Yorkshire Holiday 2019 - Studley Royal

The title of this post is slightly misleading, as there is only one real picture of Studley Royal, the beautiful Georgian water garden adjacent to Fountains Abbey. Actually, there is no visible border between the two; you simply walk on from the impressive ruins of the abbey, along the river and through parkland, until you reach the ponds and temples of Studley. As it was so cold and windy, we did not stop to take many pictures; this is the only one that I liked enough, taken from a vantage point overlooking the river bend leading towards the Moon Ponds:

You can find many more pictures if you type "Studley Royal" in the search box of this blog.

The parkland is a deer park, too, but this time, we did not see one single animal. But I did admire the still leafless trees, showing their shape as beautiful silhouettes. Aren't trees one of Nature's greatest inventions?

By the time we reached the outskirts of Ripon, the sun was out again and the wind calmed down, but it was still cold.

After a brief warm-up with a steaming ,mug of coffee in front of the fire place at our cottage, I set off again to visit Mary. We chatted for a while, and I left there just in time to walk home before it got dark. Approaching the Cathedral from Mary's direction, it looked like this:

Walking on towards the cottage, and coming round the building, the front looked so beautiful bathed in golden evening light I could not resist to take another picture:

Back home, we drew the curtains and had our tea (or dinner, depending on where you're from).

Birthday presents

You know where the inspiration for my choice of wallpaper at home came from!

In spite of having made a bit of an unfortunate choice of day for our walk, it had been a good day.

Yorkshire Holiday 2019 - Fountains Abbey

Sunday, the 24th of March, was the day we had agreed on for our "must do" walk to Fountains Abbey. This has become a much loved tradition over the years for my sister and I; if you are new to this blog or want to freshen up your memory, simply type "Fountains Abbey" into the search box in the left hand upper corner of this page, and you will find several posts about what is one of my favourite places.

The breakfast table was back to normal today, and the sun was out - it all looked rather promising, in spite of the high winds that were forecast for the day.

An already quite windswept walk towards Studley Roger (and, ultimately, Fountains Abbey) took us along sunlit fields with lambs and pheasants. Unfortunately, the planned stop at St. Mary's was not possible - the church was not open yet, it was too early in the year. We spent some time in the visitor centre next, with its excellent shop and friendly staff, and then walked towards Fountains Hall and the ruins of the abbey. As you can see, it was still sunny, but the wind had by then chilled us quite thoroughly.

A pair of pheasant cocks were fighting among the trees next to the path - at this time of year, they are very reckless and don't care about humans being nearby. We watched them for a while before walking on.

We were getting closer to Fountains Hall and of couse went inside, too. Some of the rooms contain exhibitions that change every now and then, and we'd not yet seen the current one about the Settlers Society, a charity organisation founded in the 1930s by the then owners of the Fountains Abbey estate, helping boys and young men aged 14 to 19 to get out of their slum homes and train them for jobs in agriculture, forestry, carpentry or domestic service, eventually finding jobs for them that would allow them to escape the vicious circle of unemployment, poverty, violence and drink that often reigned in those slums during the time of the Great Depression.

It was now lunch time and we needed sustenance. The nearby tea room at Fountains Mill was the best option; their food is not great and rather expensive, but it offered a respite from the endless strong winds, and so we took a table. Several other visitors had the same idea, and we observed some of them dressed as lightly as we would maybe do on a hot summer's day - definitely not on a day like this! Just looking at them made us shiver!

We felt then ready to tackle the outdoors again. But once you've been chilled through to the bone, you somehow can't get warm properly for a long time, and this was really the shortest visit to Fountains Abbey we ever went on. We still loved seeing the place; it is always special, no matter the weather or time of year, but we really just longed for the cosiness of our cottage with its electric fire and comfy settee.

And now, time is running out (I need to get to work), and this post is becoming very long - wait for Part II tonight or tomorrow morning :-)

Read in 2019 - 6: One Perfect Spring

The attentive reader of this blog may or may not be aware that the previous "Read in 2019"-post was about # 4, and now this is # 6 - what happened to # 5, you may ask? 

I'll tell you briefly about the book that was the 5th one I managed to read this year, and sadly consider it something of a waste of time. It was "Europe After the Minotaur", written by Yanis Varoufakis, ex-Minister of Finance for Greece. He is an highly acclaimed academic, specialised in economics, and I am sure he is an impressively intelligent man who can write very well; still, I didn't like his book and, although I truly made an effort and read it to the end, only one main message from it stuck in my mind: Greece has no fault whatsoever in the economical mess it has been finding itself in over the past years, but it is really all Germany's fault, combined with the US' fault for having spread its form of capitalism around the globe.
No doubt the author is infinitely cleverer than I am, but the message that transpires from the book is, in my personal (not necessarily politically coloured!) opinion, too simple, too black and white.

And now, for something completely different:

Book Nr. 6, which was
One Perfect Spring
by Irene Hannon

This was a very relaxing and enjoyable read, although probably not everybody's cup of tea; if you can not abide references to Christian faith, God, prayer, or religion in general, do not read this.

The story - for the sake of brevity strippd off all religious content here - is the old "Troubled woman and equally troubled man find love and new beginnings again". But it is charmingly told, and I really did warm to the characters.

Claire is the divorced mother of a bright 11-year-old girl who plans a special birthday surprise for their neighbour, a single middle-aged academic who loves to cook and bake and harbours a secret she has only recently revealed to Claire: She gave up her baby for adoption straight after birth some 20+ years ago, and is now desperate to find her son.

Claire's daughter overhears the conversation and is determined to help things along: She writes to a local businessman and benefactor, who against his first impulse becomes intrigued with the story and sets his best man on the quest for the lost son.

That man has his own troubled past to struggle with, and would do almost anything to avoid the task set him by his boss. But eventually, everything turns out for the best; families manage to heal strained or broken relationships, couples come together, love is found all around, and new beginnings leave almost everyone full of hope.

It is very obvious from the bginning who those couples are going to be, but there are a few situations that make for mild surprises, and it all just combines for a good read. I would have liked it even more if the characters weren't all so gorgeous with superb bodies, great hair and stunning features - don't people also fall in love with other people who are far from looking like models or film stars? It also does not quite tie in with the Christian message that the author tries to bring home.

I'd not heard of the author before, but (as is so often the case) came across her book as a free edition at Amazon's kindle shop. Irene Hannon's website is here, if you are interested.

Yorkshire Holiday 2019 - Family Reunion

Saturday, the 23rd of March, is quickly told, and there is only one picture I can show you from that day. My sister-in-law drove us ("us" being my sister, my brother-in-law, herself and myself) to Derbyshire, where my other sister-in-law lives.

She had organised a family gathering and booked a table for us at The Crispin Inn in Ashover. Once we left the motorway, we enjoyed looking at the beautiful Derbyshire countryside; again, daffodils everywhere and hedgerows dotted with white blossoms, lambs on the fields and ducks on the village ponds.

The Crispin Inn is in a very old building with thick stone walls, fire places, low ceilings and oak beams. The service was friendly and the food really nice, but the room was rather cold at first, so most of us left their coats and jackets on for good part of the meal.

For coffees/teas and cakes, we were invited back to my sister-in-law's. She and her family live in a nearby town. I wish I could show you pictures of their pretty house and garden - most of all of the gorgeous kitchen! It is in a newly built annex (done last year) with a large skylight, and at the same time stylish and cosy.

Altogether, there were 10 of us - some couldn't make it to the gathering for health reasons or because they were working, at uni or travelling elsewhere. It was great to see them all again! 

Here is a picture O.K. sent me from the same day - this was the view from his living room into his neighbours' garden:

Yorkshire Holiday 2019 - My Birthday

Our first full day in Yorkshire was also my birthday, the 22nd of March. Now I'd already had some birthday cards arriving back home - those of my readers and friends who sent me one (you know who you are!), thank you very, very much for them! They now share the space on the sideboard in my living room along with the cards I received on my birthday and found in the mailbox when I arrived home yesterday.

It felt good waking up in my cosy room upstairs in Matchbox Cottage, and even better to come downstairs to the dining room to find this:

My sister said she had been very, very tired the evening of our arrival, and could not wait for me to finally go to bed so that she could prepare the table :-)

The parcel contained a hand-knitted scarf/shoulder wrap made by my Mum out of the softest kid mohair, in my favourite colours yellow and grey. The card contained the token for yet another birthday present: an armchair I had seen at IKEA's months ago, and want for my living room to replace the original 1950s armchair that has been passed down to me from my grandparents' house. I love that armchair, but it really has become rather shabby and rickety, and to have it restored would cost a fortune.

View from my preferred armchair near the window

Anyway - we had our first breakfast at the cottage and then spent the morning leisurely reading and writing emails, talking to our parents on facetime and getting dressed for the champagne afternoon tea I had booked for us as my birthday treat at Swinton Park. 

My sister-in-law arrived to pick us up a little after 12:00, and it was good that we left plenty of time to drive the 12 miles or so to Swinton, as there was an unexpected road closure and we had to take a detour. All went well, though, and we arrived for our booking with no rush.

Entrance to Swinton Park Hotel

Everything at Swinton Park was as beautiful and the staff as friendly and welcoming as we remembered it from our first visit in 2017. We enjoyed our champagne, tea, sandwiches, scones and cakes very much, and of course also the conversation. There was so much of everything we could not eat it all up! The leftovers were packed for us to take home.

A quick look round the newly built spa and shop afterwards, before we got back in the car and drove to nearby Masham for a stroll around this picturesque little market town with its beautiful church.

Back in Ripon, we went to see Mary (my mother-in-law), and afterwards had a very light meal at the cottage, watching some TV and having the leftover cakes for desserts.

Another view of the cathedral, on our way home from Mary's.

It had been a really good birthday - very different from last year's big event, but equally enjoyable. Of coursed I missed being with my parents and O.K., but there will be a small catching up party at my place the week after next.