Monday of this week (15th) was Julia’s birthday. Though she’s no longer with us, the family ( or as much as could get away) wanted to celebrate the day to show she’s not forgotten. I wanted so much to show my appreciation of all the support I’ve had and settled on a couple of days away. I didn’t choose the place but in the end couldn’t fault the choice.
My niece Karen found a Groupon stay in York and we were able to book the last rooms available from Monday to Wednesday at a nice little place called the Queen Anne’s Guest House. Before I go further let me again thank Phil West and his wife for making our stay easy and pleasant. We arrived late morning and had been told it was fine to drop our bags off and go off to explore and find lunch if we wanted. My son-in-law aka The Stomach on Legs needed little persuasion so we headed the ten minute walk into town for food. The weather was a great help at lifting everyone’s spirits but our walk took us through the most beautiful park by the River Ouse where we were able to release balloons in Ju’s memory. True to form she didn’t make life easy when the balloon released by Yvonne hopped along the ground and headed straight for the nearest tree which it began to climb. She was quite the tomboy in her youth.
After the release we had a coffee and light lunch, a wander round part of the city and returned to the guest house to rest before going out again for dinner. There was a nice pub/hotel quite close by and we had excellent food before realising how much the heat had taken out of us. In honour of the day I had agreed with a friend that I’d have a pint on his behalf. Not something I’d normally do since a sniff of the barmaid’s apron is usually enough to have me flat on my back.
Of course everyone was only too happy to record this and I think four cameras were out and trained on me. We got back to the guest house safely and had an early night.
Tuesday morning breakfast and Phil’s lovely wife was dancing attendance on us with our various orders. I can highly recommend the full English and even managed to have my fill of toast before Ugo descended from his pit. I’ve never seen hand and jaws co-ordinate with such speed before as the table rapidly emptied. We were lucky it was time to leave before he started on the tablecloths. Karen and Joanne kept me in check as we headed back into York as Ugo made sure Yvonne was OK and not about to give birth before the holiday was over. First job of the day was to indulge a whim of mine which was to ave a photograph taken together without one of us claiming they needed to be on the other side of the camera. We headed for York’s famous Shambles and the Past Images Studio. The Shambles is a centuries old Meat Market with many of the building still retaining the original meat hooks by the doors. It’s beautiful, it’s quaint and very historic.
These are some of the
Photographs from the studio.
York Minster was another place we couldn’t afford to miss since it’s history is so significant to the City. After lunch it was our first stop before we again ambled back to the guest house to rest up before dinner at the same pub as before but without me indulging a second time.
Breakfast on Wednesday wasn’t half as much fun as the day before as Ugo arrived before I could finish the toast. We’d all slept well after the walking but today we had to journey home and had a stop to make on the way. Stockport !! I’m going to make the excuse that the girls all wanted to shop for baby clothes but in reality I wanted to stop for pork pies before my brother visited that evening. After breakfast Ugo only needed to stop for food once before having his first beef pie ( my pies are safe since he doesn’t care for pork) just before stopping for lunch. Since I’m honest I can say we shopped for baby clothes and the girls between them created a dearth of clothes and shoes that will leave the women of Stockport stunned for many a year.
We arrived home safely. Of course in a blog there’s no way I can describe everything we saw even if I had the words to do so. York is an exceptional place, the guest house was superb and I’d gladly return there, most of all I was in fantastic company at a time when alone I may have been fragile. Thank you so much to my lovely family, Karen who stood to my right in the picture, Yvonne who stood to my left, Ugo to her left and Joanne who managed to get the only chair in a way I haven’t fathomed yet. You gave me a wonderful break.
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