Easter in England
It seems months ago when hot cross buns began to dominate the bakery shelves in the supermarkets. Apparently those celebrated buns are derigueur Easter morning fare in English households. The supermarket shelves have also been filled with tons of brightly wrapped chocolate eggs and bunnies and lambs. At Bettys, Harrogate's premier cafe and pastry shop, we have seen some spectacularly decorated choclate eggs on display. They are artful enough to appear in a museum. Also considered Easter fare, at least at Bettys, is a confection called a Simnel Cake, basically a fruit cake with a super sweet marzipan icing. I think, however, the Simnel Cake hearkens to the Swiss owner and founder's tradition rather than that of the locals. At any rate, it confirms my notion that the British are mad about fruit cakes for they are consumed voraciously at Christmas time as well.
I asked an Engliswoman woman what was considered traditional fare for Easter dinner in most English households. She replied that there was no real favorite and that her family usually has a turkey. Despite her response, I suspect that roast lamb is a favorite, especially here in North Yorkshire where the fields are full of little lambkins (I know, I hate to think about that inevitable conclusion).
Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays or bank holidays as they are called here. Though most of the larger supermarkets and dept. stores will be open on the holidays, smaller stores and offices, etc. will be closed. Saturday is business as usual but on Sunday only very few establishments will be open for business. Local traffic has been extremely light since Friday, though we understand the major highways will be jampacked.
Brad and I are going to be totally non-traditional in our Easter celebration. For one thing, we had pancakes for breakfast. For another, our Easter dinner will be spaghetti and meatballs. For another, our Easter morning was spent on a trek out near Bolton Abbey. Bolton Abbey is situated near the River Wharf about a half-hour drive from Harrogate. The setting is idyllic. The ruins of the eleventh-century abbey are surrounded by rolling hills, often populated by sheep. This morning, much to our delight, the sheep were accompanied by many little lambs. We saw a little boy hefting a large stick and running toward the sheep and lambs yelling "Wake up sheep!" Luckily his dad was there to make sure he didn't cause any real havoc. I managed to snap some close-up shots of the lambs before we headed out on our hike. We crossed over the River Wharf and began following a well worn path up and up. Finally it leveled off and we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the Abbey. We continued on the path and came to a fallen tree log into which had been hammered numerous coins. I have encountered this phenomenon once before and have yet to find out the reason behind this tradition. Further along was yet another fallen log embedded with coins. We did a bit of birdwatching along the way and saw a chaffinch and a nuthatch. Eventually we came to another wooden bridge which we took back over the river to Cavendish Pavilion, a restaurant/information center/shop. Given the holiday, I was surprised the facility was open. At that time (10 a.m.-ish) there were not many people about and the info center had just opened. We stopped for a cup of tea before continuing on to Strid Wood where you can follow one of several color-coded trails. We chose the trail that kept us closest to the water. The woods were quite beautiful with many moss-covered stones, lush ground cover and pretty wildflowers. In the river we spotted a pair of goosander. The tranquil mood was broken by a bold red sign with a foreboding message: "Danger. The Strid is dangerous and has claimed lives." We were at the location where the River Wharfe squeezes through a narrow but deep gorge known as The Strid. The water level was low and we we were able to clamber over the normally slippery rocks for some stunning views. You can only go so far along those rocks before you must turn back and join the trail again. At this point we decided to head back home and retraced our steps back to our car. Business had definitely picked up at Cavendish Pavilion; we passed many hikers along the way and saw that the car park had filled up considerably. Several folks had set up elaborate picnic lunches and some were even barbecuing burgers. Not what we expected to see in Britain on an Easter Sunday.
It seems months ago when hot cross buns began to dominate the bakery shelves in the supermarkets. Apparently those celebrated buns are derigueur Easter morning fare in English households. The supermarket shelves have also been filled with tons of brightly wrapped chocolate eggs and bunnies and lambs. At Bettys, Harrogate's premier cafe and pastry shop, we have seen some spectacularly decorated choclate eggs on display. They are artful enough to appear in a museum. Also considered Easter fare, at least at Bettys, is a confection called a Simnel Cake, basically a fruit cake with a super sweet marzipan icing. I think, however, the Simnel Cake hearkens to the Swiss owner and founder's tradition rather than that of the locals. At any rate, it confirms my notion that the British are mad about fruit cakes for they are consumed voraciously at Christmas time as well.
I asked an Engliswoman woman what was considered traditional fare for Easter dinner in most English households. She replied that there was no real favorite and that her family usually has a turkey. Despite her response, I suspect that roast lamb is a favorite, especially here in North Yorkshire where the fields are full of little lambkins (I know, I hate to think about that inevitable conclusion).
Both Good Friday and Easter Monday are national holidays or bank holidays as they are called here. Though most of the larger supermarkets and dept. stores will be open on the holidays, smaller stores and offices, etc. will be closed. Saturday is business as usual but on Sunday only very few establishments will be open for business. Local traffic has been extremely light since Friday, though we understand the major highways will be jampacked.
Brad and I are going to be totally non-traditional in our Easter celebration. For one thing, we had pancakes for breakfast. For another, our Easter dinner will be spaghetti and meatballs. For another, our Easter morning was spent on a trek out near Bolton Abbey. Bolton Abbey is situated near the River Wharf about a half-hour drive from Harrogate. The setting is idyllic. The ruins of the eleventh-century abbey are surrounded by rolling hills, often populated by sheep. This morning, much to our delight, the sheep were accompanied by many little lambs. We saw a little boy hefting a large stick and running toward the sheep and lambs yelling "Wake up sheep!" Luckily his dad was there to make sure he didn't cause any real havoc. I managed to snap some close-up shots of the lambs before we headed out on our hike. We crossed over the River Wharf and began following a well worn path up and up. Finally it leveled off and we were rewarded with a wonderful view of the Abbey. We continued on the path and came to a fallen tree log into which had been hammered numerous coins. I have encountered this phenomenon once before and have yet to find out the reason behind this tradition. Further along was yet another fallen log embedded with coins. We did a bit of birdwatching along the way and saw a chaffinch and a nuthatch. Eventually we came to another wooden bridge which we took back over the river to Cavendish Pavilion, a restaurant/information center/shop. Given the holiday, I was surprised the facility was open. At that time (10 a.m.-ish) there were not many people about and the info center had just opened. We stopped for a cup of tea before continuing on to Strid Wood where you can follow one of several color-coded trails. We chose the trail that kept us closest to the water. The woods were quite beautiful with many moss-covered stones, lush ground cover and pretty wildflowers. In the river we spotted a pair of goosander. The tranquil mood was broken by a bold red sign with a foreboding message: "Danger. The Strid is dangerous and has claimed lives." We were at the location where the River Wharfe squeezes through a narrow but deep gorge known as The Strid. The water level was low and we we were able to clamber over the normally slippery rocks for some stunning views. You can only go so far along those rocks before you must turn back and join the trail again. At this point we decided to head back home and retraced our steps back to our car. Business had definitely picked up at Cavendish Pavilion; we passed many hikers along the way and saw that the car park had filled up considerably. Several folks had set up elaborate picnic lunches and some were even barbecuing burgers. Not what we expected to see in Britain on an Easter Sunday.
posted by lenora at 11:57 AM
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