3 Wensleydale Creamery

 We have a cheese addiction. 

Some of the best cheese around is at the Wensleydale Creamery, about 1.5 hours away in Hawes, a village in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales.

We needed some cheese, and today seemed as good a day as we were going to get in the foreseeable future to drive up.

The weather today was atrocious, with gale-force winds and thick rain that blew sideways.  The roads had deep puddles on the shoulders, and the rivers are full near to flooding.

The Dales are just as pretty as ever, though.

During a short lull and when there was a lay-by I had Paul pull over so I could take a picture.  I darted around the car and- "Hello, sheep!"  This waterfall isn't a regular occurrence, by the way.

 This road is a steep incline uphill, so no deep puddles here.

Since I have been a Wallace and Gromit fan for about 15 years now, I was jump-out-of-my-skin excited when I found out that the creamery was so close.   

(If you don't know W&G, stop reading this and go watch "The Wrong Trousers" or any of their other films. (clip here)  For pertinent info, W&G are Wensleydale addicts, too, and their love of the cheese rejuvenated and saved the creamery from being shuttered.)

Since I found this out about a year ago, we've been up to the creamery 5-6 times to buy cheese. 

They offer a tour with a history of both the creamery and Hawes and you can watch them make the cheese on some days. 

Or you can just go to the cheese shop... 

 There's a hand sanitizer dispenser at the entrance and signs requesting that all transactions occur in the front gift shop so as to keep the cheese room as clean as possible.

 They have out all of their regular kinds of cheese and several specialty flavors that change seasonally and sometimes just because.

 Tasting is encouraged, as are questions.

The room is kept quite chilled for optimal cheese storage.

(yeah, that's me cheesin' for you- so punny!)

Winter Warmer is a seasonal variety of their standard Wensleydale with Cranberries.  The Winter Warmer has cranberries and mulled wine- delicious with crackers!

Jervaulx is a type of blue cheese.  Paul likes it, but I'm not a fan.  

The shop also sells local-area food stuffs and drinks.

 One of our favorites, Rapeseed Oil.  The Rapeseed Oil with Mixed Herbs is pretty much a go-to in our house.  

Who can resist the Wallace and Gromit paraphernalia??

We're off to make our S&G M&C tonight- that's homemade macaroni and cheese, with four herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme... get it??

0 English Overheard

Today I went into Harrogate to do a bit of shopping. 

As I was sorting through the sales racks at the Gap, I overheard two sales girls talking: 

girl A: I really like that denim top.

girl B: Yes, but what would you wear it with?

girl A: I'm not sure. I've got a light denim top that goes with my dark denim trousers. It's harder with a dark denim top, I've only got dark denim trousers.

girl B: Well I'm not sure... 

girl A: Or with chinos. It would look tops with chinos.

girl B: Oh, yes, classic American look.

Poor Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein...

apparently the epitome of American fashion hangs on dusty racks in a feed supply shop.

0 Reservoir Walks

 I woke up this morning and it was as if we'd landed in Oz.

The wind had stopped.

For the first day in nearly a week, the trees were still.

As a bonus, around 2 PM that magical ball in the sky known as the sun appeared, and the thick cover of white cloud parted.  

Happy holidays to you, too, Aeolus!

First I popped Max in the car.  He's not able to do the same length walks as Sloan yet, so if I'm walking them alone (Paul's at work) then I have to take them separately.  I took him to Fewston Reservoir, the further of the two reservoirs right near our house.  

The bridge on the right of the above image separates Fewston and Swinsty, and the house there is the residency of the Yorkshire Water attendant.  Sloan seems convinced this house is hers, as she constantly tries to go down the driveway.  I think she just wants the prime-traffic location for barking at all the human and dog walkers.

You can see how excited he was to take a picture with me...

Unfortunately for Max, the general rule here is that a dog is only on lead for two reasons: he/she is still young and in training, or he/she is aggressive.  He is still required to be on lead to prevent excited-running damage to his knee, and due to his size (75 lbs) people tend to assume the lead is because he's aggressive.  I spend half our walk explaining that he's recovering from surgery and is happy to sniff-greet-tail wag with other dogs, which we want him to do so that he maintains his sociability.  All-in-all, his story is always a good ice breaker!

 And this is a perfect way to show you why wellies are a MUST here!  When Max and I left I still hadn't decided where I wanted to take him, and Swinsty Reservoir has fairly clear paths.  Well, Fewston has a lot more muddy areas and puddles.  I took this picture AFTER I stood in the reservoir and shook my feet around to get most of the big bits off- I should have taken one before that!  

(For those of you who were at our wedding, these are the white Uggs- nearly 7 years on, they're not really white anymore- especially not after today!)

 Some of the ducks/geese/birds at Swinsty Reservoir, where I took Sloan.  She likes to chase these, and they seem fairly used to it and fly just out of reach.  

 If you look closely (click on it to make it bigger) you'll see hundreds of little white birds.  They descend on the reservoir at dusk and cover it. 

What, the sun doesn't set at 4:30PM where you live?  

0 Boxing Day

If you're someone who still has a paper calendar you might notice today is listed as 

Boxing Day.

No, this isn't a day in celebration of Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali.

Rather, Boxing Day stems from a history of aristocracy and servitude. 

Because the upper class needed their servants to work on Christmas day (to serve Christmas dinner, amongst other tasks), the servants traditionally got their holiday a day later- December 26.

The "box" part is believed to describe the gifts, hand-me-down clothes (if you got new ones for Christmas, you pass the old ones to your maid!), and leftover food packaged up and given to the servants by their employers.

Today, Boxing Day means something more universal:  SALES!

And a bank holiday (means national holiday).

I wonder if today's sales staff gets a different day off in lieu of Boxing Day... 

I've opted out of the hustle and bustle, despite having some errands due.

I've spent the day in a much more enjoyable way.

I made homemade Belgian waffles for breakfast

and I've been editing Budapest photographs whilst watching 

Downton Abbey.

A period drama set in the 1910s, the show explores the life of both the family and staff at a Yorkshire estate.   

That's right... Yorkshire.  Although it's filmed in Hampshire- boo.

Most of the actors are from Yorkshire as well- 

and Mr. Carson, the butler, is played by Harrogate's own Jim Carter.

Yay!

0 Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Here are Max and Sloan unwrapping their presents.  Enjoy!

or, if you wish to see the video in a larger frame (Hi, Mom!):

click here

0 Wordiness/A Day in the Life

The title is a warning for you.

I've wanted to do more personal blogging, and the "Day in the Life" was a start for that.  The biggest roadblock to regular posting is the delay in me editing my images from our trips- I'm currently wading through the pictures I took in Budapest and London, and since I prefer to post those dated for the days they actually were shot it makes my blog-posting all whack-a-doo.  I think I'll keep posting them dated to their occurrences but I'll post a link on the day I finished to the total label... if you don't follow that train of thought just click when I post a link titled "Our trip to ______".

Without much further ado, here's some bits and pieces of our lives between the wind, rain, cold, and work:

Leeds got a branch of Krispy Kreme last summer, and we've definitely taken advantage a few times.  Mia decided the bag is a perfect place to hang out.

On one of Sloan's regular adventures she decided to clamber through some cow muck.  The cows here recently got shut in the barns for the winter, as they do every year, so I let her run off-lead through the fields between our house and the closest reservoir.  She enjoyed sniffing and chasing the birds and managed to get stuck armpit-deep in cow muck- a combination of poo and the remains of food/tramping around their hay feeder in the field.  After realizing she was stuck, she whined for me to come over, and once again I was thankful for her wearing a harness under her coat- I grabbed it and threw her across the muck (just a few feet).  I then got to suction my wellies out of the muck!  Before her bath I made her take a picture. You can tell how thrilled she was with the whole situation.

Yet another day at Brimham Rocks for us (Sloan and me).  While we haven't had any sticking snow, winter has definitely set in and the heather and ferns have gone brown.

If you're concerned over Max's lack of representation here, he's doing well, for the most part.  He's still in recovery from his most recent surgery (in September he had his sixth orthopedic surgery- he really needs his own blog!) and can't do long-distances of exercise, but he does get daily walks, don't worry!  He's just had yet another check-up with his surgeon, and, unfortunately, was put back on his anti-inflammatory.  He had a great month off of it (the first time he's been off in over three years), but his osteoarthritis in his elbows began flaring up, so back to the awful smelling but he loves them tasty drugs he goes.  

0 Farm Delivery Friday Dec 23!

top row, l-r: celery, calabrese broccoli, leeks, red bell peppers, portobello mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and organic apple juice (which Paul's been drinking)
middle row, l-r: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, courgettes
bottom row, l-r: bananas, clementines, lemons

Once again (really almost every Friday) we have our farm delivery!  This picture is a bit of a combo of last week's delivery and this week's, since I forgot again- oops!

As always, I also got my 2L of milk and some soups- chicken & vegetable and haddock chowder.  Those are already in the fridge.

This week we got the mini fruit + veg box, since Paul likes to take fruit to work and he eats both clementines and bananas- I eat neither.  The lemons are mine; even when I accidentally let them go bad I always need lemons in the fridge- you never know when a squeeze will brighten up a dish, I might need some fresh lemonade, or I might get the urge for my favorite sugar cookies- which require lemons!

The onions and tomatoes came in our boxes- neither of us eat those, so I'll probably pass them on to our neighbor.  I try not to waste any of the farm delivery, but if I do forget about something and it gets wrinkly I just put it in my compost bin, so at least it's not trash...

Happy eating!

0 Harrogate Panto

 Christmastime is made all the more magical here in the U.K. by a fantastic theatrical tradition: the pantomime.  A hilarious take on a traditional tale, the panto is structured for children but there are plenty of "over their heads" jokes for adults, too.  Filled with pop-culture references and tunes, cross-dressing (the lead male is often played by a woman and the lead male's mother/older maternal figure is usually played by a male), and general overall good-spirited fun, going to the panto every year has been a highlight of our English Christmases.  

This year's performance was Beauty and the Beast.  In our previous years we've enjoyed Harrogate Theatre's Dick Whittington (a Yorkshire-boy-does-good tale) and Aladdin. 

We've always sat in the stalls (the floor), but on a tour of Harrogate theatre earlier this fall we learned that the dress circle is considered better seating.  I bought our tickets late this year, but we got front-row dress circle seats next to the boxes. The view was better, other than the sharp angle.

If you're ever in the U.K. (or a commonwealth country) in December, I highly recommend checking out a panto- they're fantastic!

0 London Break: Trafalgar Square, A Couple of Reviews, and a Missed Train

One of our main goals during our short stop in London was to see the National Gallery's temporary exhibit of some of Leonardo da Vinci's work from his time in Milan.   Despite having known about both the exhibit and our trip for months prior, I put off purchasing tickets to the exhibit until it was sold out.  After I got over my initial wave of disappointment I saw that 500 same-day tickets would be sold each day.  On Sunday we got to the Gallery just before 10AM, the opening time.  The line was already well-formed, and the attendant outside told us that we would most likely be issued tickets for 4:30PM.  This wasn't an option, as I'd already purchased 3:00PM matinee tickets to the West End production of The Wizard of Oz (review at the bottom of the post).  

So... Monday morning we got up early to get in line at the Gallery.  Paul had already purchased our home-journey train tickets for 1PM, so we needed to get tickets that would allow us to get to our train on time.   We arrived at the Gallery at 7:30AM and joined the already forming line.  

As we waited and tried not to notice the morning cold, I decided to walk over to a coffee shop and get some hot chocolate.  As I walked though Trafalgar Square I realized how rare it is to see the famous Square so empty, so I took a few pictures.  They're a bit redundant in subject matter, but there are only three, so after the Christmas window post it should be a relief!

The National Gallery and the 2012 Olympic countdown clock.

One of the lions watching the commuter traffic.

We did make it into the exhibit, with 11:30 tickets (and managed to get in about 10 minutes early).  While we waited for our timeslot we walked down to Chipotle, and Paul was very excited to eat some of his favorite American food.  The exhibit was wonderful, showing several of Leonardo's final pieces alongside sketches made as studies for the final images. The highlight of the exhibit featured his preparatory notes and sketches for The Lord's Supper.  While Leonardo's painting is still in place in Milan, the best-known copy done by one of his students a mere forty years after the original was on display at the National Gallery.  Many consider this copy to be more true to Leonardo's original work than the current state of the Milan fresco, as the original deteriorated severely and was damaged on multiple occasions before being repainted several times.

The last bit of story from this trip involves those pre-purchased 1PM train tickets.  We finished in the exhibit at about 12:15 (which seemed enough time, as the gallery was crowded enough to force movement through) and raced to the tube.  We stopped at the Tower station and Paul ran to pick up our bags (he's faster!) and when he returned we waited for the next tube.  It seemed to be taking a while, so Paul found another route option to King's Cross on the map- we ran to it, hopped on, and raced through the doors as soon as they opened at St. Pancras.  We then RAN to King's Cross and checked the boards for the platform number of our train.  The boards (and the woman Paul asked) said platform 0- so we ran over and got on that train.  We were immediately asked by crew what we were doing, as that train was being cleaned and had just arrived at the station.  We got off and asked another attendant- the Leeds-bound train had just pulled out of platform 2.  We then went over to the ticket desk and shelled out an additional £150 for the train to York leaving 1/2 an hour later.  

It sucks to miss a train, but, given the amount of public transportation we've dealt with since moving over, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

At least the exhibit was worth it!

Wizard of Oz review:
It was good, not great.  Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's music was amazing, and the show wasn't as twee as the original movie (which I appreciated)- for instance, the munchkins were all of average height, and, while all dressed in blue, they weren't as cutesy/grating as the movie.  The children in the munchkin community were noticeably good- they were consistent in singing and dancing, and the children with individual lines were flawless and natural.  The sets were fantastic, and the way the stage production treated the movie's famous black-and-white Kansas and color Oz was well-crafted and delightful.
 Michael Crawford, while as talented and aurally pleasing as ever, seemed cast for his star-power, as his roles of the wizard/traveling salesman were stretched thin to allow him stage time.  Danielle Hope, who earned the role of Dorothy through a reality-show competition, had a pleasant singing voice and a convincing midwestern American accent, but acted in a way suggesting a few too many viewings of the Judy Garland film.
I'll be honest; I've never been a big fan of the movie, and the musical's lion, tin woodsman, and scarecrow were well acted and believable enough to make me prefer them over their movie counterparts.  Overall, though, the musical seemed more like a stage version of the movie rather than a stand-alone adaptation or interpretation of L. Frank Baum's classic story. 

0 London Break: Christmas Window Displays

Since our timing put us in one of the world's greatest cities at Christmastime, I thought we should see some of the Christmas displays at a few of London's best shops and department stores.

We also went to Hyde Park's Christmas Market- it was absolutely packed with people and only one booth offered any seasonal wares.  Very disappointing, especially after Budapest's fun and festive markets.

Leadenhall Market.

Carnaby Street.

Hamley's Toy Shop's Lego display.

Regent Street.

I think Guess?

Fortnum and Mason, for the next eleven images.

When the clock struck the top of the hour these two figurines came out- they're hard to see here, but it was a treat in person!

Piccadilly Arcade.

 The doorman and entry of The Ritz.

This and the three following images are from Harvey Nichols' windows.

Where would any London-retail post be without a mention of Harrods?  This is actually the first time Paul and I have been to Harrods- and it was closed, so we still haven't been in!