Tag: Exploring

Postcard from Liverpool

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie at Ashford

Hello there, Beastiebuddies! My Beastiesitter Helen is very busy at the minute, so I thought I’d share my latest adventures with you myself. As you know, I have spent the last week or so visiting the great human city of Liverpool, and I thought it would be interesting to travel out into the surrounding countryside too. Here I am looking at the river in a village called Ashford – I wish I’d brought my curragh with me for this!

Further down the road, I found this place!
Chatsworth House
A palace fit for a Beastie king! They had even set the table for my arrival!
Dinner Table at Chatsworth HouseOf course, I was very flattered… but I politely explained that I had brought my own sandwiches, and then made my way out into the gardens to find somewhere to eat them.
Willow Sculpture

Success! I found this brilliant willow sculpture in the grounds of the house… perfect for a Beastie to hide in!

 

Suitably refreshed, I journeyed onwards to the Heights of Abraham. I couldn’t resist sneaking aboard the cable car… Look how high up I am!

Heights of Abraham Cable Car

 

Quite a novelty for a Beastie – normally we see everything from much closer to the ground!

 

Teatime at the Heights of Abraham

 

 

Once I reached the top, I reckoned it was time for a cup of tea and a spot of birdwatching… perhaps I might be able to convince one of the birds to give me a lift back down the hill!

Well, that’s all my news for now. I’m off to do some more exploring! I’ll be back with more tales of adventure soon!

Monster hugs,

Explorer Beastie x

Explorer Beastie Heads to the ‘Pool

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie in a Crystal Cave

So, the Pop Up Shop has popped back down again, and as I was unpacking the Beasties who didn’t find their new homes this time around, I was hit by a disturbing thought.

Um, where is Explorer Beastie?

OH HOLY MOLY! Did he sneak into someone’s shopping bag and venture off to parts unknown?

Fortunately, a timely delivery of some holiday photos stopped my rising panic in its tracks. He DID stow away in someone’s luggage, and I will be having words with him about that, but luckily for both of us, said luggage belonged to my parents. So I can rest assured that he will be coming home at some point, and he got to enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to Liverpool. And he really got to see all the sights – here he is looking out over the city, with the Liver Building in the background…
Explorer Beastie in Liverpool

…And he followed this up with a trip to see some of Liverpool’s most famous residents!
Explorer Beastie Meets The Beatles

The Beatles theme continued, with a visit to Penny Lane…
Explorer Beastie at Penny Lane

…And then he headed off to the Japanese Garden at the Festival Gardens.
Beastie in the Japanese Garden

It’s lucky he didn’t send me this picture first, or I wouldn’t have known where to find him!

Last I heard, he was planning to see what the surrounding countryside had to offer… so I suppose I’ll be sharing those photos next time around! Stay tuned…

A Grand Day Out… With Victorian Explorer Beastie

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Knitted Beasties

Victorian Explorer Beastie With Hippo

I had to go out and pick up a few last-minute display bits for the Pop Up Shop over the weekend, and I thought I would treat myself to a quick wander around one of my favourite places in Dublin – the Natural History Museum!Natural History Museum

I love this place. It’s like a museum of a museum – a real old-fashioned collection of interesting things in hardwood and glass cases, uncluttered by the beeping interactive displays and looping videos that infest most modern museums. Most of the animals are labelled with only their name (in English and Latin), where they came from and when they were added to the collection. If you want to know more about them, you have everything you need to do the rest of the legwork yourself at home. This frees you up to actually look at the animals while you’re in the museum, and appreciate their size, their colouring, the crazier features of their bodies that help them to survive… it’s also a great place to do some people-watching!

I figured Victorian Explorer Beastie would feel right at home here, so I brought him along for the ride.
Outside the Natural History Museum
The ground floor of the building houses Irish fauna. These giant Irish elk skeletons greet you as you walk in!

Irish Elk Skeleton

Even the smallest animals get a look-in – there are cases at the back containing all kinds of minibeasts, from beetles to slugs. Understandably, perhaps, the butterflies and moths are the most popular!
Butterfly Case

Upstairs is the “Animals of the World” exhibition, where Victorian Explorer Beastie came face-to-face with a monkey…
Explorer Beastie with Capuchin Monkey
… Met a record-breaking Irish wolfhound…
Explorer Beastie with Irish Wolfhound

…And realised he is much, much smaller than an elephant.
Victorian Explorer Beastie with Elephant
He also nearly got into a spot of bother – LOOK BEHIND YOU!
He's behind you...

Turned out the hippo was only having a bit of a yawn, so we left unscathed. But we’ll be back! Hope you enjoyed visiting with us!

Victorian Explorer Beastie

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Info, Knitted Beasties, Uncategorized

Victorian Explorer Beastie Close-Up

Regular visitors to the BeastieBlog will remember this dashing chap from our visit to Bray in Co. Wicklow a couple of months ago.
Bray Head

However, he was so busy strolling along the promenade, climbing the hill and picking up interesting pebbles on the beach that he didn’t get a chance to show off all his tip-top explorer kit. So I’ve invited him back!Victorian Explorer Beastie

No gentleman explorer should leave home without his pith helmet, belt pouch for assorted sundries, and knapsack. I wonder what he’s taking with him?
Map and Hipflask

Oh, of course! A map of a distant land and a hipflask of finest gin. Nice!

Victorian Explorer Beastie’s next port of call will be Dun Laoghaire in South Dublin, for Creative Collective Ireland’s annual Pop Up Shop… but who knows where he’ll go after that?

He’s Back!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie in Glasnevin

Ta-daaaaah! Explorer Beastie is back in Dublin. Well, for the moment, anyway. While I was away sunning myself in the West of Ireland (yes, that CAN happen) over Easter, he took a trip to the northern suburbs of the city to have a look around Glasnevin Cemetery.
Explorer Beastie with Knotwork Headstone

Not everyone’s idea of a good time, perhaps, but Glasnevin Cemetery is actually a fascinating place. For starters, some of the monuments are beautiful – check out the knotwork design on this one!
Explorer Beastie with Graves

There are over 1.5 million people buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. That’s more than currently live in the County Dublin region! Among them are significant figures from Ireland’s past – Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Collins, to name a few – as well as many of our most famous writers, artists and musicians. Glasnevin also makes an appearance in James Joyce’s Ulysses, and Explorer Beastie appears to have caught up with Mr Joyce himself in the gift shop…
Explorer Beastie with James Joyce

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed a relaxing week away! I’ve been flexing my farming muscles, babysitting these little sweethearts…
Calves

…being inspired by the scenery…
Lake at Dusk

…And most importantly, knitting like a fiend! I have a bunch of new Beastie bodies ready to be decorated – I wonder what they’ll be?

Mystery Solved!

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie Sunbathing on a Cactus

Hurrah! Thanks to an eagle-eyed Beastie fan on my Facebook page, I’ve been able to trace Explorer Beastie to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands! No wonder he’s looking so relaxed!

You know, I had always written Lanzarote off as an island of packed beaches and sprawling resort hotels, and I have to say that I’m surprised by what Explorer Beastie has found on his travels. It looks like he has definitely strayed from the beaten track…
Explorer Beastie on Path

…and discovered everything from crystal clear rock pools…
Rock Pool

… to prickly cactus trees…
Cactus Tree

… to out-of-the-way wine bodegas.
Beastie Bodega

He also seems to have had no trouble finding quiet beaches there, either…
Deserted Beach

… which he can claim all for himself!
Explorer Beastie on Black Sand Beach

All the same, I hope he comes home soon. I need someone to accompany me to the new Muppets film.

See you next time… I have some freshly-hatched Beasties for you to meet!

So That’s What He’s Been Up To…

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie Reappears!

At last! After nearly a month of waiting by the phone/computer/letterbox, I have finally had word from Explorer Beastie! It seems he has taken himself off for a bit of a holiday, and I was worrying over nothing. It would have been nice if he had invited me too, but I suppose it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) for Beasties to travel alone. He made it to the airport without incident…
Airport Beastie

… and hit the Duty Free, where he made some stripey friends.
Explorer Beastie With Tigers

He must have slept for the entire flight, because the next photo I have shows him enjoying a coffee in a distinctly un-Irish location…
Beastie Coffee Break

… then he checked into his hotel…
Explorer Beastie at the Hotel

… hit the beach for a while…
Catching some rays, Beastie-style

… and then worked up an appetite before dinner.
Cactus Climbing

Apparently Beasties get a real kick out of climbing cacti! You learn something new every day…

The only thing is, I still haven’t been able to figure out exactly where Explorer Beastie is. He’s promised some more photos over the next couple of days, which should help, but are these surroundings looking familiar to anybody yet? Let me know in the comments if you have any ideas!

Exploring Out West

Posted on by crawcraftsbeasties in Explorer Beastie

Explorer Beastie with Mountain

This weekend, Explorer Beastie took his first trip westwards, to Co. Roscommon.
Um, where?
Don’t worry, I didn’t know it existed myself until I met someone from there during my first week in college. Roscommon sits in the western midlands of Ireland, which means that it’s pretty far removed from any of the main tourist trails. It has no coastline, and is distant enough from Dublin that it was left relatively untroubled by the embarrassing “build just about anything just about anywhere” phase this country went through a few years back. It boasts the second lowest population density in Ireland, and 74% of the people live in rural areas (factoids courtesy of the 2011 Census report). It also happens to be where my boyfriend is from, and I consider myself pretty lucky to have an excuse to visit somewhere as beautiful as this!

Anyway, we got a brief spell of sunny weather on Sunday, so I made a beeline for the bog with Explorer Beastie, Boyfriend and Cooper the dog in tow. The main picture shows Explorer Beastie enjoying his first visit to a genuine Irish peat bog! It looks empty, but this bog has a lot going on. Local people still cut peat here on a small scale and use it to heat their homes, and in the late 1940’s a man discovered a hoard of Bronze Age gold jewellery while cutting turf! The pieces – a gold lunula (a crescent-shaped collar) and two gold discs – are now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

Unfortunately, we didn’t come across any gold. But Explorer Beastie did find some vibrant neon-orange lichen:
Explorer Beastie with Lichen

In fact, the bog is surprisingly colourful at this time of year. We also found some deep crimson moss…
Beastie with Moss

…And some fresh new gorse growing up between the charred stumps left by a fire last year.
New Gorse For Old

We also found some cool bracket fungus on a fallen tree stump:
Explorer Beastie with Fungus

And there were opportunities to climb trees…
Beastie in a Tree

… Hack through the undergrowth…
Beastie in the Bracken

…And stop for a sandwich in a soft mossy hollow.
Sandwich Break

But let’s not forget that this is Ireland, and it wasn’t long before the weather took a turn for the worse!
Raincloud

We had to dash for home and spend the rest of the afternoon toasting our toes by the range. Life’s tough…
Have a great week!