29th October, 2015...A 'Grand' visit to York!

We had some lovely weather over in Yorkshire earlier in the week....what's happened down at Furness Abbey today...it's pouring( but rather atmospheric!).

 

 

 

 

We've been so immersed in history this week....the hotel we stayed at in York added an interesting twist to this. Our usual place was booked up, so we thought- the Grand Hotel and Spa looked our sort of place, let's give it a try. It turned out to have been built as the headquarters of the lucrative Edwardian North Eastern Railway and superbly renovated to keep those features-wrought iron staircases, marble tiled floors, oak panelling, every bedroom had it's former Edwardian door and office number, the NER boardroom is one of the function rooms, but as a hotel it is also luxurious! A bit pricey though, but worth it!

 

 

 

 

It is also used as a wedding venue, which made the SteveHillman Camera quite envious! Must mention last week's wedding fair at Abbey House...our Gracie was a superb saleswoman and Steve Hillman cannot quite believe that he is the genius behind the photographic side of Abbey House's new wedding web site...check it out!!

 

http://www.exclusiveweddingplanners.com

 

 

http://www.abbeyhousehotel.com/weddings-overview/

 

 

Can't beat our old favourite, York Minster though! We did try out the National Railway museum and the Yorkshire museum this time too, and they are really worth a visit, though only scratching the surface of what York has for tourists!

 

 

We did laugh when we looked at this photo...nana the refugee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids......!

 

 

Fascinating display about Richard the Third- they had an actual skeleton of a soldier found in a mass grave after the Battle of Towton, where Lord Clifford of York played an integral part...a rather spooky atmosphere inside this display!

 

 

 

 

Lots of Viking gold found in Jorvik too! I thought the new Viking TV series based on Bernard Cornwell's books was quite well done...many details were acceptable, unlike some historical

docu-dramas!

 

 

My mother....the ice age hunter-gatherer!! We visited the remains of  Norman Benedictine Abbey too...even older than Furness Abbey!

 

 

 

 

 

A lovely way to end October.....

 

 

 

...happy Hallowe'en!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18th October, 2015...Wainwright and where I trained!!

First day off for over a fortnight...we both seem to be working 10-12 hour days at the moment, six days a week...thank goodness half-term is looming. Many autumnal changes at Furness Abbey since we were here last!

                       Lovely to see it so busy...not so good for getting a seat to have a cup of tea!

 

 

We had an interesting visit from Cumbria Archives Officers last week...they have the full Alfred Wainwright archive, which they bring in to school and let children 'interrogate'. It did bring Wainwright to life in the classroom.....

 

 

 

 

...which really helped with a visit we made earlier this week, to my old stomping ground....

 

 

...and it looked as lovely as ever!

 

 

 

 

Ambleside was a rather quiet place to go to college, but after a frenetic year at Kings in London, that suited me very well. Charlotte Mason produced lots of brilliant teachers, many of whom are now local school leaders. I have the best of both worlds...I am a full time classroom teacher (which I love) and also a full time manager (which is harder, but which I also love)...as I said, Charlotte Mason churned out the elite!!!!

 

 

Can't beat a bit of water......

 

 

...a bit of sketching.....

 

 

...and an ice cream!!! The Water Head café had a field day...we went in and said " sixty ice creams, four coffees and two teas please" and within fifteen minutes we had just that...superb service!

 

 

Ambleside was beautiful in the autumn sunshine...well worth a visit! And whilst the children had their lunch and played in the park, my colleagues and I reminisced about out teacher training days, the start of the lives we now live...we rarely get the chance to talk whilst we are on the shop floor because as soon as you step over the school threshold on  Monday morning, you are a 'teacher' doing your job and you don't stop again until the end of the school day on Friday... I wouldn't want it to be any other way, despite how tired we sometimes moan we are! I've been lucky over the years to work with two 'bosses' who also believe this...I've got no time for teachers who don't!

 

 

Mrs J and I need this on tee shirts at the moment I think!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th October, 2015...Looking forward and looking back!

After a beautiful week of weather viewed from a classroom window, we woke up to a flat, grey day, rather misty, and cold enough for coats!! We kind of like Furness Abbey with that sort of weather as a back drop...it's a bit...La Bell Dame sans merci....

O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.....                       ....flat and grey, like I said! However, the Steve Hillman camera has taken some lovely photos this week which do make the most of the sunshine.....         .....he does get about a bit through the week! The colours of autumn are starting to show themselves down here at the moment....           ...but the beck is so dry, you can walk along it...let's hope for some rain this week!       Beautiful wedding for the Steve Hillman camera yesterday ( I have to say CAMERA because he had a disaster at the start of it and dropped one of his cameras, putting it out of action, so he had to shoot the whole thing on ONE camera...I thought that's what he did anyway! Still looks good though!). We know the bride, and she looked lovely....     ...and the Lake cruise was a bonus, if a little cold!       And he did get a shot of Langdale Chase, where we have been invited for Christmas lunch this year!! The Hillmans and Exleys hob-nobbing with Mr. Nobblet himself!!     We have had a bit of nostalgia this week because I woke up with a sound track playing in my head, as I often do, and this day it was Styx's famous Babe...a real blast from our past, so we've dug out all our Styx albums and been listening to them....Pomp Rock!!!         Tommy Shaw on guitar...can't beat that!   www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBi61pgDUP8!!