high!



Tuesday - another road with plants - this time of year there is a lot of valerian growing wild in the hedgrows - as you can see not only on the nearside of the road, but on the otherside as well, there is deep pink as far as you can see -



Actually, up near my mother's house, there is a darker version as well.

Wednesday - this is the reality of living on an island - sitting on the car loading area waiting to get on the boat at 7.45am. The big black hole at the back of the Ben my Chree is where we drive in - as you can see the upper deck has containers and trailers on.



I got off the boat in England at 12.30pm - and that is how we start most of our journeys.

Thursday - well, D-d got her results and we went out to celebrate at This Thai Restaurant - what else could the picture of the day be than the girl herself?



Probably not the best picture - I think she may have had her mouth full of starter!

Friday - a picture of York. I am really proud of this one - it is a 'postcard' view - which I took from the men's department of M&S!



Saturday - back to the realities of life on an island - the car deck of the Ben, as we wait to get off.



And for today - it is the island-wide churches flower festival. I have taken a lot of pictures of our church, which is participating this year - this is probably my favourite as a representative of the whole -



As you can see, we don't have traditional church windows - so we have to do it another way!

The theme is the hymn 'All things bright and beautiful,' and this represents 'Sunset'. All over there are also 'all creatures great and small' dotted around - the birds in this picture were my contribution...

I also did the leaflets, and the signs to explain what each area represents - as actually arranging flowers is not one of my skills at all!



Tomorrow is Tynwald Day - I think I will mainly have it as a day of rest, but I will probably upload some more of the flower festival pictures.

Comments

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

Lookit Herman, Flarze! (I love Thurber) but seriously handsome flowers. I do not have the flower arrangement gene. It is lucky for me I am born when and I where I am as I am sadly ill equipped to a lady's or wife's life at any time that requires sewing, knitting, flower arranging, or smiling sweetly when the menfolk say something bloody stupid.

congrats again to DD!!!! Is that shorter haircut relatively recent?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I'm not cut out for life as a lady, either!

The new, shorter, haircut dates from the day before the photo...

It is simply left to follow its natural waves - and looks very nice.

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

Oooh, valerian! One of my favorite memories of our visit to Ireland was seeing so many colors of valerian - pink, rose-pink, red - growing wild from housegutter or in hedgerows or along traintracks. It's one of my very favorite flowers.

Congratulation to D-d, and to you and dad as well!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The Valerian is like that here, too.

We are very proud parents - it is difficult to quite put her results into terms that are relevant to the US system - but York is one of the top 10 universities, and a First is awarded to only about 10% of their students - so an amazingly good degree...!

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

That's a mighty big ferry boat, I haven't seen one that big since Vancouver.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The Ben is about 260ft long, 45 ft wide, has a capacity of 275 cars, I don't know how many containers, and about 600 passengers.

She needs to be big, not only because she is our main life-line, but because the Irish Sea can be very, very rough. I think going, there were only about 200 of us on board, and coming home about 300 - we had plenty of room to spread out. But sometimes she can be absolutely full.

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I loved your post - and am dying of envy. I'd love to see York someday!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you. York is a beautiful city, I was so happy when D-d decided to apply there, and even happier when she was accepted, as it was a lovely place for her to live, and a lovely place to visit her.

I am exceedingly pleased that she is staying there for her two years post-grad law, too!

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

You absolutely live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - it is actually good for me to look at it through other people's eyes!

But then, you see, I quite envy you your snow in winter, and that you can go places just by driving there...

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

My snow??? You can have it ALL!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Your roadsides must be glorious at this time of year with all that colour, and your 'stained-glass windows' quite a sight to see as well!
That's a great shot of York Minster. Hope you had a joyful time celebrating your daughter's success.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I have looked at the roadsides more this year, as I think 'What can I take a picture of today?' They really are a riot of colour.

I was really chuffed with that picture of the Minster - now I know where the people who make the postcards go to get the best picture!

[debris4spike]

That window is lovley - a real picture of the scene.

Loved the flowers from Tuesday.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I will post some more of the pictures of inside the church later - either today or tomorrow.

But the pink verges are just as beautiful, in their own way.

[ningloreth.livejournal.com]

waiting to get on the boat at 7.45am ... I got off the boat in England at 12.30pm

Why does it take so long?

Your daughter was very good to sit still -- I used to duck under the table (or, at least, look away)!

And the flowers are beautiful.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The actual sailing time, port to port, is about 3.5 hours - but we have to check in well before. Actually last check in is 8.00am - so I was a bit early. They need to know exactly what vehicles they have before they load so that we are all on evenly.

Then it is 65 miles or so to Heysham - with an average speed of about 17 or 18 knots. You can see why this is my 'trave' icon...

The fast-craft go to Liverpool, in about 2.45 hours, but the .75 hours saved at sea is not worth it, from my point of view, as you then have to get out of Liverpool, and drive there on rather ugly, harassed, motorways, whereas from Hheysham it is a nice drive over to York.

D-d was OK about the pic - not exactly ecstatic...

As for the flowers - i have a lot of lovely pics, and then I always do a garden post this week each year - so I might be providing you with more icon stuff over this week!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos, all, and yes, you must be so proud of your daughter!

On the ferry trip, do you stay in your car or do they have places to stroll around?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And as for the boat - no, 'passengers are not permitted on the vehicle deck whilst the vessel is at sea'.

The idea of four hours or more in my car in the bowels of the ship on a rough sea doesn't really appeal anyway!

No - we have a choice of four lounge areas, a bar and a cafeteria - I actually took this picture of the cafeteria on Wednesday - but decided that the waiting area was a better example of the on/off island travel.

So - inside the cafeteria on the Ben -

(http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y109/curiouswombat/?action=view&current=CafeontheBen.jpg)

They do very good food - and a nice line in muffins and Danish pastries!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Wow... that looks quite posh! And yes, that was what I was wondering, if they expected you to sit in your car the entire time during a gale. Ugh. That would be miserable! I'm glad they provide a nice area for the passengers.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is nice inside - although you can just see, under one of the red chairs in the centre, that every chair and table is fastened down...

[ellaygee-09.livejournal.com]

I really enjoy looking at your pictures. Thanks for posting!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, it is my pleasure - and actually interesting for me as it makes me look at the world around me more.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

You daughter looks so different with shorter hair. Nice pictures. As others have said the ferry is quite large.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

She does, doesn't she? It is lower maintenance than her usual regime of straightening, too.

I put the pictures of the ferry because it occured to me that the mental picture people may well have is of a cute little ferry that crosses a small stretch of water, rather than a proper sea-going vessel full of all the every day stuff like trailers full of food going to Tescos - or the empties going back to the mainland.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

Actually my mental image of a ferry is the Staten Island Ferry, which provides transportation across the Hudson River between Manhattan and Staten Islands. It is the major way to get from lower Manhattan to Staten Island and transports cars as well as passengers. I doubt that any large trucks use it. There are major bridges connecting Staten Island with New Jersey and with Brooklyn.

http://www.siferry.com/Wall_paper/wp4.aspx

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Ah - it looks, having a quick look at Wiki, as if your ferries are a bit smaller and a very different configuration -

So - the MV Andrew J. Barberi and the MV Samuel I. Newhouse, known as the “Barberi class”, built 1981 and 1982 respectively. Each boat carries 6,000 passengers and no cars. The boats are 310 feet (94 m) long, 69 feet, 10 inches (21.3 m) wide, with a draft of 13 feet, 6 inches (4.1 m), weight of 3,335 gross tons, service speed of 16 knots (30 km/h), and engines of 7,000 horsepower (5.2 MW).

And for the Ben -
Tonnage: 12,747 GT
Length: 125.2 metres
Beam: 23.4 metres
Draught: 5.8 metres
Propulsion: Two x MAK 9L32
Speed: 19.5 knots
Capacity: Passenger and crew: 636
Cars: 275

Both are important life-lines I would reckon - even if you can now use a bridge - I'd guess things would snarl up without the ferries.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

To my surprise, the Staten Island ferries no longer take cars, motorcycles or trucks. When I was a kid, even a young adult they still did. I guess you now have to go to Brooklyn from Manhattan and take the Verrazano Bridge, which was opened in 1964.

[gillo]

OMG, D-d looks so grown-up in that picture! Love the flowers and the Minster too.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Grown up - but, oddly, somehow more like Quinara than previously!

I have a lot of flower pics - I'll post some later.

The mens' dept of M&S is certainly the best place to get a good shot of the Minster, I've decided!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The Minster probably hasn't changed much. In fact, in some ways York itself won't have - all the old buildings are still there, but with some slightly more modern modern ones, if you see what I mean.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Your postcard photo is excellent!

When you drive your car onto the ship, do you drive out the other side or do you have to back out? I'm terrible at backing out--I'm sure I'd put a hole into the ship or sideswipe other cars!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

That view of the Minster just leapt at me as I wandered through the shop.

The ferry - yes, we drive in one side, and out the other - where you see the car deck we drove down the left side of the boat, around the central bulkhead and are now pointing towards the back again, on the opposite side. What you see in the interior shot is just one side of the car deck, the left of the picture is the actual side of the ship - on the right is the central bulkhead with the stair cases up to the passenger deck etc. Those who drove on after us are on the other side of the bulkhead, still pointing into the ship, and then they will drive out round that central bulkhead after we have driven off. There are three lanes of traffic on either side. All quite simple, really!