July 22, Tuesday

We left our house and headed back to the York Starbucks for what is turning out to be a daily routine.  Adam is catching up on work, and I’m sitting across from a sign that reads “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” I can’t decide if this is profound or just profound-sounding bullshit.  I don’t have to time to think about it now, which is why I’m recording it here … I’ll think about it later when we get back home.  It’s a note to self.

After we finished all our online work at Starbucks, we wandered around a new part of York.  We found a street that has a bunch of independently run junk booths, kind of like a big, formalized garage sale.  Yippee!

I found a sage green Wedgwood dish for only £6.  I am thrilled to have it because I wanted to buy some Wedgwood at the factory the other day but was very much priced out.  That stuff is expensive.  I understand why, when I saw how much time and expertise goes into making it (not mass-produced) but still …. we’ve found quite a few of the mismatched smaller pieces for sale in antique shops around the country.  If you don’t mind a few tiny chipped edges, you can get some pieces for downright reasonable prices.  The one I bought has a small chip on the inside of the lid, which doesn’t show when the lid is on.  Good enough for me!

I’m including this next photo because it shows my dress.

In May I took Isabella shopping for a new dress to wear to a school dance and I suggested this one because it was one of the only dresses we found that met the strict dress code regulations set forth by her school.  She took one look at it and said “ohmygod EW! that’s the ugliest dress I’ve ever seen, gross — NO.”  So, I tried it on myself and liked it.  This is the first time I’ve worn it since I bought it and I still like it.  It has a 60s flair to it that I find uplifting and fun.

Isabella hassled me all day today.  So, here is a picture of me in what is either a very ugly dress or a very cool dress.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  She said she hated my wool hat, too, and then ended up borrowing it, so I’m looking forward to the day she emerges from my closet with this dress on.

Little canal in York.  

Old people hanging out next to an even older house. 

Josie saw this floating in the canal and screeched, “There’s a dead body!”  We had a few seconds of terrified freaking out before realizing it was just a blow-up doll.  

Harewood House.  Princess Mary at one time lived here.  It looks fancy, but it’s a hovel compared to the Castle Howard from a couple days ago.  (The Howard family had it significantly better than the royal family.)

Harewood House was designed by Robert Adam in 1759 and 1771 for wealthy trader Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood.  Robert Adam was really into fancy ceilings.  He designed rooms (including furnishings) around the ceilings.  In most rooms, he also designed rugs to echo the colors and designs of the ceiling decorations.  

This house is famous for two things:  and endless collection of Chippendale furniture, and the Adam ceilings.  Most of the ceilings have been carefully restored to their original color schemes, after having been changed over the years by residents of the house.  Every successive generation had it’s own taste and redecorated to make it “theirs.”  Some of the wonderful original aspects have been lost forever because of this, but luckily the architect kept scrupulous notes (including colors used) so restoration has been possible.

Whenever possible, the restoration team has used the exact colors that were originally used.  They were much brighter and prettier than you generally expect.  So many of the old rooms we see now have faded to the point they are mere ghosts of their original selves, but we think of them as having looked like that always.  The old days just weren’t as gloomy and dark as we tend to envision. 

This bedroom was built specifically for visiting royalty.  Only two royals ever visited here (I don’t remember which ones) and the room was eventually dismantled and stored in the attic so the space could be turned into a sitting room.  Because of this, the wall paper, fabrics, etc. stayed in fantastic condition.  They weren’t deteriorated by smoke, sunlight, gas lamps, etc.

Today it has been re-installed in all it’s original glory, fit for a Queen. (All the furniture in this room is Chippendale, including that ornate gilded mirror.  The bed was commissioned for £250 and is likely the most expensive piece of furniture ever produced by Chippendale.)  

Here is an example of one of the Adam ceilings.  

Detail of the ceiling.  They ALL looked like this.

The only kind of selfie Adam ever takes.  (You can see him in the mirror if you look closely.)

Front entrance. 

This house was unique in that they opened up the servants’ rooms to the public.  You can go downstairs and see the kitchens, dorm rooms, etc. used by the staff and servants. 

When the house was modernized with electricity, a new (modern) kitchen was installed and this old kitchen was no longer used.  The pots, pans, tables, etc. are in original old condition.  The place was sealed off and forgotten for years, like a time capsule.  

Back yard.  

Today is Adam’s and my 19th wedding anniversary.  We had tentative plans to go out to dinner, just the two of us, at the pub next to our house; however, after a long day of walking around and being out, we ended up putting on our pajamas and opening a bottle of wine.  After a glass of wine and some nice cheese and crackers, we decided neither of us felt like putting our going-out clothes back on.  So, we celebrated our 19 years of wedded bliss in our pjs watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory and Come Dine With Me since that’s all they ever air on TV over here.  It was a really nice evening.

July 23, Wednesday

Once again, our day begins at Starbucks.  Sincere thanks to the Starbucks company for providing free wifi in their restaurants.  I don’t know what we would have done this week without it.  The kids and I rely on it to stay connected with people, and — most important of all — Adam needs it for work.

After getting our stuff done, we walked the top of the York city wall.  We walked part of it yesterday, but not this section.

I was unhappy because this part doesn’t have a safety railing.  I spent the entire walk yelling, “Get away from the edge!  Hug the wall!”  The whole family thought I was being an overprotective worrywart, but I pointed out that Isabella managed to completely wreck her ankle on a 1.5 inch ledge.  This ledge is several feet, which would result in a broken neck and paralysis or death rather than a temporarily crippled ankle.  

I know it doesn’t look so dangerous here, but believe me … it was.  Gives me the shudders.  

I love the York Minster towers over the city.  It looks fake, but it’s not.  It’s such a cool view.    I walked most of this wall with Holden.  I can’t remember what we talked about — nothing important — but he chatted my ear off the entire time.  I love that kid!

Josie on the wall.  The drop became much shorter here, and I started to relax a little.

Holden still chatting away.  

The old guard gates on the wall have all been converted into tea rooms, pubs, and restaurants.  This one (circular roof) is a tea room.  Pigeons have been standing on this roof for a very long time.  

We found a park, and in it they had set up a bird of prey area.  I paid the £3 to hold a barn owl because I will never pass up an opportunity to handle a bird.  This sweet little guy was bred in captivity and hand-raised, so he was really tame.  

He let me pet him.  My expertise is with parrots, so I was testing out his limits here.  I don’t know exactly how similar owls and parrots are in the way they interact with humans.  

This girl was wearing a Supernatural necklace, which had Isabella all excited.  She loves that show.  For Isabella, the necklace was a lot more exciting than the owls.  

As it turns out, owls love having their heads massaged exactly the same way parrots love to have their heads massaged.  Birds will be birds.  This little guy and I got along really well.  I didn’t want to give him back.  

The King’s Manor.  It has a long history — started out as a place to house the abbots of St. Mary’s Abbey.  The abbey was dissolved in 1539, and King Henry VIII instructed that it be the seat of the Council of the North.  (How Game of Thrones does that sound?!) The Council was abolished in 1641.  It ended up being a School for the Blind, which lasted until 1958.  (So recent!)  It wasn’t used again until 1963 when it was leased to the University of York as the seat of it’s archaeology department, which is what it still is today.  

Isabella’s “don’t photograph me!” pose.

Holden looking tall thanks to a wide-angle lens.

We had lunch in this restaurant, in a 16th century house.

I love how wobbly and uneven all these houses are.  They have a real Alice in Wonderland feel to them.  Even the window glass is wavy, so when you look outside the world is a bit surreal.  

Back at the open air market, Isabella bought a birthday present for one of her friends.  She’s already got a sleepover birthday party lined up for the day after we get home.

Back in The Shambles.  The kids were looking for their favorite candy store. 

Found it.  They sell a glass jar full of things called “pips” that are basically gigantic pop rocks.  We’ve never seen them anywhere else.  They all bought some the other day, and decided they needed to stock up on extra to take home.  This was a stockpile run.  

Poor Josie developed a blister.  I didn’t have any band-aids in my purse, but for some unknown reason I did have a package of cotton balls.  I don’t remember putting them in there.  Anyway, she stuffed a cotton ball between her toes and it worked well enough to get her through the rest of the day.

The last thing we did was the York Dungeon.  It was the same concept as the Edinburgh Dungeon we did several weeks ago.  They have actors and special effects to bring the history alive.  This one was focused on the gory and awful aspects of York life, of course, so the stories were different than the ones we saw in Edinburgh.  The acting was better in this one — or, perhaps to be more fair, I was able to understand the actors much better in York than I did in Edinburgh.  The York accents are easier to mentally “translate.”  But, they didn’t have the boat ride or the hangman’s drop at the end.  I was a little afraid this would just be a repeat of the Edinburgh experience, but it was different enough to be fun.  I’d recommend doing both of them.

Near the end of the tour, one of the actors grabbed my arm and shuffled me off to one side.  Would I mind being a witch getting burned at the stake?  I said OK  because I didn’t want to be a spoilsport, even though this is really not my kind of thing.

I was supposed to scream and act like a person being burned to “put on a good show for my friends” (which was written on a plaque in front of me) and I sucked.  I am not a good actor.

Anyway, here is a very blurry photo of me, the white figure behind the fire, tied to a big thing of sticks.  It was really dark in this room and Adam had to use a 32-second exposure (hand-held) so it’s not great, but it’s the only photo we have of the Dungeon.

Shortly after Adam took this picture, they turned the lights out so that it was pitch black in the room and that pile of sticks spun around on a platform.  When the lights came back on, the side facing the audience had a horribly charred skeleton on it.  (I was hidden, facing the wall.)  The kids LOVED watching Mama get burned at the stake for being a witch.