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.