...and the culprit...
And to demonstrate how lucky I was to exit the UK just before the volcanic dust shut down all flights, here are stranded passengers in Changi airport, Singapore.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Last word...
I promised a final image of Tilly the Tum. The lump...
...and the culprit...
And to demonstrate how lucky I was to exit the UK just before the volcanic dust shut down all flights, here are stranded passengers in Changi airport, Singapore.
...and the culprit...
And to demonstrate how lucky I was to exit the UK just before the volcanic dust shut down all flights, here are stranded passengers in Changi airport, Singapore.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
D-day...
I can truly say that this house-swap and my time in York has been the best experience possible. I leave sadly - will miss much, especially the people I have met. Neighbours Maggie and Don, Chris and Wendy, Trevor, Philip and Phyllis, George and Marion, Philip and Janet, Jonathan. Sue and Al's friends Richard and Jean, Jill M, Jill B, Maire, Christina; Sue's colleagues Jenny, Glynis, Yvonne and Miranda; Wendy's friend Wayne; the many people I met through the York Ramblers... (I will have forgotten someone important). Thank you to everyone.
I will miss Tilly of the rounded tum and dirty feet. I have one last 'under the duvet' photo which will have to wait until my return home to add in here.
There is so much more I could have done - but it is ever thus...
I have felt 'at home', the best possible feeling.
Above all my thanks to Sue, Al and Tom for making it all possible. One day we will meet!!
A final image - me taking a photo of the tithe barn (thanks Richard!).
I will miss Tilly of the rounded tum and dirty feet. I have one last 'under the duvet' photo which will have to wait until my return home to add in here.
There is so much more I could have done - but it is ever thus...
I have felt 'at home', the best possible feeling.
Above all my thanks to Sue, Al and Tom for making it all possible. One day we will meet!!
A final image - me taking a photo of the tithe barn (thanks Richard!).
Monday, April 12, 2010
A time of farewells...
The farewells to newly-made friends continue. Yesterday I went out to Poppleton for the last time to sit in the SUN in Richard and Jean's beautiful garden and to walk through the village to Nether Poppleton...
...to see the (originally) 16th century tithe barn.
A very lovely, tranquil spot with a little 'sensory' garden...
Then back to Greencliffe Drive to have dinner with Chris and Wendy down the road.
A poignant time...
More whānau...
Yesterday I caught up with my cousins Jenny and Tom and Tom's new partner Karen and her youngest son Max. Tom, Karen and Max motored up from Alesbury, Jenny trained and bused up from London, I trained down from York and we all met in Birmingham for the day.
Max bungied bravely in the Bullring...
...and then we all talked over a pub meal...
Max bungied bravely in the Bullring...
...and then we all talked over a pub meal...
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Upstairs/downstairs
Duncombe Park was holding a craft fair - an opportunity to see the inside of the stately home whose grounds I had previously walked in. What intrigued me most (and I requested permission to photograph) were the bells...
Very decorative.
These were only a small proportion of the total. One rang while I was close by. Certainly very audible! The reason for my interest is because my Aunt Nora worked as housekeeper for the Cracroft-Wilson family in Christchurch from the late 1950s - 1980s and their house, constructed post-1945, also had a built-in system for summoning household help. So a system more closely associated with the landed English gentry of past centuries was alive and well in twentieth century New Zealand! Enough said.
Very decorative.
These were only a small proportion of the total. One rang while I was close by. Certainly very audible! The reason for my interest is because my Aunt Nora worked as housekeeper for the Cracroft-Wilson family in Christchurch from the late 1950s - 1980s and their house, constructed post-1945, also had a built-in system for summoning household help. So a system more closely associated with the landed English gentry of past centuries was alive and well in twentieth century New Zealand! Enough said.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Things I will miss...
In no special order and quite incomplete...
Things I will miss
Things I will miss
Yorkshire tea
The moors and dales
The Clifton community especially the residents of Greencliffe Drive
Tilly
The Minster bells
Train travel
The local butcher and his steak pies
The soft, gentle light
The view out the study window
Yorkshire dialects
Su and Al’s lovely friends who befriended me
The local architecture
Sound of the pigeons
Spring
Things I won’t miss
The traffic
Rubbish
Queuing
Volumes of people
Mud
Friday, April 9, 2010
Lindisfarne mead...
Made on the island...
I still don't know if it was the combination of crab sandwich and a thimbleful of mead that caused me to throw up on the walk home from the station...
More abbeys, more alcohol...
Abbeys, priories, monasteries feature significantly in this blog. Religious history is writ large on the landscape. However some days ago I drove up to Ampleforth Abbey (close to the little village of Ampleforth) which is emphatically not a ruin but a thriving (and I would say quite wealthy) Benedictine community set in amazing rolling countryside bordering the North York Moors.
The visitors' centre...
The Abbey church...
Next to the Abbey is a stunningly situated college http://www.college.ampleforth.org.uk/ with views like this...
I went into the visitors' centre - beautiful arts and crafts style building, very peaceful - and had a pot of tea and the most delicious slice of cider apple cake - truly the most delicious cake I have ever tasted!! The cider is made at the Abbey :-) Not sure what possessed me to come away with two litres!!!!
Maybe I missed my calling. I stayed at St John's Abbey in Minnesota, US in 1989 - also Benedictine and set in similarly beautiful surroundings - and loved the peace and serenity.
The visitors' centre...
The Abbey church...
Next to the Abbey is a stunningly situated college http://www.college.ampleforth.org.uk/ with views like this...
I went into the visitors' centre - beautiful arts and crafts style building, very peaceful - and had a pot of tea and the most delicious slice of cider apple cake - truly the most delicious cake I have ever tasted!! The cider is made at the Abbey :-) Not sure what possessed me to come away with two litres!!!!
Maybe I missed my calling. I stayed at St John's Abbey in Minnesota, US in 1989 - also Benedictine and set in similarly beautiful surroundings - and loved the peace and serenity.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Lindisfarne again..
The visitors on the island mostly made a beeline for the Priory and the Castle before returning to eat in the village. Later afternoon there was no-one on the beach and I had a wonderful time taking these snaps. I loved the shapes of the upturned boats (part of the old herring fleet) and was drawn to the flotsam and jetsam of a working fishing harbour and the dashes of colour - since bright colour has not been a feature of my time in the Yorkshire landscape.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The Holy Isle of Lindisfarne...
I always wanted my experience in York to be a local one - to be a resident and explore York and Yorkshire. Apart from the brief foray down to London I did not feel the need or desire to hive off in other directions. However there was one place in Northumberland that I longed to visit - the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne http://www.essentially-england.com/lindisfarne.html
Lindisfarne (as I call it) or The Holy Isle (as the locals call it) was always going to be tricky to organise. Access to the island is cut off at high tide so visits have to be planned around the tides. Also I wanted to travel up and back in the day rather than stopping overnight, so that was an added constraint. Yesterday I caught an early train from York to Berwick-on-Tweed. Because at this time of the year the bus service only runs from Berwick to the island two days a week (and not yesterday) I took a deep breath and a taxi. Costly, but the driver was a gem who provided not only the means to an end but a wonderful, unsolicited commentary.
For me small islands (Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands...) are magical places. There is something special about the light, the landscape and the isolation. In the distance Lindisfarne is sea-flat with two rocky outcrops, one of which anchors the Castle - the undoubted focal point of the island. The day was cloudy with a hint of rain and a very strong, cold wind off the North Sea.
Once a Tudor fort, the Castle was bought in 1902 by Edward Hudson, owner of Country Life magazine, who employed architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to restore the building. The interior is a maze of rooms the design of which is heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts style. Gertrude Jekyll later designed a small walled summer garden at a distance from the Castle.
From the Castle you get views of the island topography. Looking towards the village...
Towards the walled garden and beyond...
It was the founding of the Priory in 635AD by St Aidan (who had come from Ireland via Iona) that gave Lindisfarne the name 'Holy Isle' and its reputation as a spiritual retreat. Here the Lindisfarne Gospels were created between 715 and 720AD http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/features/gospels/gospels_tense_past.shtml
I tried to imagine what life must have been like for the first monks in a place so much more remote than it is today, lashed by the wind and sea...What did they do for fuel? There are no trees on the island.
Here three symbols of the island, secular and spiritual, come together...
My favourite part of the island was the little harbour - I'll save those images for another post because they are a photo-story in their own right.
Lindisfarne (as I call it) or The Holy Isle (as the locals call it) was always going to be tricky to organise. Access to the island is cut off at high tide so visits have to be planned around the tides. Also I wanted to travel up and back in the day rather than stopping overnight, so that was an added constraint. Yesterday I caught an early train from York to Berwick-on-Tweed. Because at this time of the year the bus service only runs from Berwick to the island two days a week (and not yesterday) I took a deep breath and a taxi. Costly, but the driver was a gem who provided not only the means to an end but a wonderful, unsolicited commentary.
For me small islands (Stewart Island, the Chatham Islands...) are magical places. There is something special about the light, the landscape and the isolation. In the distance Lindisfarne is sea-flat with two rocky outcrops, one of which anchors the Castle - the undoubted focal point of the island. The day was cloudy with a hint of rain and a very strong, cold wind off the North Sea.
Once a Tudor fort, the Castle was bought in 1902 by Edward Hudson, owner of Country Life magazine, who employed architect Sir Edwin Lutyens to restore the building. The interior is a maze of rooms the design of which is heavily influenced by the Arts and Crafts style. Gertrude Jekyll later designed a small walled summer garden at a distance from the Castle.
From the Castle you get views of the island topography. Looking towards the village...
Towards the walled garden and beyond...
It was the founding of the Priory in 635AD by St Aidan (who had come from Ireland via Iona) that gave Lindisfarne the name 'Holy Isle' and its reputation as a spiritual retreat. Here the Lindisfarne Gospels were created between 715 and 720AD http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/features/gospels/gospels_tense_past.shtml
I tried to imagine what life must have been like for the first monks in a place so much more remote than it is today, lashed by the wind and sea...What did they do for fuel? There are no trees on the island.
Here three symbols of the island, secular and spiritual, come together...
My favourite part of the island was the little harbour - I'll save those images for another post because they are a photo-story in their own right.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter...
Philip and Phyllis gave me one of the nicest Easter eggs I've ever had - as Philip said, so that I wouldn't feel lonely and overlooked away from home!!
But the real Easter treat was seeing my Aunt Christine and cousin Marjorie who had come down from Glasgow on a bus trip. We spent Easter Sunday at Greencliffe Drive, away from tourist-infested central York, talking, talking, drinking tea/coffee, talking...
But the real Easter treat was seeing my Aunt Christine and cousin Marjorie who had come down from Glasgow on a bus trip. We spent Easter Sunday at Greencliffe Drive, away from tourist-infested central York, talking, talking, drinking tea/coffee, talking...
Monday, April 5, 2010
Helmsley Walled Garden
It's still too early in the season to appreciate the plants in the Helmsley Walled Garden on the edge of the North York Moors, but there were other things that caught my eye.
This little bird bath...
...and this cute elephant (who, I think, might have water pumped up through his rear end and out through his trunk).
There was also this sign... (I understand from Al that Richard is a rotter).
And many poignant ones like this...
This little bird bath...
...and this cute elephant (who, I think, might have water pumped up through his rear end and out through his trunk).
There was also this sign... (I understand from Al that Richard is a rotter).
And many poignant ones like this...
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Well-shod...
Continuing the black and white theme of the previous post, these shoes (?) spotted in a York shop window. The scary thing being that someone will buy and wear them...
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Real ales again...
Ale Mary
Ale and Arty
The Holy (G)rale
The Prince of Ales
Pistols over Egypt
...with thanks and apologies to Richard.
Ale and Arty
The Holy (G)rale
The Prince of Ales
Pistols over Egypt
...with thanks and apologies to Richard.
Travelling by train: the Settle-Carlisle Railway
The longer I am here the less I feel inclined to drive and the more I enjoy travelling by train. I think back with wonder to 1979 when I drove a Morris Minor all over England and Scotland.
Yesterday I took to the rails for a round trip: York - Leeds; Leeds - Settle - Carlisle; Carlisle - Newcastle; and Newcastle back to York. This was on the advice of George who popped a note through the letter flap many weeks ago...
What was so wonderful about this note was that it told me absolutely everything I needed to know!
As I came down the ings towards the river on my early walk to the station I saw two supercharged swans travelling down the river at an unbelievably theatrical speed. On account of the current - it took me some seconds to realise. The Ouse was running full and swiftly (could almost be the Heathcote in flood).
The swans obligingly exited the river to have their photos taken...
York railway station has become very familiar and I am always delighted by the play of light through the ironwork (these photos taken at the end of the day).
It was almost impossible to get a decent photo from the window of the moving train so I have little record of the famous Settle - Carlisle leg of the journey. The line was nearly closed in the 1980s but has been championed by The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line. This shot suggests that the most elevated parts are not unlike the Canterbury high country...
There had been a fresh fall of snow on the moorlands (reflected coffee mug a bonus!)...
I was very impressed by the fact that this man, who was by no means young, was a volunteer on the Settle-Carlisle leg, helping with the drinks/food trolley and selling little brochures about the line (his jacket reads 'Settle-Carlisle Line Volunteer').
The little railway stations along the way are cared for by volunteers and are all charming. This one (not my photo) is of the Kirkby Stephen station.
In central Carlisle there was a very busy local and continental market including lots of flowers for sale.
Yesterday I took to the rails for a round trip: York - Leeds; Leeds - Settle - Carlisle; Carlisle - Newcastle; and Newcastle back to York. This was on the advice of George who popped a note through the letter flap many weeks ago...
What was so wonderful about this note was that it told me absolutely everything I needed to know!
As I came down the ings towards the river on my early walk to the station I saw two supercharged swans travelling down the river at an unbelievably theatrical speed. On account of the current - it took me some seconds to realise. The Ouse was running full and swiftly (could almost be the Heathcote in flood).
The swans obligingly exited the river to have their photos taken...
York railway station has become very familiar and I am always delighted by the play of light through the ironwork (these photos taken at the end of the day).
It was almost impossible to get a decent photo from the window of the moving train so I have little record of the famous Settle - Carlisle leg of the journey. The line was nearly closed in the 1980s but has been championed by The Friends of the Settle-Carlisle Line. This shot suggests that the most elevated parts are not unlike the Canterbury high country...
There had been a fresh fall of snow on the moorlands (reflected coffee mug a bonus!)...
I was very impressed by the fact that this man, who was by no means young, was a volunteer on the Settle-Carlisle leg, helping with the drinks/food trolley and selling little brochures about the line (his jacket reads 'Settle-Carlisle Line Volunteer').
The little railway stations along the way are cared for by volunteers and are all charming. This one (not my photo) is of the Kirkby Stephen station.
In central Carlisle there was a very busy local and continental market including lots of flowers for sale.
A wee story that says something (maybe) about English people. On the final, Newcastle-York leg of the trip there was a man who was accidentally sitting in a reserved seat. He moved very cheerfully when the 'owners' pointed this out, but in the kerfuffle of shifting he dropped his laptop which fell with a heavy thud. No-one commiserated; everyone remained resolutely silent, minding his/her own business. I don't think this is from a lack of concern. Rather I think it is an unwillingness to make a fuss or intrude on someone else's business. However the fate of the laptop and the man's frame of mind concerned me for the rest of the trip and as I left the train at York I passed him and asked if the laptop was OK. He smiled and said it was much sturdier than he was! I felt relieved and pleased.
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