Bagpipes, Green Grass, And Really Old Churches

We have all of the above here at Harlaxton. Billy the Bagpiper was around yesterday-the man can really play. We had this big welcome dinner thing in a couple of the rooms I showed pictures of the other day, and I managed to get a picture of me with him (he was really a nice guy)



The dinner was great; we had more standard stuff than we'd been having at first. They gave us chicken Kiev and steamed vegetables and this cake that was great except when you tried to cut it (frosting was a little gluey; it caused major amusement when we tried to pull two slices apart and they refused to move)

I went back to the Carriage House to change and then hung out with some people till nearly midnight discussing ghosts and other things, then I went to bed.

This morning I had promised to go to the local church to sing with the congregation, but first I had to get these wholly enviable pictures. Look and weep: we have green grass and green plants and sunshine and no snow, although it is a bit cold today.





Then I went to church. Get a load of the graveyard; then look at these shots of the church. The church was built in the 1170's (my geeky history gene loved every minute of THAT) but some parts of it are a lot newer-this archway thing is definitely not that old, and some of the windows are from the 1800's and are dedicated to various people who died.

I couldn't get a good picture of the grave in the middle of the church floor, simply because everyone was standing on it every time I tried to get a good shot. I'll try again another day. My pal from last night was freaking out when she realized she'd actually walked over three dead people buried beneath the floor (couple of infants a year old each and died a year apart, and their mother about 20 years afterwards) but I made the point that they've been dead since the 1700's and they probably don't care all that much anymore WHO'S walking over them.

By the way, the heating system in the church is 15th century (1400's, that is). It means they have two grates in the floor and heat comes up through them. It was the only place of warmth in the whole building. Most of the Harlaxton students were trying to stand on it in a little pack at the end of the service.











We have our last Orientation sessions today (thank heaven) and we meet our British Studies professors today (I've already met mine-great guy)

Not much else-everyone else is going to brunch and I guess I should too one of these times.

UPDATE: I finally found the video setting on the camera-check this out on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsPHsRtis7k


Cheers,
Bec