America part 3

Recently I've been listening to the news about plans to build a mosque near to the site of ground zero in New York with interest. I'm not going to go in to details of right or wrong now but it seems that so many in America have forgotten that the people who flew the planes in to the World Trade Centre were a minority who have been condemned for what they did by the vast majority of people who are Muslims.





Nearly 10 years ago this photo would have featured the Twin Towers, I walked past the site where they are rebuilding, it's a busy bustling area now, I did find this fence though decorated with tiles commemorating the people who died when I was wandering through another area of the city. The tiles themselves are beautiful, though are starting to fall off the fence as the wire rusts, maybe it's a sign that it's time to move on?

Mans best friend

To complete the transition to country recluses my parents have just acquired some dogs.



Meet Meg and Gwen, Gwen is the bigger darker dog on the right, we think at some point she has some German Shepherd in her as she doesn't quite fit the usual border collie size and shape. Meg on the left is her daughter, and looks and acts like a collie, though obviously can't be a pure bred. They came from a home in Wakefield and have been with Mum and Dad for 2 weeks. They're slowly getting used to long walks every day, having three quarters of an acre to roam in, and most of all sheep!

America Part 2

Just a quick post today. I'm at my parents house and Mum is champing at the bit to go shopping.

One of my favourite things to do in strange cities is to just wander about, you find all sorts of thing by just taking a walk than charging from one sight to another. I have a bit of a "thing" about grave yards, they're a real connection to the real history of a place so I was delighted to stumble upon this one in downtown Manhattan.





In the same graveyard was also a monument to the people who died while being held captive by the dastardly British during the war of Independence, however no photos of that as the only way you could fit all of it in was to stand in the middle of a New York street which seemed like a bad idea!

America

I've just got back from 2 weeks in the US. Well, I actually got back on Tuesday, but since then have been busy doing some climbing instruction to pay for all the nice things I bought while I was over there... now my feet have actually touched the ground my camera has finally made contact with my computer!
I visited New York, New Hampshire and Vermont, visited and saw lots of people. When people talk about the states they often comment on how big and over whelming it is, and while I never had that feeling of having no idea what is going on, I certainly was starting to get a bit burnt out by the end of my trip.
I started off in New York and one of my favourite places that I visited was in uptown Manhattan called The Cloisters. In my oh so diplomatic way I described it to some friend as "a load of bits stolen from European Monasteries, all put together in one hodge-podge building where the MET stores all their Medieval art work". However as the US doesn't technically have any history that old I suppose they can be forgiven, it certainly is an oasis of calm in one of the busiest cities in the world.