Somewhere old, somewhere new.

Wensleydale decided yesterday that it was time for his annual pilgrimage to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. On the way there we made our first  visit to East Riddlesden Hall, as it was roughly in the same direction, and has a tea shop [unlike the Bronte museum – it’s only drawback, I feel].

The Hall is beautiful – like Gawthorpe, it comes as a complete surprise when you turn into the drive and the urban development surrounding it disappears. Somehow the smoke stained stonework adds to the atmosphere, and of course it is part of the history of the house. One wing was partially demolished in the early 20thC  - perhaps it was the Bronte connection that made me immediately think of Thornfield hall.

Like Gawthorpe, Riddlesden has embroideries – probably the best collection of 17th century embroidery I've seen outside the V&A or the Burrell. There are also some !9thC samplers [not really my cup of tea, but these are slightly different to the usual] a bit of 20thC blackwork, and some 19thC embroidery which according the the very chatty room steward, is Persian. It was worked [in wool?] on narrow strips of hand woven cloth and then joined to make bed curtains and covers. Add beautiful gardens and a good tea shop [although they were out of Wensleydale for the Yorkshire ploughman's lunch and we had to have Cheddar instead] – and it was well worth a visit.

The journey on to Haworth was a bit traumatic, as there was a poorly signposted diversion, and the inhabitants of Bingley seem to think that the usual rules about giving way to traffic on roundabouts don’t apply to them. After it happened on the third roundabout in succession I began to get a bit neurotic, and even W. lost his cool …

Fortunately the Parsonage was quite quiet. Having seen Bronte at the Watermill before we came up here, I kept visualising the actors, especially Mr Bronte and Branwell, although neither actor really looked anything like the originals!

After all that excitement we are having a quiet morning, and after I've posted this I will get on with the 2d piece. Since I took these photos the wavy cream lines have been completed and I’m adding some dark blue ones. I'm not sure about the very hungry caterpillar – I think it’s a bit bright, although the symbolism [new life] is right for the youngest member of the family. It is a left-over from the quilt I made for Babybel, and a substitute for the fabric from her mum and dad that never arrived, although I’m hoping that when we get back home  it will have done.

After the cheese, the ale …

As we’d had a cheese experience earlier in the week, we decided we needed some beer to go with it – so we paid a visit to the Black Sheep Brewery at Masham – which I now know isn’t pronounced the way you think …

It was much more enjoyable than the cheese experience, even though a drop didn’t pass my lips till just now [Black Sheep Ale, very drinkable]. A brewery visit costs more than the cheese experience, but you get an hour’s guided tour, and lots of information about brewing, although I think it would be a good idea to go earlier in the week, as Friday seems to be cleaning up day.

The beer chutney is good too – can’t speak for the Christmas pudding, I’ll get back to you on that in about 7 months time.

We followed that with an unplanned visit to Jervaux Abbey, because we’d noticed it on the map. If you like romantic ruins and flowers, it’s perfect, even on a drab, cold day. I took rather a lot of photographs of walls, [and assorted holes in walls], doorways, windows, and skies.

And there’s a teashop too – where they serve the magical combination of fruitcake and Wensleydale cheese. No, I'm not joking – try it and see. Wensleydale goes particularly well with Christmas cake, especially the version with ginger in it.

When not eating cheese or drinking ale, I have been getting on with this – my 2D piece. I’ve just about finished all the circles, bar a couple I am not sure about – tomorrow I hope to begin the lines which will run down the piece – or across it, in this photo.

Lovely holiday weather -

a little sleet, a little snow, some drizzle and an occasional sunny interval. I’m glad I brought gloves and a scarf – and that Wensleydale reminded me that we keep a spare fleece in the back of the car. It lives there for emergencies – I wouldn't normally wear it, as it is in National Geographic’s delightful colours of nappy brown and yellow [a freebie, needless to say]. But it’s an extra layer for when we’re out and fortunately the cottage is lovely and warm.

We did manage a walk before the weather deteriorated. I have written before about the disappearing River Skirfare. It has clearly been a dry winter here because it has disappeared even more than usual.

 

 

 

We were able to walk, on the grass and in the river bed, upstream to the sink hole [where the river disappears into the earth] and beyond.

 

 

We spotted some delightful bijou residences on the  edge of the river – or where the edge of the river used to be. There were about half a dozen of these doorways, of which this was the largest. Not sure who lives there – they seemed big for any of the water animals I can think of, but a bit close to the water for foxes or badgers – but of course you may know better.

 

There are still a few puddles in the river bed, many of which have turned this dramatic browny-red colour. The water here has a lot of iron in it, which is responsible for the colour – although Wensleydale did suggest it was Irn-Bru …

Today we’ve been for a Cheese Experience. I’m glad we went because I learned a lot about how cheese is made, but  won’t bother going again. [There are lots of other places round here to buy Wensleydale – and at home.] As W. said, it was like the Isle of Wight – full of old people. [Why is it that so many people of my generation walk through a door and stop dead on the other side – it drives me demented!]

The forecast for tomorrow is ‘chance of snow’ – I can’t wait!

Home again

after an enjoyable holiday in [you’ve guessed it] Yorkshire. We were very lucky with the weather apart from one very wet day when this -the River Skirfare in April -

 

 

looked like this.

The river bed is usually dry, due to a sink hole upstream, so for it to get this high there must have been a lot of rain. Not that it worried the sheep.

 

However, as it was so wet, I persuaded Wensleydale that we needed to go somewhere with a roof. Like Gawthorpe Hall, home of the Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth collection of textiles – not that that influenced my desire to visit it, of course.  :-^)

It is a lovely house in its own right – I could imagine living there quite happily. And the exhibition is lovely – very useful for C&G students researching either the history of embroidery or foreign embroidery – if you still have to do that in the new version of the course.

We also explored Nidderdale,  because we had discovered that Wensleydale’s great grandfather had been born there - or rather                     here.

Not that the family owned it – neither of us come from families with that sort of money!

Yesterday we were intending to go up to the Royal Parks to cheer on Babybel’s mum, who was running a half marathon. Unfortunately we didn’t quite make it, but we were able to catch up with the successful athlete later – 1 minute inside her predicted time, despite suffering from the after-effects of gastro-enteritis, seems very impressive to me!

Despite his apparent exhaustion, the dog didn’t run the marathon with her.

And Babybel seemed to be thinking about stepping into her daddy’s shoes – although she’ll have to grow a bit before they fit.