Hello from Gleno!
Last week, I promised you greenery galore, in celebration of the lush, verdant delights of the Irish summer!
Our summer here is, well, a little temperamental. On any given day, you could head out with an umbrella, a woolly jumper and sunglasses, and odds are you’ll have the chance to use all of them before you get back home. The upside of this is that, unless something really weird (like a fortnight of hot, dry weather) happens, the countryside is awash with greens all summer long. But don’t take my word for it! Paddy and Plunkett – who themselves sport rather fetching moss-coloured complexions – have gone to the ends of the earth the island to bring you some quality leafy goodness today!
They’re starting out in the pretty little village of Gleno (sometimes written as Glenoe) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Although the glen and waterfall at Gleno lie a little south of the bigger, more famous Glens of Antrim, they’re really beautiful, especially at this time of year – plus they’re a bit removed from the crowds of visitors who head to the Causeway Coast during tourist season! But before we head off for a look, let’s check out those houses, which are also pleasantly in keeping with our chosen colour palette!
The street here is pretty steep, but the houses work with it…
…And the boys even got to meet this very chilled-out local resident as they puffed their way up the hill!
Oh, and just in case you thought this place was a folk park or film set…
Nope! Just a regular street full of regular cars!
But let’s press on to the Glen, shall we? The boys were pretty excited to visit the waterfall… Especially Paddy, who had seen this sign on the way up!
For those of you reading this on a teeny phone screen, he’s spotted an ad for a canyoning tour of the glen with Climb NI. Paddy is, of course, sold.
“Plunkett! PLUUUUUUNKEEEEEETT! We can climb on the waterfall!”
Unfortunately, I’d need to kit the lads out with the proper gear before they’ll be allowed to dive into this particular adventure. So paws stayed dry this time around – did anyone else just hear Plunkett heave an audible sigh of relief? And although he really would rather have been scrabbling over mossy rocks to reach the top (or imitating his favourite shampoo commercials in the plunge pool at the bottom), Paddy was still pretty happy with a view of the waterfall from further back.
It’s also worth taking a closer look at the water in this river…
Yes, it’s brown! This is a common enough sight in Co. Antrim, thanks to runoff from peat bogs in the mountains upstream. But the colour had Plunkett thinking about stopping for a nice cup of tea. Quick, distract him with…
… A tree growing sideways!
This beech tree took a tumble many years ago, but it’s still alive and thriving… Albeit from a horizontal position. And then Paddy made a discovery…
“You’ll want to see what’s on the other side of this hill, Plunkett!”
He was right… Finding a quaint little church tucked away in the trees a little further along absolutely made Plunkett’s day!
Then, on the walk back through the glen, it seemed like even the sunlight was coming through green…
See you again soon, lads!
We’ll be back next week with more monster fun! In the meantime, did you see the new-look BeastieBlog yet? If you came here from an email or through the Reader, you can still take a sneaky peek from here! I’d love to know what you think, so don’t be shy – have your say in the comments below!
Delicious! Burger Beastie seems to be especially enjoying the whole picnicking experience.
Well, not exactly. A fen is an area of marshy ground, and they’re pretty prone to flooding. While many of the fens in this super-flat part of eastern England were drained to create extra farmland in the 17th century, in the Bronze Age these places would have been tricky enough to navigate. Too wet to walk, too shallow for a boat… GAAAAAAAH! What to do?
… And what Plunkett is looking at in the first photo is only a fraction of what is actually there. The whole causeway is more than a kilometre long, and the platform is the size of Wembley Stadium!
These bronze finds – mostly weapons – intriguingly show signs of having been deliberately damaged, and their positioning in the silty ground suggests that they were intentionally dropped there, rather than carelessly chucked away because they were broken. This implies that the causeway was a place of ritual significance, as well as (possibly) being a handy way of getting across Flag Fen!
Meanwhile, Paddy was trying on some wooden beakers for size… Because, well, that’s what Paddy does.
The lads also rested their weary paws on this rather spectacular chair – we think it might be made of bog oak, preserved timber that has been coloured and hardened by years of sitting in the acidic water of the marshes!
Unfortunately, Paddy had less success with this replica dugout canoe…
“Row faster, Plunkett! It feels like we’re not moving at all!
It’s really been quite a trip!
According to Plunkett’s research, this cathedral is more than 900 years old (construction started in 1096) and boasts the second tallest spire in England – a fitting landmark for a city that, in the 11th century, was second only to London in size and importance. Shall we wander over for a closer look?
Talk about making an entrance! This is one of two gates into the cathedral grounds. It’s called St Ethelbert’s Gate, and it actually used to contain a chapel to its namesake in its second storey. And although it looks like the real deal, this isn’t the original gate! It’s a 14th century rebuild, after the first one was destroyed in the riot of 1272.
However, like many visitors, they weren’t able to agree on the new stained glass windows. They were designed by English abstract artist John McLean, and were installed on the north aisle in 2014. Apparently they’ve been causing controversy ever since!
Paddy loves the rich colours, and the way the bright light bounces around this corridor, which he thought would be pretty dark and boring otherwise. On the other hand, Plunkett really would have preferred to see something more traditional, and in keeping with the rest of the building. Whose side are you on?
Although there’s little concrete information about her life, Julian of Norwich is still considered an important mystic and theologian. Her account of her religious visions, “Revelations of Divine Love” is thought to be the first book written in English by a female author! She lived out her days in a small cell in a church on this site, and her only contact with the outside world was through two small windows – one into the church, and the other looking onto St Julian’s Alley outside. Members of the public could pass by and ask Mother Julian for advice, and I think it’s fair to presume that she was called upon to settle a few disagreements in her time!
Fortunately, this beautiful Art Nouveau arcade has enough architectural interest to keep Plunkett entertained too!
“Not just any old stone wall, my friends! A stone wall made with the hard-wearing local flint! Beautiful! Incredible!”
I reckon there’s room in all that fancy stonework for a Beastie-shaped addition – what do you think?
Wow, haven’t they changed? Unsurprisingly, this first post of mine got no likes… at least not until Noémie from 
Urrrgh, again with the terrible photography! Isn’t it lucky that I was trying to rehome Beasties that weekend, rather than photographs? That said, I was pretty surprised that I had to put up this sign on my table halfway through Sunday afternoon…
And thus, a Maker of Monsters was born! From there, it was a short leap to taking on my first commission…
… And by now, I’d picked up two of my longest-standing followers, who I still try to keep up with. Knitters will find lots to love on 
Look at him there, hanging out with Ampelmann in Berlin! And by the time he’d taken the first of many trips to Co. Roscommon, in the western midlands of Ireland…
… We’d picked up another BeastieBlog lifer,
Barróg Beasties (the name is the Irish word for “hug”) have gone on to become some of the most popular Beasties out there… Especially the ones with pints of Guinness or little Aran sweaters! Oh, and it’s around this time that
By now, we’d been joined by 
That year, I also found some great new blogs through WordPress’s Blogging 101 course – including one of my favourite travel blogs, 
It’s also been fun to see more people getting in touch with pictures of their own Beasties’ adventures – like 
Aaaand that’s probably enough gushing from me for one day! I hope you enjoyed this whistle-stop tour of Beastie history – it’s actually been fun for me to look back through the archives as well. It’s also made me realise that, although there are a good few people who have been with me since the early days, I’ve encountered a whole LOAD of interesting and inspiring bloggers in the last few months. So I’m saving my “who I’m reading now” list for a future post, coming up in a couple of weeks!
I called this little woolly dude “Lucky Guy Beastie”, because he was made for the winner of the prize draw I ran on my 
The jacket is also removable, of course!
Next, he needed a backpack… and I snuck a tasty cheese sandwich in here, in case this little monster gets hungry on his travels!
Finally, I completed his kit with a Beastie-sized watch…
… And he was ready to go!
That said, Ismail thought that his Beastie might get lonely all by himself… So he asked if I could make him a companion. Done and done!
While Ismail is here in Dublin studying, his girlfriend is still at home in Indonesia. Fortunately, her Beastie counterpart was ready just in time to be shared via videochat on her birthday!
You might also have noticed her nice little knitted cardigan, which can be taken off on hot days…
… And which is my second top-down knitted garment! (My first was the “first draft” of this, which turned out a little too big after blocking and was subsequently pinched by Explorer Beastie. I’m starting to wonder if he maybe had a 
Incidentally, I owe a big thank you to Shirley at 
Congratulations again to Ismail, and I hope you like your new monster friends!
Well, mostly… The Norman-era central tower actually collapsed in 1322. However, Ely Cathedral wasn’t going to let that cramp its style – the tower was rebuilt and then some! What stands there now is the famous Octagon, which you can see in the centre background of this photo.
As I’m sure you can imagine, Plunkett couldn’t wait to get inside this place for a closer look! Unfortunately, he really should have checked his diary first…
… Because it turns out that the lads had rocked up on Palm Sunday! They decided to let the annual procession (complete with full choir and real live donkey!) pass them by, and headed off in search of morning coffee on the banks of the River Ouse instead.
Paddy certainly wasn’t going to say no to another hour of lounging around in the sunshine!
…While Paddy enjoyed the colourful stained glass and mosaic floors!
And then, there were the beautiful high arches of the Octagon!
“Paddy, did you know that the roof and lantern in the centre of this tower are held up by timber structures that couldn’t be built now, because there aren’t big enough trees any more?”
But the view from the top of the West Tower was totally worth the dizzying heights and sore paws!
… Just in time to take the stepping stone path across the bog garden’s lake!
