5 Bratton White Horse

When I first read about the chalk horses scattered around Great Britain, I was of course, intrigued. I can't remember where I first heard about them; perhaps Atlas Obscura (a collection of some of the world's greatest and most fascinating wonders- I found The Garden of Cosmic Speculation on there!) but I'm not certain.

I digress, though. The Bratton White Horse, also known as the Westbury White Horse, is located in the Salisbury Plain. I found the approximate location in our English Heritage guide and it was mostly on the route between Salisbury and Avebury, so Paul wasn't too annoyed by my fascination with this particular weird and wonderful (he's not as keen on jumping at any festival or strange site).
But anyway. Chalk horses and other hill figures have a murky and vague history; some are prehistoric and others are quite modern, but done in a sort of homage or re-creation of the older ones.  The usual method is to cut away the top soil and expose the chalk layer, which requires maintenance over time.
As for the Bratton Horse specifically, he was excavated and restored in the 18th century. The current shape has been altered from the ancient form, even turned to face the opposite direction, and was just restored again a few years ago.

We didn't walk over to the figure due to time, but the view we got wasn't too bad, I think!

12 Salisbury Cathedral

In September we took a quick 3-day trip down to Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Avebury. To say it was a whirlwind would be an understatement and our lack of time did a great disservice to both of these amazing cities. We will get back to each of these historic places one day. In the meantime, I've got my pictures from our little jaunt.
Salisbury Cathedral sits in a lovely green space, which was filled with people enjoying the beautiful day. A bit envious of their leisure, we hurried into the cathedral to crane our necks in awe once again.

The main part of the cathedral was completed in a very quick 38 years during the mid-13th century, and has the tallest spire in the United Kingdom.

A large reflective four-pointed... shape... is in the center of the nave.  It offers a new perspective as well as a break for the neck-craning.

I just love the ceilings. I want elaborate ceilings everywhere.

I also love arches, especially painted ones.

The Quire stalls are the largest in Britain as well as being the first completed. I love the intricate carvings of most quire stalls, but the animals on this one were especially fascinating!

Salisbury Cathedral's Chapter House is also home to the best preserved copy of the Magna Carta, and one of only four of the original 1215 version (no photographs allowed, though). Another copy resides at Lincoln Castle, which we unfortunately weren't able to see during our visit to Lincoln. We'll be back, though!

The cloister, as usual, was Paul's favorite part. I wouldn't turn it down, either!

When you go to Stonehenge (more on that in a future post), be sure to take some time around Salisbury. Not only is it a charming city, but its beautiful cathedral inspired an incredible novel, Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth, which I strongly recommend reading before you visit any of Europe's incredible cathedrals and abbeys.  If you're not a reader, well, then, just be astonished and amazed at the immense beauty in these masterpieces of architecture.


Can you tell I miss Great Britain?!?

7 A Liberty Christmas

Having a big move right before the holidays isn't easy, although I'm hard-pressed to pick a time of year that would be "easy" to move your entire lives- two humans, two dogs, one cat-dog, five checked bags, four carryons, one anthropomorphized Element named Watson, 10.5 crates of junk crap necessary items (luckily Paul doesn't come around these blog-parts often!- across the ocean.
Anyway, all that was just to say that it's a good thing we're not super-holiday people. We're more likely to take advantage of some days off to either do a bit of traveling or to just have some nice relaxation at home. Paul does enjoy a real Christmas tree, though, so when we first got married I began slowly collecting ornaments. Most of them are souvenirs from trips we've taken, but there are a few other, more traditional ones, that I got at after-Christmas sales. It's made a task I would normally see as a pain- a couple hours' work and some money spent on a mostly disposable thing that requires a lot of clean up- to be a fun time to reminisce and think about our trips and see all these bits that I've hand-selected for us to enjoy.  When we were at Lowe's a few weeks ago, I walked through the Christmas trees all lined up and thought "hmm... Paul's gonna want one this year!" despite his having denied it previously (due to the whole lack of funds thing from the first paragraph. See? It all ties in eventually.). Sure enough, as we were picking out our herb seeds we went there for, he commented that smelling the Douglas firs sure was nice...
So this weekend we're getting a Christmas tree. It'll be a smaller one, and if our stored-for-three-years lights don't work, we won't be purchasing new ones yet, (that said, we didn't bother buying new strings of lights in England and I liked it better...) but we will have a bit of Christmas in our house- even though our Christmas "presents" won't fit under a tree!!

Since December starts tomorrow and in honor of Christmas arriving at our house this weekend, I decided it's a good time to post my pictures (taken October 2) from Liberty's Christmas Shop. After enjoying Bloggers' Afternoon Tea, Selena, Becky, and I strolled over to Liberty- where we ran into several of the other ladies who were at the tea! We all wandered around the building, drooling dreaming over gorgeous fabrics, planning clever crafts, and devising just the right place in our homes for each item.

Displays of ornaments were in every nook and corner.

Despite their being lined up in rows, each one seemed delicately crafted- obviously meant to last for years and years as a cherished decoration.

Of course, Christmas crackers lined some displays!

They're just so lovely all on their own- I'd have a hard time pulling them!

These brightly colored jingle balls were tempting- but thinking of the 2AM "fun" Mia would have with them prompted me to leave with only a picture of them!

I lean towards the more natural ornaments, so these caught my eye.

Colour-schemed tabletops displayed ornaments and baubles like treats and delicacies.

I'm definitely drawn to blue ornaments, and these turquoise ones had just the sparkle!

Next week I'll show you the two ornaments I did pick up as last-minute souvenirs of our time in England, as well as some of my other favorites as I pull them out to decorate our tree!

Have you started your holiday festivities already, or is this weekend the big kick-off for your house as well?

Edit: Selena posted her pictures from Liberty today as well! Check them out here.

5 Victorian (and other eras) Medicine Bottles

I developed a bit of a fascination with old medicine bottles whilst living in England. At car boot sales (a type of flea market, where people might literally sell things out of their car's boot/trunk), there would often be a few tables set up selling these bottles. Sometimes they'd be ridiculously priced, and I'd walk away, but often, late in the day, the vendors were eager to return home with empty trunks, and I'd be able to talk them into giving me a great deal. I'd talk up the colors, and how they catch the light- I made sure not to let on that I'd actually done a bit of research into the real value of these bottles, particularly in the States.  In England, and I'm sure most of Europe, there are mounds of these in buried tips (dumps/trash facilities), and many people, often retired men, "dig for bottles" as a hobby. Some do it for a bit of income, but most of the ones I ran into did it purely out of fun and a love for the adventure of treasure-seeking. They often were selling them mostly to make space for more!  Anyway, between a few car boot sale trips and a lucky snag of a milk-crate full of them at our auction house, I amassed a bit of a collection. I was just setting some of my favorites on a display shelf when the dogs barreled past in their quest for nuisance-ry (they wanted to bark at something in the backyard), and my bottles shook a bit more than I'm comfortable with, so clearly they will need to find a new spot in this house- one more sturdy and less trafficked by paws.
I was enjoying the sun beaming through them, though, so before I nestled them back in their temporary box I decided to take a few pictures.

This weekend we're hoping to do a bit more exploring, a lot more unpacking, and make some plans for next week, specifically picking up Watson (my Honda Element, in case you're not familiar with my brand of crazy)! I'm pretty excited to have him back, and I know the dogs will be as well!!
I hope your weekend's lovely- anything fun on your calendar?

6 The History Wardrobe at Ilkley Literature Festival

A good friend of mine invited me (and several other friends from our book club) to The History Wardrobe's presentation "Agatha Christie & Art Deco" at the Ilkley Literature Festival.  Ilkley is a lovely town about half an hour (17 miles) from Harrogate, and so drew on Harrogate's proud attachment to Ms. Christie (here).  I'd not heard of The History Wardrobe before, but when Lexi and I met up in Edinburgh she said it was wonderful- and I trust her opinion, both for taste and for her literary expertise!
The performance was October 7- the day before our family was leaving Harrogate. This may have seemed like a stressful time to plan one more thing, but we were living in the holiday apartment, the pets' last vet appointment was the Friday before, and our Monday was going to be busy, but that Sunday? I could think of nothing better than a good show as a last hurrah with a great group of friends.

The History Wardrobe is a small collective of women (and one man!) who bring past eras alive through dress, accessories, and literature. This particular performance derives it's timeline from Ms. Christie's life, touching on stories from her personal life as well as from her books. All of the props and costumes are authentic pieces, but usually they are slightly damaged or in some way less desirable for museums and permanent collections- but this just means that we can touch them!! After the performance, guests were allowed on stage to view the items up close- and the stage was PACKED, as I think we were all itching to get our fingers on these historical pieces! I tried my best to snap a few pictures...

Lucy Adlington and Merry Towne were our hosts through the beginning of the 20th century. Several costume changes showed us both how women's dress evolved and how the different characters in society (and in Ms. Christie's books) would have acted in accordance with their attire- something described in great detail in most of the mysteries. 

The changing curtain where our characters emerged.

Some of the props.  Those cloche hats are back in style now!

Easily the most popular costume piece- a sequined shawl that sparkled and danced in the stage lights. My pictures do it no justice whatsoever!

I'm sure there are literary festivals and other "living history" performances throughout the States- and, with my regret in not having discovered them sooner in England, I plan to seek them out and take full advantage of them! Do you know of any?

7 Sloan's Last Trip to Brimham: I'm Calling This One for the Dogs

 If you've got furry kids, or if you're someone with human kids who has friends with furry kids, I'm sure you've taken part in the debate.

Human Kids vs. Dogs/Cats: Which Are Easier/Better?

I've definitely had my turns in this never-ending competition, and, to be honest, I think it's a draw- sure, you can leave dogs at home without a sitter when you run errands, but human kids are also welcome more places (especially in America-land). Human kids grow up too fast? Sure, but knock on wood, you get them in your life a whole lot longer than (an optimistic) 15-18 years. So shut up.  Dogs lick their butts and scoot on the carpet? Human kids do drugs.  (No, not all do, but then, not all dogs scoot, either.)

Anyway, my point is that I think having to leave somewhere they obviously love is harder for pets (dogs specifically in this post) because they don't know it's their last time. 

Friday, September 28, we had our fast shipment packed up and moved out of our house for good.  Between that little pack-out and house-cleaning, we took a late-afternoon break to go to Brimham Rocks (lots of links in the first paragraph of this post) for the last time. Watson (my Element) was scheduled to be cleaned and wait to be shipped the next morning and our National Trust membership expired that Sunday, so it was clearly a "now or never" time. We popped both dogs in the car and, as usual, Sloan got wiggle-butt excited as soon as she recognized the route.  Brimham was fairly empty, which we appreciated.  Both dogs were able to run around, sniffing, chasing, and hurtling through the heather without a care. 

I wanted to get one last picture of the two of them with Nidderdale as their backdrop, but they weren't interested in cooperating!

We moseyed around, both Paul and I walking slower and slower as we took in the beauty of our surroundings as well as the complete joy on Sloan's face. The tears I was fighting began to win, and I told Paul "She doesn't even know. And we have no way to tell her." 

That's a happy tush.

The rain earlier in the day gave us a double rainbow (the second rainbow's barely visible here, but it's to the right of the brighter one). Rainbows and double rainbows aren't uncommon in Great Britain, but that one really hit my heart, and made me smile through my watery eyes. 

We stayed for a while, playing fetch and sitting on rocks as the dogs sniffed puddles and chased imaginary beasties. I wondered out loud if it wasn't better that Sloan didn't know, because then she might not have been so carefree; so every-day in her fun. She was spared the bittersweet that Paul and I were feeling.

I know that Paul and I will see North Yorkshire again, even if it's just for a visit here and there, but common sense tells me that's not likely for Sloan (or Max & Mia).  We're lucky enough to have pictures (hundreds of them, in fact) to help trigger our memories of her favorite place, but I hope that, when Sloan's running in her dreams and kicking me during the night, she's bounding through the thick heather and leaping off the tall rocks at the Brimham in her mind. 

11 Goodbye

There are places I'll remember all my life,

though some have changed.
Some forever, not for better.
Some have gone and some remain.

All these places have their moments with lovers and friends,
I still can recall.

Some are dead and some are living;
In my life, I've loved them all.

But of all these friends and lovers,
there is no one, compares with you.

And these memories lose their meaning, 
when I think of love as something new.

Though I know I'll never lose affection for people and things that went before,
I know I'll often stop and think about them;

In my life, I love you more.

In my life, I love you more.

Many, many thanks to Lennon/McCartney and The Beatles. This song has long been one of my favorites, but has come to mean something so dear since living here. I don't know how long hearing it will make me burst into tears, but I promise, they're thankful, joyful tears- because I got to call God's Own Country home for three beautiful years.

disclaimer: Paul isn't pictured because he hates being in pictures, so my selection is limited. Mia's not pictured because nearly all of my pictures of her are indoors and sadly, don't show the beauty of Yorkshire. Also, the first picture of the dogs is actually from Jedburgh Abbey, The Borders, Scotland.  I just love it.