Friends in the English Midlands

Last weekend we visited a good friend of mine from the publishing world who has lived in England for many years now. She and her husband had lots of great "Living in England" information for us, and their adorable two-year old provided lots of comedic relief.

Three happy ladies

We hiked around the English Midlands that are populated with lots of rapeseed fields (the yellow flowering fields behind us) that are quite beautiful. 

Happy the sun is shining!

We also visited a nearby town called Fotheringhay, which is famous (perhaps infamous?) as the birthplace of Richard III and location of Mary Queen of Scots' beheading. 

In the photo below Bill & I are standing at Fotheringhay's former castle grounds. Just in front and to the left of us would have been the great hall where the trial and beheading of Queen Mary took place.

Fotheringhay Castle site

We also visited Fotheringhay church, which is pictured in the background. Here's the cute 2-year old posing in the church's graveyard.

The young and the old

A view of the church (& a flying buttress!) up close.

Fotheringhay Church

And a picture of a ceiling inside the church.

One ceiling inside Fotheringhay church

We had a wonderful time and can't wait to see our friends again! 

House of Parliament Tour

I didn't know much about how the British government worked before attending the House of Parliament tour yesterday. Now I know a smidgen more! 

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Disclaimer: None of these photos are mine; the images in this post were all found on the internet. 

Also, if I get any of the details slightly incorrect, my apologies!

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Last week, the Queen gave the "Queen's Speech," which is similar to our "State of the Union" speech. The main difference is that the Queen is handed a speech written by the House of Commons and approved by the House of Lords. The Queen has to read the speech as-is and cannot add her two cents. The pomp and ceremony that takes place during a Queen's Speech is as follows...

The Queen arrives and enters the Queen's Robing Room (pictured below). Her crown travels to Parliament by its own small carriage from the Crown Jewels collection. The crown is the last thing she puts on before entering the House of Lords, where she delivers the speech. 

Queen's Robing Room

The House of Lords (pictured below), until very recently comprised of only the entitled aristocracy. Prime Minister Tony Blair made a historic change that meant only about 100 Lords could remain within the House of Lords (and the Lords had to decide who stays and who goes) while the rest was to be made up of recently created Lords, such as Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. This, Tony Blair argued, would ensure a greater voice of the English people would be heard. 

Back to the Queen's Speech. The Queen arrives and sits in one of the gilded thrones while her husband sits in the other. All of the Lords are then seated on the red cushioned benches. (I was able to stand in the second row on the right - but no one on the tour was allowed to sit down.) Once the Queen is seated she then sends her runner (the runner has a title, but I don't remember it) to invite the House of Commons to attend the speech. The runner leaves the House of Lords, runs down the hall to the House of Commons, where per tradition, they slam the door on the runner. The runner then has to pound on the door and announce the Queen's invitation to attend the speech. The House of Commons members then opens the door and walks down to the House of Lords where they have standing room only at the back of the House. The Queen then reads the Queen's Speech.   

House of Lords

In stark contrast to the ornate Queen's Robing Room and House of Lords is the rather plain House of Commons (pictured below). This is were the commoners (elected members of Parliament) actually do the work of governance. Unlike in the states where democrats and republicans have to sit together, here the conservatives sit in one area, the liberals another, etc. and they tend to get each other quite riled up. In fact, the two red lines painted on the floor is said to be just wider than two sword lengths. Therefore, when the speaker of the House shouts out "Toe the line!!" everyone has to stand behind the red lines so no one gets hurt. Of course, House of Commons members no longer wear swords, but at one time this had been a real threat. Besides, I think the only televised clips I've seen from within the House of Commons is of people yelling, booing, stomping their feet and the like. I would imagine toeing the line is still important during heated debates! 

House of Commons

I learned a lot more during the tour, but those are some of the facts I found extremely interesting. I was very lucky to be able to experience this tour, as well as meet a member of the current Parliament.

Visiting Westminster Palace

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend 8 hours on a bus. Four hours to get to London and four hours to get back. The four hours in-between the travel was totally worth it, as I got to tour the Houses of Parliament!

The House of Lords and the House of Commons as well as the Queen's Robing room and all of the parliamentary offices and meeting rooms are all located within Westminster Palace, right below the clock tower that houses Big Ben. 

Westminster Palace is right next to Westminster Abbey, where William & Kate were recently married. Here are a few photos of the exterior of the Palace.

  

Once our group made it through security, we were to meet our local, Yorkshire MP, who was to meet & greet us up in one of the committee meeting rooms. I thought MP meant some sort of military police man, but it turns out MP stands for Member of Parliament. So, yeah, I met an elected member of Parliament! MP Smith took us upstairs to a formal Parliamentary meeting room where he told us a little bit about himself and answered any questions about how the British government worked. Afterward, he took us to the private Parliamentary terrace so we could take some photos. 

 MP Smith on the terrace with the London eye in the background.

I'm on Parliament's terrace! 

And another picture of the London eye from the terrace.

After our 45 minutes with the MP, we headed back to the main hall for our official tour to begin. Inside the main hall (one of the remaining original buildings - last king to live in Westminster Palace was Henry VIII) is a very large and beautiful stained glass window.

And within this hall is were VIP English are Laid in State prior to being buried. Most recently, Margaret Thatcher lay in state in this hall. As has Queen Elizabeth...

and Winston Churchill.

I wasn't able to take pictures during the tour, but in my next post I will be detailing the Parliamentary rooms we saw and some of the history behind each room. 

Ripley Castle

Last weekend, we visited Ripley Castle, which is located just 10 minutes by car from our home. Neither Bill nor I had ever heard of Ripley Castle prior to living here, but we now know it has a long and rich history (as do most places around here). 

We learned that the same family has lived in the house/castle since the 1300 - I think our tour guide said the current owner is the 27th generation of Ingilbys to live in the house - Wow! We toured what felt like a pretty large area, but the family lives in the private area comprised of eight bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, etc. etc. Needless to say, they've still got plenty of room, even with tours and the like happening all the time. 

Three major events took place at Ripley Castle. Shortly after it was built, King Edward III was seriously injured while hunting boar nearby. One of the rich (crown tax collectors) Ingilby brothers killed the boar, King Edward recovered, and the brother was knighted for his bravery. The boar's head is still mounted in the visitor's entry way. 

Jane Ingilby held Oliver Cromwell prisoner overnight (girl power!!) in the castle's library after the Battle of Marston Moor. But the next morning, Oliver Cromwell executed several Ingilby supporters in the courtyard, where you can still see the bullet dents in the stone wall. 

And lastly, James I stayed the night at Ripley Castle while on route from Scotland to London for his coronation, the first time England & Scotland were united by one crown.

... Can you tell I was a history major and get off on all this stuff? :-)

We couldn't take any pictures inside the castle during our tour, so you'll just have to settle for outside facade and garden pictures.  

There was a lovely pond with an aqueduct feature. Right behind where I took this picture was a large stone "eel tower." The pond was fed into the tower which was kept stocked with eel, a delicacy. So even if the pond ran low, the Ingilby family would always have a supply of yummy, yummy eel for their feasts.  

There were beautiful moss-covered wrought iron details, and lovely walking and cart paths throughout the gardens. There were a lot of birds as well, but we weren't able to get close enough to identify most of them. We did get a great picture of a Mom & Dad goose with their wee goslings. 

 

We enjoyed our visit so much we converted our one-day tickets into a couple's annual pass for just a few extra pounds. So we'll be able to go back any time to walk the gardens, re-take the tour, or get discounted tickets to their many special events. In fact, we've already got tickets for Ripley Castle's Shakespeare in the Park in June!

Daffodils, Daffodils, Daffodils!!

So a couple of weeks ago, there were daffodils everywhere. Growing wild like weeds, almost. Daffodils along the roadways. Daffodils along fences. Daffodils in the yard. Daffodils in the parks. Amazing color and really a striking way to enter spring. We captured a few and would like to share them with you.

And in a nod to today being Mothers' Day, it seems to me that our Mothers teach us to recognize beauty in the world. Thank you. Here's a sample of the result of all your hard work!

A Gentleman Farmer's Farm

Spring is Lambing Season!

The lambs are SO cute, bounding around in every rock-walled field throughout the Dales. A friend of ours lives out in one of the smaller villages and has a gentleman farmer friend who let several folks, including Bill and I, visit during lambing season.

We got to see a lamb who was only a few hours old. I wanted to hold the super young lamb, but the farmer thrust that wee lamb into our friend's arms... and I was immediately glad, as I realized the wet umbilical cord was a'danglin' and the lamb promptly pooped on her sweater. Whew, dodged a bullet, there! And 5 minutes later the mom proceded to deliver the afterbirth right in front of us. Yup, this was a real, working farm all right!

We saw lots & lots of moms with their newborn lambs. The farmers spray paint #1 on the first mom & lamb pair, then #2 on the second pair and so on so that they know who belongs to whom. 

I eventually got to hold an adorable 3-day old black sheep, who was super sweet. Almost made me want to give up eating lamb. Almost.

Once the newborns are feeding well and doing well, they get to go out into the fields. We hiked around in the fields and got to see a lot more sheep and slightly older lambs. We also got to see a horse and her week-old foal. They only stuck around for a minute, so this is the best picture we took.

 

And finally, no farm is complete without a rooster! 

PS Driving home from the farm we spotted a wee lamb who had bounded over its rock-wall fence and was in the road. All of his/her little lamb friends were bleating on the other side of the fence, but this little lamb just couldn't figure out how to make it back over. We stopped our car on this small two-lane road and Bill hopped out, grabbed the lamb and plopped it on the other side of the fence. The wee lamb and all its buddies happily bounded away, and the other drivers who had to stop for us smiled and nodded a quick thanks before we all drove our separate ways. Bill's a rock star!! :-)

Brimham Rocks

Sorry for the delay; having a laptop run out of memory means you cannot download photos onto said laptop until more memory is found or installed. After deleting the first 5 seasons of "The Office," we're ready to start blogging again...

Bill and I celebrate our "date-aversary" on Easter Sunday and every year we try to get out for a little hike to commemorate our first date/hike together. This year we celebrated by signing up for the British National Trust (kind of like the National State Park pass) and used our new card to visit Brimham Rocks.

Honestly, the rocks of Brimham Rocks do not look like they belong in England. Aside from the snow, the rocks look like they are from Disneyland's Roaring Thunder, the southwest-themed roller coaster that may or may not still be an attraction. But I digress...

Bill Climbed up on one of the rocks (it was too snowy & slick for me to want to try)

and got some amazing shots of the Dales from his high vantage point.

The rocks were of various shapes, many of which were gravity-defying

 and strikingly beautiful.

After hiking around for several hours, we headed over to the tea lorry for some warmth. I think I have drunk my weight in Yorkshire Gold tea at this point :-)