Rainy days and Wool Shows

The following day at Harrogate the rain was absolutely torrential. We went for the indoor option, which meant the National Media Museum at Bradford.  Of course, as fate would have it, they did not have a photographic exhibition on at the time, but it was still fascinating. There was an exhibition on photography and equipment, old and new, cameras though time with added bits. There was an exhibition on animation, especially of children's stories, we saw a Wallace and Gromit set, a Wombles set and a Dalek. We also played with a lot of equipment, I read the news, then Jenny bore the camera!  I ran way from the Tellytubbies, and William waved at dolphins. Child's play, in the best sense. Food was good too.

The final holiday day we went to the British Wool Show at the Yorkshire Exhibition Showground. Lots of wool, well there would be, sheep as well, a very sheepy  smell, and plenty to buy. Poor William and Jenny, they spent most of the time in the cafe while I acquired a suitcase full of wool. It might have been worse, I took the precaution of working out what I needed (well, what I wanted) in advance, and  more or less stuck to that. We also splashed out on a wool downie. Magic. Very settling, keeps me warm and William cool.

Harlow Carr

We spent most of today wandering around the RHS gardens at Harlow Carr. Lots of flowers, OK , that's a given for a botanic garden, but at home the flowers are mostly over for the year, and here it was still like summer, warm, wasps and colour. Trees all still green, flowers still blooming. I used to go there a lot when I lived in Leeds nearly 30 years ago, it was much less polished then, but a great place to wander and chill. Always seemed empty except for the staff, certainly not the case now. Ate twice at Betty's, once in the garden cafe, and then in the tearoom. That's just plain greedy. Saw several plants I wanted but seriously not practical to buy here and keep in hot hotel room or even hotter car for two days.

In the afternoon we went for a wander around Harrogate, lots of expensive clothes shops, lots of restaurants and coffee shops, lots of rich people. Acquired Nicky's present, Warhammer as requested. Then investigated baa ram ewe. Very friendly staff who checked the amount of wool I needed on Ravelry. Managed to keep my acquisitions down to two wools for one shawl. Would have been more, but I had a mental blank about what was needed. Oh well, Saturday comes soon. (That's the British Wool Show). 

 

 

 

Harrogate

Today we set off on the first part of our summer holidays. Three days in Harrogate with Jenny, staying at the Majestic Hotel. We spent the way down twittering, not the phone variety, but the old fashioned variety with me and William talking about nothing much to keep him   alert on the road. We recalled all the silly things that have happened to us on the A68. I remember almost being in a severe car accident when someone I was with (James), who was driving much too fast in his old MG baby sports car, spun around on the road. Shaken much, but no bruises. William and I also nearly hit a car when we were coming back from holiday one year, he ( the other car) was overtaking and didn't seem to notice the stream of traffic coming towards him. Then there was going around a corner to find a very large pig standing in the middle of the road, and the bridge being washed out with floods just as we crossed it, that was the same trip that William said "it's 15 degrees here, surely the temperature can't drop much, and it was snowing when we crossed Carter Bar.

We also had all the usual jokes about place names, Campton (races, do dah), Boon (Daniel) , Wallish Walls -most are repeats, but we usually manage to find another silly each time. Meanwhile Jenny just sat and slept. There was also the discussion about national emblems, if we are going to have a Scottish tree, what else? Do we already have a national bird, if not, how about the Grouse, it's short and stout, takes suicidal risks and already has a strong affiliation with alcohol.

On checking, (what would we do without the Internet?):

The Scotsman newspaper has run a poll on Scotland's National Bird, and the winner is .......

Golden Eagle

Runner up was Red Grouse

The full final result was

1 GOLDEN EAGLE

2 RED GROUSE

3 CAPERCAILLIE

4 OSPREY

5 PUFFIN

6 GANNET

7 SEA EAGLE

8 PEREGRINE FALCON

9 CRESTED TIT

10 PEEWIT

11 SCOTTISH CROSSBILL

12 PTARMIGAN

Red Grouse has thousands of votes discounted as a certain whisky blend encouraged the members of its e mail list to vote en masse.

I still think that would have been a more appropriate option, less grandiose, and more like a large proportion of the Scottish population.

The Majestic Hotel. An old spa hotel, full of memories of glorious days, but rather fun anyway.