Down South
I'm visiting friends who live in the village of Compton near Oxford. I took the train down on Thursday afternoon after dropping Ginger off at the kitty ritz. He seemed quite calm about the whole affair so I think he must like staying at the Cosy Cattery. Or at least, he doesn't mind it so much that it makes him anxious. That's a relief -- sometimes I feel so guilty dropping him off at the cattery and running off to far flung places.
After dropping Ginger off, I had a few errands to run in town before catching the 13:14 train out of Harrogate. That felt odd, leaving in the afternoon. I'm used to embarking on my journeys first thing in the morning. Anyhow, I stopped in a Minuteman press to drop off the Harrogate RSPB brochure to be printed (yeah! I finally convinced the group to have the thing done professionally.). While there I ran into the woman who used to own and run the Thai restaurant on the corner near the bus station in Harrogate. There is another Thai restaurant there now under different management. She told me they had moved to a new location in Moortown, Leeds and renamed the restaurant Thai Lotus. She urged me to come visit them in Leeds and I said I'd like to but I'm sure I won't. Living in the town center of Harrogate with the ease of walking to many different restaurants, I've little inclination to drive to Moortown to go out to eat. I do wish them well, though, in their new location.
The train ride to Didcot Parkway (closest station to Heather and Graham's house) was crowded but otherwise uneventful. Again, I found it frustrating that there is not enough space allowed for storage of luggage and found myself having to dig my bag out from under another mountain of luggage. Heather was waiting for me at the platform in Didcot and a few minutes later had brought us back to their lovely little home in Compton. The big news there is the fire that closed down the The White Swan pub. As we drove by I saw that all the windows had been boarded up and could see scorch marks on the whitewashed walls.
We had a relaxing evening at home. Heather threw together a tasty meal in just a few seconds flat. We had steak, boiled new potatoes and steamed veggies. Very British fare, I thought. She'd added a few condiments to choose from: red onion marmalade, Bearnaise sauce and red pepper pesto. Pudding was a pineapple/coconut mousse cake from Marks and Spencer. Very nice and thankfully light.
That evening I presented Heather with the pashminas Brad had sent me earlier in the week to bring down. She was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with them. I'd brought down one for her and for each of her girls and she'd quickly sorted out which one she would have. The girls'll have to decide amongst themselves which ones they'll have.
Rosie came home late that evening and we said our brief hellos. She has grown so tall and is so slender. A very charming girl. She'll be attending the University of Warwick this fall and is studying for her A Levels right now. She'll take them in Art, Art History and Music.
Heather had the day off work on Friday so the two of us spent the morning in Winchester. We toured Winchester Cathedral -- a very plain looking cathedral on the outside, but inside filled with wonderful treasures. We saw Jane Austen's grave and marvellously decorated quire among other features, then headed upstairs to the library. It was a lovely room with a curved ceiling and shelves of books on either side, heavy with vellum-paged volumes. There were two 17th century globes on view but I couldn't get close enough to them to read the place names along the east coast of the U.S. In another room we viewed the four-volume 12th Century Winchester Bible. The skill of the scribes and the illuminators was impressive. We saw that the Bible had never been completed -- some of the initial caps had not had the final gilt added to them while in other places there was just a blank where the initial cap had not even been drawn in yet. We viewed a finished initial cap and it was astounding in its detail and imagery. The pages of the Bible are made of vellum, which is basically a finely tanned calf hide. Astonishingly, it took the hide of one calf for every page of the bible.
After our tour of Winchester we had lunch at the Wykeham Arms, a wonderfully atmospheric pub that served up delicious meals. Can't beat a combination like that! We sat at old schoolboy's desks that had come from nearby Winchester College. I ordered spinach, black olive and tomato risotto while Heather chose sausages and mash. We decided to share our meals so we split the risotto and had that as our starter and then shared the sausage and mash as our main. Everything was absolutely delish. We had a bit of time to wander through the streets of Winchester. It reminded me a bit of Harrogate but only in that there are a few ugly modern buildings among older more attractive buildings. Of course, Winchester is much much older than Harrogate and the architecture reflected that. There were many half-timbered houses and walls made of flint.
From Winchester Heather drove over to the little village of Chawton near Alton. There we visited Jane Austen's house. It's the house she lived in during the last years of her life. The house actually belonged to her brother Edward who had taken on the surname Knight. Jane shared a bedroom there with her sister Cassandra. The house itself was charming enough but it was also filled with many mementos from Jane Austen's life including the topaz cross necklace given to her by her brother, needlework created and signed by Jane and a patchwork coverlet made by Jane, her mother and sister from old dresses they and their servants had worn. After touring the house we went across the street to a lovely tearoom called Cassandra's Cup, presumably named after Jane's sister, Cassandra. We had tea and shared a piece of coffee/walnut cake. Mmmmm...nummy.
Once we arrived home Heather spent a little bit of time in her garden planting a few plants she'd recently bought and I managed to reach Brad on the phone. The conncection was really poor but it sure was nice to talk to him.
Dinner last night was thrown together in no time flat again. Heather seems to be a master at quick and tasty meals. We had salmon, steamed veggies and watercress sauce. We finished off the pineapple/coconut mousse cake for pudding and also sampled some cheese and biscuits. I certainly won't go hungry while visiting Heather and Graham.
After dropping Ginger off, I had a few errands to run in town before catching the 13:14 train out of Harrogate. That felt odd, leaving in the afternoon. I'm used to embarking on my journeys first thing in the morning. Anyhow, I stopped in a Minuteman press to drop off the Harrogate RSPB brochure to be printed (yeah! I finally convinced the group to have the thing done professionally.). While there I ran into the woman who used to own and run the Thai restaurant on the corner near the bus station in Harrogate. There is another Thai restaurant there now under different management. She told me they had moved to a new location in Moortown, Leeds and renamed the restaurant Thai Lotus. She urged me to come visit them in Leeds and I said I'd like to but I'm sure I won't. Living in the town center of Harrogate with the ease of walking to many different restaurants, I've little inclination to drive to Moortown to go out to eat. I do wish them well, though, in their new location.
The train ride to Didcot Parkway (closest station to Heather and Graham's house) was crowded but otherwise uneventful. Again, I found it frustrating that there is not enough space allowed for storage of luggage and found myself having to dig my bag out from under another mountain of luggage. Heather was waiting for me at the platform in Didcot and a few minutes later had brought us back to their lovely little home in Compton. The big news there is the fire that closed down the The White Swan pub. As we drove by I saw that all the windows had been boarded up and could see scorch marks on the whitewashed walls.
We had a relaxing evening at home. Heather threw together a tasty meal in just a few seconds flat. We had steak, boiled new potatoes and steamed veggies. Very British fare, I thought. She'd added a few condiments to choose from: red onion marmalade, Bearnaise sauce and red pepper pesto. Pudding was a pineapple/coconut mousse cake from Marks and Spencer. Very nice and thankfully light.
That evening I presented Heather with the pashminas Brad had sent me earlier in the week to bring down. She was pleasantly surprised and very pleased with them. I'd brought down one for her and for each of her girls and she'd quickly sorted out which one she would have. The girls'll have to decide amongst themselves which ones they'll have.
Rosie came home late that evening and we said our brief hellos. She has grown so tall and is so slender. A very charming girl. She'll be attending the University of Warwick this fall and is studying for her A Levels right now. She'll take them in Art, Art History and Music.
Heather had the day off work on Friday so the two of us spent the morning in Winchester. We toured Winchester Cathedral -- a very plain looking cathedral on the outside, but inside filled with wonderful treasures. We saw Jane Austen's grave and marvellously decorated quire among other features, then headed upstairs to the library. It was a lovely room with a curved ceiling and shelves of books on either side, heavy with vellum-paged volumes. There were two 17th century globes on view but I couldn't get close enough to them to read the place names along the east coast of the U.S. In another room we viewed the four-volume 12th Century Winchester Bible. The skill of the scribes and the illuminators was impressive. We saw that the Bible had never been completed -- some of the initial caps had not had the final gilt added to them while in other places there was just a blank where the initial cap had not even been drawn in yet. We viewed a finished initial cap and it was astounding in its detail and imagery. The pages of the Bible are made of vellum, which is basically a finely tanned calf hide. Astonishingly, it took the hide of one calf for every page of the bible.
After our tour of Winchester we had lunch at the Wykeham Arms, a wonderfully atmospheric pub that served up delicious meals. Can't beat a combination like that! We sat at old schoolboy's desks that had come from nearby Winchester College. I ordered spinach, black olive and tomato risotto while Heather chose sausages and mash. We decided to share our meals so we split the risotto and had that as our starter and then shared the sausage and mash as our main. Everything was absolutely delish. We had a bit of time to wander through the streets of Winchester. It reminded me a bit of Harrogate but only in that there are a few ugly modern buildings among older more attractive buildings. Of course, Winchester is much much older than Harrogate and the architecture reflected that. There were many half-timbered houses and walls made of flint.
From Winchester Heather drove over to the little village of Chawton near Alton. There we visited Jane Austen's house. It's the house she lived in during the last years of her life. The house actually belonged to her brother Edward who had taken on the surname Knight. Jane shared a bedroom there with her sister Cassandra. The house itself was charming enough but it was also filled with many mementos from Jane Austen's life including the topaz cross necklace given to her by her brother, needlework created and signed by Jane and a patchwork coverlet made by Jane, her mother and sister from old dresses they and their servants had worn. After touring the house we went across the street to a lovely tearoom called Cassandra's Cup, presumably named after Jane's sister, Cassandra. We had tea and shared a piece of coffee/walnut cake. Mmmmm...nummy.
Once we arrived home Heather spent a little bit of time in her garden planting a few plants she'd recently bought and I managed to reach Brad on the phone. The conncection was really poor but it sure was nice to talk to him.
Dinner last night was thrown together in no time flat again. Heather seems to be a master at quick and tasty meals. We had salmon, steamed veggies and watercress sauce. We finished off the pineapple/coconut mousse cake for pudding and also sampled some cheese and biscuits. I certainly won't go hungry while visiting Heather and Graham.
posted by lenora at 4:40 AM
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