Stones

As it was such a lovely day, we meandered our way to Newcastle via the Roman Wall. Everything was looking great in the sunshine and there were quite few walkers following the Hadrian's Wall Path. 

We made a stop at Birdoswald Roman Fort, a place we had not been to for a long time and which has had a complete makeover. Very impressive it is too. Nicely laid out and lots of information. It was good to see an emphasis on what happened to the Fort after the Romans left - the reuse and rebuilding that went on over the following centuries. The layers of history that have been unearthed is quite amazing. 

It was lovely to wander around the site, the views were wonderful. The main picture shows the South Gateway looking through to another outer wall, it was quite a size. The first extra is the view over the meander of the River Irthing, showing just why the Romans chose to build the fort where they did. And the second extra is a bit of Roman graffiti - a horse carved at the foot of the wall of what was the drill hall. 

Then I went to an excellent class where we are reading/re-reading D.H. Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' and during which my 1948 edition (probably bought in 1966 at a cost of 5 shillings and declared the oldest in the group, although there was some stiff competition as copies had been taken from bookshelves and dusted off ) actually fell apart. I later went to Waterstones and bought a new copy. Gordon went to see the Kittiwakes by the Tyne.