Recent Antique Finds

We have pretty much all of the furniture we need for our house in England, but every now and then items at auction pop up that we just can't pass up. For example, the French mantle clock that weighs about 15 pounds and has the following inscription on its brass plaque:

Presented to SC Moss by the members of the Westleyan Choir, Ripon: 

on the occasion of his marriage. 

August 3, 1903

The clock is currently in the clock hospital getting fixed so it will tell time and chime again. We hope SC Moss and his wife had a long and happy marriage and promise to take care of thier clock for as long as we can.

French marbled clock

At the same auction I also picked up this lovely Victorian dressing table. Once home, I found the photo of what looks like a farmer's wife (below) tucked inside. I like to think the photo is of Mrs SC Moss and his clock and her table are together again. Awww! :-)

Victorian dressing table

Owner of dressing table? Mrs. Moss?

The Home of the Bronte Family

Nearby is the little village of Haworth, home to the prolific, artistic, and tragic Brontë family. The village is nearby, but a 45-minute drive away - far enough that I finally made it out that way with a friend from my history class this summer. 

The Brontë Parsonage, Haworth, North Yorkshire

The father was the Haworth village vicar (pastor) and the family lived in the house behind the village church, called the parsonage. The mother and two of the children died very early, leaving the father (Patrick), a son (Branwell), and two daughters (Charlotte and Emily). 

The father outlived them all, with Charlotte dying last of his children in her early 30s after having been married less than a year and in early pregnancy. Like Charlotte, Emily and Branwell died of TB, but Branwell also had the complication of being a depressive alcoholic and drug addict. Throughout the parsonage museum, Branwell was described as gentle, artistic, sensitive, and a perennial bachelor... I think the poor guy was not interested in women, but in his day and age he simply couldn't live the life he wanted. How sad if that's the truth! 

Sign for the Brontë Parsonage

In front of the parsonage is the little village church and between the parsonage and church is a beautiful little graveyard.

Graveyard between the Brontë Parsonage and Church

Sign in Haworth graveyard

And inside the church was this cool plaque. Haworth had some lovely little shops, so I'll just have to head back there some day for another visit. 

Sign inside church in Haworth

Lavender Fields, Forever!

My apologies to The Beatles, but when I visited the Yorkshire lavender fields this summer, I kept singing Lavender Fields, Forever. It was so beautiful and the wind smelled so good, wafting through all of the lavender plants. 

Lavender Fields, Forever!

And ever!

The air smelled wonderful with all of that lavender wafting through it. I also had a lavender scone and lavender tea... I'm not really a fan of lavender flavored foods, but when in Rome...

And ever!

When I returned from my little lavender excursion, a double rainbow welcomed me home!!

Double rainbow - what does it mean?!?

Ladies Day Fashion

Yes, I like to go to the big "ladies day" horse races. Yes, I bet a few quid on one or two of the races. Yes, I have fun with my friends. But why do we really go to the Ladies Day races? For the fashion, of course!!

Before we look at the hats and dresses in all their glory, let's pause for a moment and look at these shoes... They. Are. Awesome! 

Awesome shoes

And now the parade of dresses and hats. Please keep in mind that, even though it was August, it was around 50 degrees (F), wet and rainy. But that did not phase these Yorkshire lasses - if they bought sleeveless dresses, by God they were going to wear sleeveless dresses!!

A big thank you to Danielle (our friend Cindy's daughter) who brought her real camera, took all of these pictures, and let me use them in this blog post. Thanks, Danielle!! :-) 

Black and white hats

Blue and white ensemble

Cherry blossom hat

Feathery hat

Blue / peacock hat

Fancy dress hats

Colorful hat

Big, black and white hats

Pointy hat

Purple hat

Feathery black and white hats

Red hat

Pastel flowery hats

Black, white, and yellow hat

Very, very blue hat

Cream hat and coordinated umbrella

Random colorful hats

If I happen to be here next August, I hope to go dressed even fancier than this year's ensemble!! :-) 

New Family Members!!!

I interrupt the chronological storytelling of our adventures 

to introduce our newest family members, 

Ada (pronounced Aida) and Grace! 

Gracie and Ada Alexander

They are 9-week old kittens we adopted on Wednesday (15 October) from a local non-profit cat rescue organization. 

Ada is the tabby / tiger striped cat named after Augusta Ada King, the Baronness of Lovelace, commonly called Ada Lovelace (1815 - 1852), a mathematician and the world's first computer programmer. She also happened to be the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. Our Ada is a wee bit of a scaredy cat, but has slowly let us pet and play with her.

Grace is the silky black cat, named after Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (1906 - 1992), a computer programmer who helped develop the first computer languages. She also coined the term "de-bug" for fixing a computer when she opened up a mal-functioning computer and found a moth stuck inside. our Gracie is quite the adventurer / explorer. She's always the one to explore somewhere first with Ada not far behind. And the one who will probably get into the most trouble :-)

Ada and Grace play and cuddle together almost all of the time, so the adoption society was glad to see them re-homed together. They have had their first immunizations, are microchipped, and are healthy. 

Thankfully, it's a lot easier to import cats from the UK to the US than it is to go the other way. Good! Because we plan on having these girls with us for a long, long time!!

York Ladies Day

I repurposed my Royal Ascot dress and hat to attend this year's Ladies Day at the York racecourse. We had a larger group of gals with us this time, even though the weather was, as they say in England, miserable! 

Champagne with Friends

More champagne!

The rain stopped long enough for us to watch a few of the afternoon races. Yet again, I won nothing. I suppose I really should bet if I want to win, but I didn't really feel like betting on this particular day. 

And they're off!!! (Photo courtesy of Danielle)

The crowds came out from inside buildings or under the few tents erected for race day once the rain abated. The rain certainly didn't scare people from coming out to the racecourse, though. 

Crowds at the York Races

We had a lovely day and I eventually thawed out in the car on the drive home. I still cannot believe how many women were traipsing about in spaghetti-straped and sleeveless dresses with nary a wrap or jacket for warmth! Oh, what women do for fashion.

Friends in hats 

Belgium Flea Market Find

On our last day in Brussels we had more good food, walked around, and found a random flea market well outside of the town centre. It was at this flea market that Bill found his newest treasure: an awesome, old-timey phone! 

It weighs quite a bit, but Bill lugged it all the way home on the train in his backpack and never complained once. The phone is now in our living room, looking quite lovely, if I do say so myself!  

Amazing Antwerp

Antwerp was a lovely town. We walked and walked and had a great time visiting some of its most interesting and historic sites. We visited the Cathedral of our Lady, which was started in the second half of the 12th century and completed in 1521. 

Cathedral of Our Lady tower

Cathedral of our Lady

Inside the Cathedral of Our Lady were the requisite items: candles, statues, stained glass, and famous paintings by the likes of Rubens and Van Dyke. 

Lit candles for loved ones

Pretty stained glass

Our Lady's altarpiece, rebuilt in the mid 1800s incorporates alter items dating back to the 14th century. That's an old lady, sitting up in that alter! 

Statue of Our Lady, build in the 16th century

After visiting the cathedral, we eventually found a cafe that would seat all 9 of us. (The first cafe took one look at us and said No!) We then walked along the waterfront, and saw lots of boat works and evidence of Antwerp's former sea-faring glory. 

Wooden boat works 

Old timey sailor / captain lodging

We headed to the tallest building in Antwerp to partake in its free top-floor observation deck. MAS had some very interesting historic exhibits taking place and we were sad we just didn't have enough time to explore them further. 

MAS - Royal Museum of Antwerp 

View from the top of MAS

Another view from the top of MAS

We then made our way to St. Paul's church, built in the 1500s. I really liked the Cavalry statues out front, which were built in 1734 to evoke the life and times of Jesus.

Cavalry statues, St. Paul's Church

More statuary, St. Paul's Church 

Inside there was the usual stuff; candles, altars, stained glass, etc. But you don't always get to see life-sized carved wooden lion heads in church!

Another candle for my mom

Wooden lions, St. Paul's Church

By this time of day it was high time for beer! We made our way to the small, small, small pub Kulminator. This pub gets high praise from the web, the "NYT 36 Hours in Europe" book, etc. We were expecting something a bit more, well, just more. There were about 10 tables that sat about 4-6 people each (if you squeeze in) and is run by a couple who have owned the pub since probably... I don't know, the '60s? They didn't have any other staff, so on this particular Saturday afternoon it took a while to get what you ordered, if you get it at all. (Poor Cindy's cider never did arrive.) That said, they had over 600 beers to choose from and they were fantastic! The pub was almost awkwardly quiet, but we brought a few decks of cards and had ourselves a grand afternoon. 

Regine demonstrating the unique pouring contraption for beer at the Kulminator

The 5 gals ordered the large meat and cheese platter to share for dinner. We giggled when it arrived - it was definitely not an American-sized platter, that's for sure! And only two slices of bread to split amongst the 5 of us. But it took so long to arrive, we didn't want to wait for a second order and made do. 

Dinner for five, Antwerp-style!

We then meandered our way back to the train station and headed back to Brussels for the night. Another good day touring Belgium! 

Antwerp Wheel 

Goodbye Antwerp (train station)