My England Adventure 2008 – “The Flight There” 9-5-08

Well, I’m finally home from my big adventure in England and Ireland! I have so much to share about my hikes, the people I met and of course my sketches and photos. It’s taken me awhile to get back on track with the time changes and catching up on things around the house, paying bills etc. That’ll never change!

This is a sketch done while waiting at Gate 6, Buffalo Airport, it’s watersoluble color pencil. Oh it was so cold, the air conditioning was on too high. I wrote a note on my sketch, “I’m glad for my wool hoodie I made”. For my trip I designed a nice pull over wool hoodie, lined with cotton, it came in handy on the flight. I could pull the hood up to help block out the noise, light and keep warm. My flight leaves at 5:40pm.Backing away from the gate at Philadelphia airport, on the way to Gatwick airport in London. It should take 6 hours or so. I sleep a little, it was nice and dark. At 1:33 am (my time) I woke and saw the sun coming up. It was almost surreal because we floated above the clouds and the sun colors were below…while the stars were still up in the dark sky. I could see the Big Dipper, it was odd because we were above it more than I’m used to. (I learned in England they call it the Great Plow, I would point to it and say…”oh, look at the big dipper!…I’d be corrected and told that it’s the Great Plow.) I pulled out my sketchkit, my pad, watersoluble colorpencils, waterbrush and my little reading light. I hung the reading light on the collar of my hoodie and did my sketch by it’s light only. The whole plane was very dark and quiet, everyone was sleeping. I felt like a kid awake in bed at night with the little light on, trying not to wake anyone else!Oh what a trip it turned into, I had to wait so long in line at Gatwick that my plane for Newcastle upon Tyne left without me! After waiting a few hours while they looked for my misplaced luggage, I had to catch a train, then a subway, then another train all the way up to Newcastle. Needless to say I was exhausted when I hit the other end. There was extensive flooding in Morpeth nearby and the trains weren’t running, lucky I made it! Below is a picture from the plane, as we come over England…Oh gosh I was excited!Well, I’ll try to get more about my trip up soon. I’ll start with my adventure at Muncaster Castle in Ravenglass. Keep checking back to read about it all…better yet, leave your name in the box at the right and you’ll get an automatic email when I do.