Aachoo!

 ‘Tis the season! Everyone’s a sneezin’. Hayfever season has officially reached London. We went to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace today and it was packed with people and all of them were sneezing. The seeds and pollen are blowing around in today’s warm winds and getting in everyone’s eyes and creating sinus havoc too.

Here’s the promised pictures from yesterday and a few from the changing of the guard this morning. Technology allowed me to import the photos today but not to put a caption on each one. Most are self-explanatory.

A gorgeous restaurant setting in Duke of York Square

These are the images from the blue denim Textile display at the Saatchi Gallery. 

This is a completely embroidered picture. Amazing talent. 

County Hall, site of Witness for the Prosecution play

Blue on Blue and The Michelin Man

Yesterday we arrived in London having spent the afternoon on an uneventful train journey from York. This morning we awoke to brilliant sunshine. It’s still slightly cool but it’s a beautiful day and we will welcome any and all sunshine. 

There’s a strike at the tube stations today throughout most of London (depending which lines you use) but it is supposed to affect all forms of transportation. So we walked to our destinations today. We explored the South Kensington and Chelsea areas this morning. Much to our surprise we came upon a Michelin Man mosaic/stained glass signage up above a big shop. It was unexpected. 

We weren’t too familiar with the Chelsea part of London even though it’s pretty close to us.  There were lots of interesting shops to browse and we luckily stumbled on the Duke of York Square which is also home to a large track field and an inner cricket field. There were a group of school kids practicing on the green and running around the track. It’s quite neat as it’s all contained with a walled-off section from the retail areas but there are restaurants running off of it. And the Saatchi Gallery is within the area. 

The Saatchi Gallery was a brilliant find. It’s free for much of the galleries and the one we were interested in was a Textile Art display. I’ll post pictures of the blue denim art scene depicted by one of the featured artists. It’s amazing to realize that it is composed of all cut-up pieces of denim. There was an exhibit of embroidery art of an elderly woman. You have to look up so close to see the amazing handiwork. It was a fun exhibit to stumble across. 

On the way back to our hotel we intentionally walked through the Chelsea neighbourhood to see the multi-family homes and the gorgeous gardens that are really starting to bloom. If you’re into flowers you’ll enjoy the photos. Otherwise skip them. 

And tonight we are off to see Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution” at the County Hall. We were too late getting tickets to be part of the jury. It’s a really great venue for this type of a show. Getting to and fro was going to be quite the challenge with the tube strike so we used Uber and it worked really well. The play was very entertaining and enjoyable and David figured out the twist (or remembered it)!

Technology is not working tonight so the photos will show up tomorrow. 

A Purveyance of Draughts for Emotional Ailments

 Sunday here in York is quite a bit quieter than yesterday which is a bit of a relief. It’s easier to get down the narrow roads and to walk on the sidewalks—we forget how pedestrian traffic on its own can create a bottleneck.

We started out the day by visiting the Jorvik Centre which is all about the Vikings. In the 1960s and 1970s when doing some excavating work the local York people came across an entire Viking village in the archaeological dig. Over the last five or six decades the Jorvik Centre has worked on educating tourists with a few different iterations of visiting the Viking village. The one currently in use (others were destroyed by floods) ties advantages of technology and modern practices to create a scene to look into  Viking history. It actually has an underground monorail type ride that takes you through a recreated Viking village. In many ways it reminded us of an educational ride, but Paris Disneyland style. We learned that the Viking streets in the village could be a pretty stinky place and saw representations of the Vikings in their shops and homes and communities. 

After the Viking tour we walked around the wall that surrounds the city of York. Well we didn’t do all of it it, but most of it. In the afternoon we explored the neighbourhood closed off to vehicular traffic. There are some unique shops here and we stumbled upon one this afternoon and it was very entertaining.

View from one of the bridges in York

Dare I say an aging tourist walking the wall. 

Examples of the new developments of renovated buildings. 

Another perspective on York Minster undergoing a big renovation. 

More walking along the wall minus the aging tourist—who we assure you did not fall off the wall, unlike Humpty Dumpty. 

York development seems to really focus on renovations of the old building stock. There are some gorgeous new residences beside the river. 

Not sure if you can read the window sign: it says, “A Poetic Licence for the Purveyance of Draughts, Tonics and Prescriptions of Verse.” My kind of place!

We ended the afternoon by attending the Choral Evensong Service at York Minster. There was a visiting choir called the Saffron Choir that was substituting for the York Minster choir. They were so talented. It was a beautiful service in an incredible building. The sound of the organ from where we sat in the choir stalls was unbelievable. The church bells rang much of the afternoon.  

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign

 We came down from the mountain today and drove from Aboyne to York. It was a pleasant 6 hour drive with not too much traffic as we got an early start. Good news— we did not get lost. The weather can change quickly here although we have not had the snow I hear you’re having back home. Here the snow is just in the mountain tops where they’re still doing a little skiing we understand. 

The York of today is very different from the York of ten days ago. We were sure something special must be happening today but it turns out it’s just a regular weekend in York. The streets were all very crowded with people and the old town was very popular as all of the bars and restaurants were packed with lines out the door of people waiting to get a seat. We ate just next to the bridge at a tiny restaurant called Sophie’s. 

Barb’s notable signs for today are posted below in the pictures. 

Yes it does say Fancy Hanks. 

If you can enlarge it there’s an explanation for the sign name above. 

Signs of spring and warmer days were evident today. Flowers have bloomed  since we were last here. 

The King’s House

Quiet

 It’s Friday and our last evening in Aboyne. It’s been a lovely stay in this more northern part of Scotland. The mountains are gorgeous and all of the daffodils in bloom give a brightness to the day. The magnificent magnolia tree outside our window is oh so close to blooming but I don’t think it will happen before we leave. It was a very drizzly day here so we opted out of our plans to walk and hike the trails around town and went to revisit the art galleries again. Now pleasantly burdened with a few pieces of art to remember our visit, we spent a lazy afternoon reading and catching up on newspapers. The rain did stop later this afternoon so we took a gentle stroll through the neighbourhood and grounds of the estate we’re staying on, admiring  the flowers and plantings. And birdsong kept us company all of the way. 

Songbirds and A Little Toy Train

 Yesterday we drove from Aboyne all the way up the east side of Scotland to the northern tip called Fraserburg. This is the spot where the North Sea meets the Firth of Moray. It’s also home to the Museum of Lighthouses of Scotland. We learned a lot—being land faring folk. We started out the morning touring the museum and reading about all of the different lenses involved in lighthouses and learning about the way of life for the lighthouse keeper. Then we went on a tour with a guide who walked us all the way to the top of the lighthouse. It’s a lot of steps, but it’s done in stages, so it wasn’t overwhelming. The last stage is a bit surprising as the spiral staircase is suddenly replaced with a metal ladder with no back on the steps that goes straight up into the top of the lighthouse. It’s very small up there. The guide explained that each lighthouse has to have its own light code or pattern so sailors know where their ships are located. There’s a neat picture of David and I reflected in the lens of one of the old lights that is showing us upside down. It was pretty cool. I think those were the refractive lenses. Each lighthouse aspirant had to be able to survive life in three different scenarios: being stationed on the rock (with no family, just colleagues), being stationed on an island (where family are allowed to live with you) and life in a community. It’s a lonely occupation and it requires special skills to adapt to the isolation. 

Today we headed straight to Balmoral Castle. You’re permitted to tour the grounds and the conservatory but the only inside room you will see in the castle is the Ballroom. It’s definitely worth the trip. We were the first ones ticketed to get in today so it was nice and quiet and the serenity added nicely to the regal nature of the location. The gardens and conservatory were also very pretty even though most greenery is not yet in bloom—albeit in another month they will be stunning, I’m sure. 

Balmoral Castle and grounds

The brown wool and white wool are in use in this vegetable garden. Read more below. 

This explains how they are trying to use wool in gardens. 

The castle is set on grounds that include many old forests. The tree trunks are enormous. 

For supper tonight we walked down to the local pub, The Boat Inn, and had a delightful evening meeting a family celebrating the Dad’s 50th birthday. They had five kids in range from twelve to one and the twelve-year-old and the Dad were very interested in what life was like in Canada. This pub had a train that went around the top of the room along the ceiling. David was thrilled. You just can’t take the little boy out of some people!! Walking on our way back to our place the songbirds were out in full force—something we never seem to get enough of in Scotland. We are so enjoying all of the opportunities to do lots of walking. 

Look up, way up! Little toy trains.