To Be A Sheep in Shap

...would be a pretty relaxing life.

just chillin'

This past weekend was my home stay in Shap, England. My program, IFSA-Butler, had set it up as a required event for each participant in the program. Shap is right on the outskirts of the Lake District (yeah, they don't sprawl their lakes over the entire state like Minnesota. They restrict them to one little district. Poor lakes.) The farm I stayed at was about 20 minutes from Shap.

I'd heard from IFSA as well as from friends who'd done home-stays on past weekends that a typical group was 3-4 people per family. I got on the bus on Friday knowing two people who were in the same family as myself, and figured that was it. Little did I know. When we arrived in Shap, there was a coordinator reading out lists of who goes with which family. She read my name... and continued to read seven others. My surprise continued when my host family, Alex and Douglas, picked the group up in nothing less than a 16-passenger van to take us to their farm.

"Welcome to the farm," Douglas said, as he pulled into the driveway. "You guys will be sleeping in the barn," he continued. When he said barn, I pictured what most people think at the word. Big red building, hay, probably a few animals. After being shown around, I soon realized he should have said "ski chalet" or perhaps "summer camp" instead.

All of the stone housing on the right was for visitors. (us!)

Where we stayed. Also known as summer camp.

We even had our own kitchen area.

Alex had a delicious dinner waiting for us on Friday, and we fell upon it as if we hadn't seen a home-cooked meal in months. (Hint: we hadn't.) The next day, we made breakfast in our gourmet kitchen, and then they took us into town: Appleby-in-Westmorland. Here they showed us the Parish Church of Saint Lawrence, located in the diocese of Carlisle. Coincidentally, I just learned today in Celtic Civilisation that this diocese grew to be one of the more important and influential ones in medieval Britain. In case you were interested.

The town has a small farmer's market every Saturday.

Afterwards, we wandered around town a bit, and then headed to a shop which had an upstairs cake-and-coffee area for morning tea. (I am a fan of having breaks at 10 am for cake and coffee. Though I guess Gustavus has it's own take on that with Chapel break, in a way.) You could tell it is a smaller, trusting town because you pay after you eat, downstairs at the counter, when you're done shopping. I had some delicious chocolate cake.

our morning cake stop

Next, we loaded back into the "tour van" for our next stop — Kirkby Stephen. There, we did some more wandering, then got sandwiches at a local shop and drove out to a castle to eat them. That's what they do in Scotland. If a restaurant has no seating space, just drive to the nearest castle. The castle was Pendragon Castle, supposedly where Uther Pendragon (King Arthur's father) lived.

Snapped from the van window

If you look very closely, you can see sheep living on those steep inclines top right. Fighting gravity.

This picture does not adequately capture how cold it was.

Being the adventurous people we are, the group chose to eat outside. It was cold. Very cold. If you can't notice from the picture, Pendragon Castle long ago ceased having solid insulation against the wind. (Sidenote: the wind in Edinburgh is at times as bad as Gustavus.) This hideout below was the only shelter from it...

Nor does this one. We deemed this the Pendragon Master Suite.

Surprisingly, after all of this, it was only 2 pm. We then went to a local chocolate shop, where they had many different types of little chocolates, and also larger decorated ones. Our day out was mostly complete by then, so we drove back to the farm, whereupon more chocolate greeted us! Alex made us all much-welcomed mugs of hot chocolate, and then the group decided to go hiking in the woods nearby, since their dog needed a walk.

Joey and Matt

Shannon and Madison

After being in a city nonstop for the past month, it felt so great to be out where GREEN THINGS grew. I know that by the end of the weekend, I just wanted to move there and be their fourth child (They had three kids, one of whom was named Fergus. This was how we all identified we were at the same homestay: "is your family the one with Fergus?!" "...Yes!"). We then went to the empty local pub, where the bartender was celebrating a lonely 30th birthday, followed by another delicious dinner and even more delicious crumble back at the farm.

Sorry that this is becoming a novel. DAY 2, SUMMARIZED.
Sunday was spent on the farm, with Alex and Douglas giving us a tour. Their farm is called Nag's Head Farm and they operate a non-profit organization called Learning Fields, bringing in groups of people who otherwise wouldn't have the experience of being in nature or on a farm. (At-risk youth, mental health patients, physically disabled people, retired farmers who need something to do, the list goes on.)

Alex's dream was to open a farm with all types of activities and things for these people to do, and along with Douglas, she is on her way. It's already a reality. They have massive plans for expansion and new projects, and already have so many current projects/activities going. On our tour, we got to dig in their stream which contains a large deposit of clay, and craft some beautiful faces.

The group: Joey, Madison, Lauren, Grace, Shannon. Ivy, myself, and Matt

This weekend was one of my favorite parts of being in Edinburgh so far. Though I did just see Two Door Cinema Club and Bastille at a sold-out concert in Glasgow... which will have to be part of another post, I think. I can safely say that Alex and Douglas are two of the nicest people I've met, and also one of the cutest couples. Anyway, I'll put up pictures/video from the concert soon, and some other things