Summer is almost in full force, so I thought I'd better finish the blog posts from Spring!
There is a pretty obvious progression of flowers in England. When Winter is just about half-way through the little white snowdrops poke through the frozen ground as a promise that Spring will eventually arrive. Several weeks later the crocuses emerge, a purple and yellow carpet polka-dotting the grass.
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| Harbinger of Spring: crocuses |
Once it's officially Spring, daffodils in the thousands - hundreds of thousands - pop up along hillsides, roadsides, riversides; if it's a side, there will be daffies!
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| Daffodils and the York city wall |
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| Daffodils and the York city wall |
This particular Spring also marked the end of the York Minster's 5-year renovation plan. I happened to be on shift in the undercroft the day the official 'closing' party was hosted for all of the York patrons. Inside the minster they displayed the old statue of St. Peter (left, below) and the true-to-size model (the final, stone version is now in situ high up on the Mister's exterior stone wall) created as proof of concept. The old one looks a little creepy, no?
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| St. Peter, old and new |
The unveiling also took place for the Great East Window, the single largest in-tact expanse of medieval stained glass window in the world. The window is larger than a tennis court! Sadly, the penultimate top section is still undergoing some TLC, but it will be replaced as soon as it is ready.
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| Great east window |
The next great feat for the Minster is hosting the Mystery Plays. It is a play consisting of all the old testament bible stories and has been preformed in York since the middle ages. Way back then each guild used to produce a story and the actors would preform the play on carts that rode through the York streets. The plays are put on every four years (I think) and in recent history it has been preformed in one of the nearby gardens. This year it will be preformed inside the Mister for only the second time in 700 years. Yes, 700 years!
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