The first thing that strikes you about Northumberland is the wind, which never stops. Image being a Roman auxiliary pacing back and forth in the cold, your eyes narrowed on the bleak terrain before you. Good for sheep and cattle grazing, and not much else. Hadrian's Wall marked the end of Roman civilization. Beyond it lived the Picts, those fearsome warriors who fought naked with skin dyed blue. Stretching from New Castle in the east to Wall's End in the west, this feat of engineering is a designated World Heritage Site. Though it is now possible to hike the entire length, we were content to climb along that section known as Peel Crags to the Sycamore Gap (right) made famous in a scene from Kevin Costner's movie "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves."

    Above: Windblown Wall Walkers.

    Left: Excavated ruins at the
    Vindolanda Roman fort (top) and
    the Houseteads Fort (bottom)
    built alongside Hadrian's Wall reveal
    the extent of Roman occupation.
    Amazingly, its importance to the
    local economy continues to this day.

  Moelwyn Mawr, the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, and Swallow Falls.

 Time slips by quickly these days. We have started (yet again!) the cumbersome process of moving from the small island that we made home to our homeland on another continent. Memories hang about us like creepers here and we must push them aside in order to finish this task. We are acclimated to anxiety mingled with a twinge of sadness.

 Knowing our tour ends soon, we Hoopers plus Aunts Patti and Barbara packed into a van and took a five day, 1000 mile jaunt through Yorkshire, Northumberland, and North Wales. Our first stop was York, followed by a sunny morning at Castle Howard. It was too early in the year to enjoy its gardens, but a tour of that magnificent residence was opulence enough. That afternoon we pounded north, swung through gritty New Castle, and headed west to Hexham for a windy two day look at Hadrian's Wall. We then drove south past the Lake District and arrived for an afternoon in Liverpool. Barbara took in the Beatles Story exhibit after which we dashed through the Mersey Tunnel to the north coast of Wales. By day's end we reached Blaenau Ffestinoig for a cozy evening with the Welsh. In the morning we explored the Llechwedd Slate Caverns (the original mines of Moria!), skipped over to Swallow Falls near Betws-y-Coed, then dashed to Telford and across the Cotswolds for a rainy evening in Oxford. Then, Heathrow Airport in the morning and back home by 1 p.m.

 Whew --- I got tired just writing about it! Enjoy the photos while I rest up, and I'll see you after our trip to Ireland. Cheers!

 Of all the places we've been, our hearts still wander to back to Wales. Last summer's excursions took us south to Gower and Carmarthen, so this trip was our first chance to explore the north of the Principality. Like Scotland's Highlands, it is a rugged land of craggy hillsides dotted with sheep and pasture.

 Following a torturous road winding through Gwydyr Forest we arrived in Blaenau Ffestinoig. Pitched seemingly in the middle of no where, the little town in fact stands in the heart of Welsh slate mining country. The mines are mostly for tourist now, but once entire families - fathers, sons, and grandsons - worked in some of the most dismal and dangerous conditions imaginable. Heaps of gray slate scrap still cover the hills ... reminders of an earlier time. The Welsh are immensely proud of this heritage, and many families carried the tradition to the Pennsylvania coal fields.

 If anything can be found wanting in our all travels, it is that we didn't stay long enough in the places we truly loved. Our trip to Scotland gave us only a taste of the Highlands and the same can be said of Wales. Judy and I find solace in these rough and lonely places. Perhaps in their simple solitude is found the ingredient needed to savor comfort and companionship. This suits us both just fine.

 Completed in 1779, the Iron Bridge spanning the Severn Gorge in Telford is an icon of the great Industrial Revolution. It was intended to be an advertisement for the Coalbrookdale ironmasters, but its design was so revolutionary that critics believed its construction was impossible. Iron had never before been used on such a large scale, and its designer Thomas Pitchard was relying on simple joinery to hold the massive structure together.

Two hundred years later, Iron Bridge still stands as a World Heritage Site. Pitchard died before its completion, but some say he had the last laugh. If a visitor stands beneath the span and looks up to where the outside arches meet, they may glimpse the silhouette of this pioneering designer.

On May 1, nations cheered as the European Union added ten new member countries, but here in the UK the silence was deafening. Britain entered the EU in 1975 with the promise of helping create an economic powerhouse to rival the US. Prime Minister Tony Blair favors adoption of the Euro and the EU constitution, but he also defends Britain's long standing ties to the US. In light of recent events, this has indeed become delicate politics.  Earlier this month the former French President Giscard d'Estaing observed that if England failed to adopt the EU constitution, it would become a marginal player in European politics. The war in Iraq has made clear that faltering US foreign policy can prove a huge liability. Should England stick by its powerful but deeply disliked ally, or acquiesce to France and Germany's agenda for a new European Super State? Such is the dilemma brought upon by a war waged for peace.  At the thin edge of this debate stands a young man carrying a rifle. Before him lies a child killed by a mortar round that was intended to kill him. It was fired by another young man fighting for his country's freedom --- something the first young man was sent to protect. May God take pity on these three, and upon us all.