Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 571

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge, our first in October. How is it already October??? Answer today's questions on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share your answers. See you there! 

1. Hey, it's October...what's one fun thing on your October calendar? 

2. Thursday is National Poetry Day (first Thursday in October)...do you like to read poetry? If so, what's a favorite poem, or whose poetry do you especially enjoy? 

3. Tell us about something you've seen recently that could be described as 'poetry in motion'. 

4. What's one song on your autumn playlist? Do you have an autumn playlist? If not, pretend you do. If yes, then feel free to share more than one. 

5. Share a quote that inspires you this time of year especially. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

Hullo Monday

Linking up with Holly and Sarah for their regular Monday morning chat about how we spent our weekend. Ours was fun and full. Here we go...starting with Thursday because I've told you before I feel like the weekend starts on a Thursday. 

Plus we've been on holiday so everyday is the weekend right now. 

Thursday the boys had school so hubs, Little Miss, Daughter1 and I decided to go into Cambridge and see what we could see. We've been in a couple of times since we got here, once for tea on my birthday and once for dinner at The Eagle. 

After walking the boys to school we hopped on the bus to get to the city center. It's not far, but as I said in an earlier post, the bus is easier than finding a parking space. There are 31 colleges that make up the University of Cambridge, and we started our day with a visit to the King's College Cathedral. 

Yes, another cathedral. This is England after all, and I'm here to tell you stepping inside one of these magnificent buildings never gets old. This one is particularly spectacular-

King's College was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI and is known for it's cathedral. 

Little Miss pointing out baby Jesus in the painting. She is absolutely precious. 

Also a bit of a firecracker, an excellent traveler, and so much like her momma our hearts can hardly handle it.

We came out of the cathedral and into a space known as The Backs. This is a park like area that's  basically the backside of the various colleges that run alongside the river Cam. 

We punted here one long ago Father's Day weekend, but this time we just admired the beauty. 

It was a gorgeous day. My daughter wanted us to visit the Wren Library at Trinity College so we headed that way next. Christopher Wren attended Oxford, and is the architect behind so many of England's most beautiful buildings, with this library being yet another. 

Wren Library has been open to visitors since 1695, but in 2024 visiting is only permitted between the hours of 12-2, with just 15 visitors allowed inside at any one time. It's a working library for the students of Trinity College so everyone is considerate of that. 

What a treat. I'm so glad to have seen this, something most visitors to Cambridge may not know is even something you can do. It's a beautiful space. There were students working in the carrels along the side of the room, and they all had stacks of ancient books piled high beside them. Everyone is on a computer, but pretty sure they're not taking notes from Wikipedia. 

I'd like to be a student here. 

We saw a Winnie the Pooh manuscript gifted to the college by A.A. Milne himself. He was once a student at Trinity. We saw a Shakespeare folio, and several pieces by Lord Byron who also studied here. One piece was a letter Byron had written his aunt at the age of ten, and in it he says it's the very first letter he's ever written. His penmanship is perfect. 

Remember when people wrote letters. Sigh. 

We stopped for lunch at Nandos which is an old favorite. My daughter and I reminisced about trips to Nandos in the shopping area where we lived when she was a teenager. It was like our UK Chick-fil-a fix when there was no chick-fil-a. 

It's actually nothing like chick-fil-a other than the fact that it's chicken and it's delicious. 

We caught the bus home so Little Miss could have her nap and we could collect the boys from school. We had one of our favorite dinners Thursday night, one we'd been looking forward to since we arrived. We ate at The Dumpling Tree and had our fill of crispy duck. We used to get this a couple of times a month when we lived in England, but haven't found it this way anywhere near our home in the US.

If you're not familiar this is duck (they served it sliced, but we used to get it shredded) on a small thin pancake, topped with thinly sliced cucumber, thinly sliced green onion, then finished with a dollop of plum sauce, rolled up and enjoyed. 

It's so good! We also ordered steamed dumplings (Max's favorite food), spring rolls, and a cucumber salad in some sort of sweet and sour style sauce that was really yummy. We walked home and I was wishing once more I lived where I could walk to dinner and then walk home. 

Friday the weather was supposed to be mostly rainy so we opted for an indoor activity. We got back on the bus (all of us except my son-in-law who had to work) and went back into Cambridge to visit the Fitzwilliam Museum. 

It's fabulous! And free, which is always nice. There are more than half a million objects, artifacts, and works of art  in this museum and it's all beautifully displayed and easy to view. 

They had color sheets for the kids to find various items in each room, with space to draw what they saw and everyone enjoyed the morning. 

The armor was a favorite of all the boys, but there was an entire room of porcelain I could have lingered in a little longer. We had lunch at a cute spot near the museum called Fitzbillies which is a bakery on one side and a cafe on the other. 

I had eggs benedict England style-a crumpet instead of an English muffin and ham instead of Canadian bacon. Delish! We bought some Chelsea buns to take home too. 

It was drizzling when we came out of the restaurant so we ducked under cover at Pembroke College. This is the third oldest of the Cambridge colleges, founded in 1347 by the Countess of Pembroke. It was the first college to have it's own chapel, which just happened to be open. Visitors were invited to stop in so we did-

Another beautiful space. 

We were home for naps and rest before heading back out to the main street for dinner, which was another favorite-Indian food. Hubs has been waiting for this meal since day one and it did not disappoint. We ordered poppadoms to start and the toppings were served on this cute little tabletop cart you could roll. 

We laughed about the first time we had Indian food in the UK and the server asked if we wanted poppadoms. This was 20 years ago and we had no idea what poppadoms were, but eventually hubs just said sure, bring us some poppadoms. Then the server asked how many and hubs randomly said four even though we had no clue what we were getting. England is where we fell in love with Indian food. 

Saturday morning found us back on the futbol pitch. The sun was shining but it was chilly and we enjoyed watching the boys attack and defend and improve their skills with the ball in this exceptionally well-run program. 

My daughter and son-in-law had plans for a date day/evening so after lunch they headed to catch a train into London and we were left in charge of the littles. Nana played a lot of Uno. And chess. I have not played chess in decades, but I liked it and my 7-year old grandson knows all the rules. I told hubs we need to play chess when we're back home. 

We walked around the corner and picked up pizza for dinner, got everyone bathed and eventually to bed before the parents came home. They had a nice time together, but both said London was positively mobbed, and I guess that's just how it is now. 

I will have more to say about that in a later post, but we actually opted to hang out in Cambridge and the nearby countryside instead of going back into London this trip. Everything is a lot in terms of walking, transport, laundry!, etc. and then you add three kids to the mix and you've got to include some low key hours into your life or you'll be dragging everywhere you go.  

On Sunday we walked to a nearby pub for a fabulous Sunday roast (some of us had roast beef, and some turkey) and it was every bit as good as I remembered. Potatoes roasted in goose fat and a light and airy Yorkshire pudding make this a pretty perfect meal. 

We hung out at home afterwards, I wrapped two birthday presents and a few Christmas presents I brought with me, played more Uno (!!!), sort of organized my suitcase in preparation for the trip home, and caught up on my blog. 

And that was my weekend. How was yours? 

Of Castles And Carparks And Cruising The Countryside

On Wednesday we headed home (home to my daughter's, not home home), but not before making stops in two nearby towns. We mentioned to someone at the hotel that we were going to Harrogate and he said we should stop in Knaresborough which is right on the way. He said it was a cute little village with an aqueduct and we'd probably enjoy it. 

He didn't mention the ancient castle. 

Back in the 1170's Hugh de Morville and his followers took refuge in this village after assassinating Thomas Becket. 

The castle was taken in 1644 during the Civil War and mostly destroyed in 1648 because of an order from Parliament to dismantle all Royalist castles. 

Many of the buildings in the town center are built from 'castle stone'. 

Knaresborough is a market and spa town on the river Nidd. Discoveries in the area lead researchers to believe there was a strong Roman presence in the area, and Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. 

We walked through the market, the first one held here was in 1206, and then over to the castle ruins for a look inside? 

You do go inside but technically the inside is also outside now as it's just the ruins. 

The docent at the castle said we shouldn't miss the river walk so we climbed down another million stone stairs (I'm getting my steps without even trying this trip!) and got a closer look at the bridge too. 

There were homes and cafes along the water, and after walking a bit we trudged back up the hill and got in the car to make the short drive on to Harrogate. 

If you know my hubs you know he has great style. There's a men's shop in Harrogate he follows online so when we realized we'd be nearby we decided to see it in person. He and the owner chat back and forth from time to time so we were hoping to meet him. 

Harrogate is another spa town and the greenspace when you enter is amazing. The shop owner told hubs it's a 200 acre public parkland surrounding the city center and it's so pretty. We ate lunch at a spot called Farmhouse and both ordered Japanese bowls. They had a lot of breakfast type dishes on the menu, which I guess is where the name came from, but we both thought the Asian flavors in the bowls were fantastic!

I didn't take a picture of the bowl but I did snap one of the pretty tea service. 

Hubs did not have tea lol. 

We walked to the shop after lunch, and had the nicest time chatting with the gentleman working there. The owner was out and messaged hubs later he was sorry to miss us. 

Of course there was a shop dog who looked a lot like our pup at home and who we're missing. We take pictures of dogs. We can't help it. 

They had the most beautiful robes in this shop and I was thinking hey, maybe I'll get one for hubs for Christmas, but then I saw the price and-yowza!! I won't even print it here because you wouldn't believe it, but this particular company made the silk robes worn in Downton Abbey and these are similar if that gives you a clue.

We made it back to Cambridge in time for dinner with 'the kids' and the kid's kids and it felt good to be back in our home away from home. 

One of my favorite things about traipsing around England is discovering villages I'd never heard of until now. The small villages here all seem to hold some beauty, some historic significance, and usually an amazing church or cathedral. Plus you traverse lots of gorgeous English countryside to get to them and that's worth all the stress of driving on single track roads with signs saying two way traffic?!, and carparks that require super sharp 90 degree angled turns into spaces so narrow you have to slither out of your seat sideways. 

In the words of Oliver Wendell Douglas...'Land spreadin' out so far and wide, Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside!' 

York-Day Two

Continuing my recap of our road trip to York, which will now be three posts instead of two. I have pictures and they all need to go somewhere. 

Maybe not all, but many. 

We started the day Tuesday with breakfast in Middlethorpe's gorgeous dining room. So civilized. China cups and a small silver coffee pot on our table. No styrofoam. No shouting. 

Small jars of jam with a little silver serving spoon, a silver toast server, a very quiet space...so lovely.

After breakfast we walked the garden and grounds around the hotel. They know how to trim hedges in this country. 

These beauties were growing right outside our entry-

Clemson colors so I had to snap a pic. 

Middlethorpe Hall was built for Thomas Barlow who was a prosperous master cutler. I had to look up the word cutler, but basically it is someone who makes cutlery. 

One thing travel shows you is there is a lot you don't know. 

Middlethorpe was also once the home of the famous diarist, Lady Mary Wortley Montague who is said to be one of the most remarkable women of the 18th century. 

She was a writer and poet and campaigned for the introduction of smallpox inoculation in the UK. 

Later it was the family home of Fanny Rollo Wilkinson who was the first female professional landscape gardener in England. Living here was partly what inspired her to pursue 'gardening' as a career. 

After our walk we left Middlethorpe Hall and drove about fifteen miles north to beautiful Castle Howard. 

You may recognize the facade from the film Brideshead Revisited, the Netflix series Bridgerton where the house doubled as the Duke of Hasting's country home, and the ITV drama Victoria where the house doubled as Kensington Palace. 

Construction of Castle Howard began in 1699 but took over 100 years to complete, spanning the lifetimes of three Earls. 

The final appearance of the house bears only a partial resemblance to the original vision and it suffered significant damage during a fire that occurred in 1940. 

The fire started in a chimney and quickly spread, destroying rooms in the basement, the main and upper levels, as well as the incredible dome which collapsed into the Great Hall. It wasn't until 1960 that the dome was rebuilt, and then thanks to the filming of Brideshead Revisited, the Garden Hall was also rebuilt. 

Most of these homes have their own chapel, and this is the one in Castle Howard-

As you stroll the grounds of these amazing properties you cannot help but think about the cost of  maintaining so much land, so many old buildings with their old wiring, old plumbing, and antiquated systems of heating, as well as valuable works of art that need protecting and care. 

I'm sure it's the main reason they open family homes to the public for a fee and we get to enjoy visiting. 

Also, these places need constant dusting. Can you imagine? 

We toured the house then walked the grounds which are extensive.

 Lots of footpaths through the woods, and a path to the lake which leads you to a boathouse (now cafe). 

We enjoyed a cuppa beside the water before heading back into York city center to walk the walls. 

Walking around atop the walls of a city is something I love to do when given the chance. 

As we were making our way to the wall we passed the ruins of a Benedictine Abbey-St. Mary's, first built in 1088. It was at one time one of the most prosperous abbeys in Northern England, and the original church on this site was founded in 1055, dedicated to Saint Olaf. 

St. Mary's was started by William the Conqueror to reinforce his hold on the north and ended by Henry the VIII as a consequence of his reformation of the church. 

Today you can see remains of the walls of the nave, where the monks prayed and sang, and the cloister where they washed their clothes and were allowed to speak. 

As we headed toward the stairwell hubs, with his eagle eye, spotted a gentleman standing with his wife and daughter, wearing a hat from our local hometown hockey team. Always fun to see a little reminder of home. We spoke briefly and I continue to marvel at what a small big world it really is. 

We climbed the stairs to the top of the wall and walked for a while before noticing a beautiful garden just below. We headed down to get a closer look and ended up going inside the property (Gray's Court Hotel). The weather wasn't quite as perfect as their garden, but the inside was lovely too, so we had some bubbly and a pint because hey, we're on holiday. 

Grays' Court was built on the site of a Roman fortress and has been continuously occupied since the 11th century-1091. Not as a hotel of course, but there's been something happening in this spot for close to 1000 years. 

Old takes on a whole new meaning on this side of the pond.