Ah, Dearest Jesus
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song.
Glory to God in highest Heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
Words: Martin Luther, 1535.
Day eleven of our trip to Ireland and England was Monday September 25th. We walked across the road to the John Lennon Airport from our hotel early for our 9:20 AM flight back to Dublin. We didn’t realize how important adding the extras on our reservation were for this flight. We purchased priority boarding and it was money well spent as they divided everyone up into the ‘goats’ and ‘sheep’ at the gate. Our seats were guaranteed while others had to wait and see if there would be room for them. YIKES. Thankful again for the providence of the Lord we encountered all through our trip.
Another taxi ride from the Dublin airport to our last hotel on this trip, The Ashling. Andrew and Katie were already at this hotel and we were excited to meet up with them for our last day in Dublin. True to form the day was packed full with adventures.
After checking into the hotel and dropping our bags Josh ordered another Uber to take us across the river to our lunch destination, The Stag’s Head.
Our hunger satisfied we checked our GPS and walked to Trinity College.
No tours were available for us so we booked entry into the Book of Kells and strolled around the campus waiting for our entry time. The campus was packed solid with students and parents.
It was finally time for our tour and we lined up in the queue.
Welcome to the Old Library and the Book of Kells – a “must see” on the itinerary of all visitors to Dublin. Located in the heart of Dublin City, a walk through the cobbled stones of Trinity College Dublin will bring visitors back to the 18th century, when the magnificent Old Library building was constructed. Inside is housed the Book of Kells – a 9th-century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world.
The Book of Kells “Turning Darkness into Light” exhibition has displays of large screens showing copies of the pages from the Book of Kells. The actual volume of the Book of Kells is housed in the Treasury inside a glass case opened to a page that is turned every so often. No photographs permitted.
When we were on the Isle of Iona back in 2006 we were able to read about and see a copy of a page of the book of Kells which is most likely the location where the Book of Kells was created. Here’s a link with some good information.
These next four photos are needlepoint kneelers from St. Mary Magdalene church in Woodstock that we visited in 2022.
From the Book of Kells exhibit you proceed upstairs to the magnificent Long Room which usually houses 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books in its oak bookcases.
We were disappointed that all but 10% of the books were removed for cleaning and restoration from this magnificent library during our time in Dublin.
The Trinity College Harp (also known as ‘The Brian Boru Harp‘), dating from around 1400 AD, is an extraordinary instrument. Anywhere you look in Ireland, you cannot avoid the Trinity College Harp. It is used as the official emblem of Ireland.
From our time here we did some walking and shopping before we ordered another Uber to take us to Jameson Distillery where we had reserved a tour. The rest of day eleven will have to wait for another day.
Back to the Present: Our company over the last several days left on Monday morning. These last few days of November and into the beginning of December are very busy days for us. We have several events this week that require planning and thinking and organizing. We are starting our Christmas decorating slowly. I’ll have to wait for the majority of that decorating until next week. Choosing joy in the midst of busy! Hope all is well in your corner.
Sunday September 24th was day ten of our travels in Ireland and the United Kingdom. We enjoyed a well appointed breakfast buffet in the Delta Hotel dining room before we arranged for an Uber ride to see the waterfront statue of The Beatles.
Proudly perched on the peaks of the historic Royal Liver Building, the Liver birds are the mythical symbols of Liverpool, overlooking the city for well over a century.
The story of the Liver bird is said to date back to 1207, when King John decided to award Liverpool a Royal Charter, making it an official town. The document was sealed with the image of a bird – and so, the Liver bird was born.
Standing an impressive 18ft tall, the Liver Birds are made of copper and hold a wingspan of 24ft! The two birds are a prominent display within the city and previously rekindled the idea that the Liver Bird was a mythical bird that once haunted the local shoreline.
History suggests that the Liver Birds are a female and male pair that go by the names of Bella and Bertie. The female, Bella, looks to the sea, watching for the seamen to return safely home. While the male, Bertie, looks into the city, watching over the seamen’s families (or old wives’ tales – making sure the pubs are open!)
An urban legend also has it that the LIver Birds face away from each other as if they were to mate and fly away, the city would cease to exist. Another local tale also tells of the Birds being chained down, as if they were to fly away, the River Mersey would burst its banks and flood the city of Liverpool.
After a brief time at the waterfront we decided to Uber back to the hotel and to check out and get our luggage stored while we got on with the rest of our day. We got another Uber to take us to the Liverpool Cathedral which we were hoping to be able to explore. Our timing was off and they turned away visitors because it was time for a Sunday Service. We walked around the ‘longest Cathedral in Europe’ through St. James Gardens before we dialed up another Uber to take us to the Liverpool v. West Ham futbol match.
Our Uber driver took us right up to Anfield Stadium. Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has a seating capacity of 54,074, and is currently under expansion to seat 61,276, which will make it the fifth largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool since their formation in 1892.
When you are talking football in the United Kingdom you are actually talking about Soccer. Wanted to clarify for those of you who have no interest in this sport. This day, September 24th, 2023, will become our historical moment at Anfield Stadium.
We arrived early enough to get our shopping done before the game. As you can see the store was filled to the gills with fans doing the same thing we were.
It took a while to find just the right hat.
With our shopping behind us it was time to find the Beat Lounge. Josh was able to get our seats with special access to the Beat Lounge where we could hang out before the game, enjoy refreshments and other perks, a free drink at half time, access to our seats right off the lounge and easy access to restrooms. ‘Beat’ for the Beatles. There were musicians in the lounge playing some Beatles tunes, too.
It was a treat to be a part of the Liverpool Football tradition and see and hear the avid supporters in the Kop.
The actual score at the end of the match was Liverpool 3 and West Ham 1.
After the game we ended up walking all the way back to the hotel to drop off our purchases to be stored for us. Then walking again we were in search of a good spot for dinner. It took a while and a few false starts in establishments we weren’t that thrilled about. Finally getting a little hangry we walked into Salt House Tapas and were so glad we did. The service was great and the food was amazing. The Lamb dish we ordered was the best we had ever eaten.
We took an Uber back to the hotel to gather our stored luggage (which was not as easy as we expected). The front desk was slammed with a tour bus checking in and other patrons with complaints. Ludmilla was a gem and kept here cool and we breathed a sigh of relief when she found our last bag. Josh ordered our last Uber of the day to take us to the Liverpool (John Lennon) Airport to our hotel for the night with an early departure back to Dublin on Monday morning. (That was a long sentence). Even with all the Uber rides we took on this Sunday we accumulated close to 16,000 steps!! Day 10 in the books we had one more full day left in our travels. Day eleven would start with a flight to Dublin and being reunited with Andrew and Katie for our final full day in Dublin. Cheers and Slainte for making it this far.
That post will happen after Thanksgiving Weekend which will be full of family time for us.
We are thankful to God for all of His love, grace, forgiveness and for filling our lives with so many good gifts from above.
From our house to yours we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving.
On Saturday September 23rd, day nine of our travels, we had our buffet breakfast at the Knaresborough Inn, checked out and journeyed to nearby Fountains Abbey which is one of The National Trust properties in England at the Studley Royal Park. It was a rainy morning and we were wondering if the clouds would clear for our time at this property. Yes and hallelujah the rain moved on and the skies were glorious for our time at this magnificent property.
History of these largest Monastic Ruins in the country can be found here.
We paid our admission fee and walked down the pathway to the ruins. What a treat it was to be here and to see the wonder of it all. This was way up there in the Wow Factor.
Be forewarned that this post has a lot of photos.
The timing for our visit couldn’t have been better. As you can see, we are enjoying the grounds without other people around. A few more people arrived as time went on but we never had to dodge anyone.
I’m sure Laura was saying WOW! here.
This was a wonderful setting to remember all our Savior completed for us on the cross 2000 years ago.
I’m ending this post here. We walked on to more of the Studley Royal Park grounds and enjoyed some other sights before we walked back to the main entrance and had some lunch at the visitor center restaurant.
If you’ve made it all the way through this post you deserve applause! Thank you for coming along on my travel journal of our time in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Just a few more posts to go.
Thank you to Joyce for the Wednesday Hodgepodge Questions this week.
1. This week’s Hodgepodge lands on National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Is yours in need of a cleaning? Will you get that done today? How often do you tackle this particular chore?
I would say in particular the freezer sections are in more need of cleaning than the refrigerator sections. We have two Refrigerators. It won’t be done today. No regular schedule for cleaning this appliance. The question that comes up when I do tackle it is, ‘Why did I buy that only to let it live in my refrigerator past it’s enjoy by date?!’
2. November 15th is also National Philanthropy Day…tell us about a charity (local or otherwise) you like to support when you’re able.
Our church just had it’s campaign to fill Shoeboxes in support of Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child. I like to participate in that.
Our local church is generous in it’s support of missionaries world wide and we like to contribute to that effort. Our tithes and offerings to our local church also fund generosity to our local community. Right now in the month of November we have teamed up with Colville Toyota and offered free oil changes to widows and single moms.
3.What in nature inspires you and why?
So many things I could mention here. We are so grateful to have been able to be out and about in the midst of God’s creation enjoying his handiwork with our oldest son and dear DIL this past September.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork”
On our trip and walks about the United Kingdom this past September our daughter in law would quote that regularly. Laura has ‘eyes to see’ and we get inspired to see when we are with her. Greg and I would want to sing This is my Father’s World.
1 This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.
2 This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
3 This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!
4. What’s something you own that makes you feel cozy?
Cozy is my happy place! Being in my home with nothing on the agenda makes me feel cozy. Soft comfortable clothing makes me feel cozy. My Ugg slippers make me feel cozy. The older I get the more comfortable clothing I buy. Life is too short for tight underwear!
5. Who did you thank today? Who thanked you?
My mind went right to ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
I thank my dear hubby in the morning because he graciously makes my coffee for me.
A bloggy friend, Dianna, thanked me on Tuesday with this post.
I’m working on the Hodgepodge on Tuesday morning. I’ll wait and see if anyone else thanks me today and add that later.
Our granddaughter Addy thanked me for coming to her basketball practice on Tuesday evening.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I’m very thankful for my hard working husband. He is working most days on completing our master shower renovation. A complete re-do on his own. Demolition, prepping the walls meticulously, cutting when needed and attaching tile on the walls and floor. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning each day after his days work. All of this with the handicap of his left hand still being numb and having no sensory feeling from his stroke a year ago. Soon I’ll be able to share the before and after of this project.
Thank you, Greg, for your perseverance.
We continued Day 8 of our travels on September 22nd from Skipton to Knaresborough. It was a short journey. We arrived in Knaresborough before our rooms were ready at the Knaresborough Inn. When we walked in to inquire about our rooms the employee behind the counter looked at us and asked, “Are you for Trump?”. Cheeky question and I gave him a cheeky reply with a smile. I suppose it was no secret we were from the USA. Our rooms were not ready so we continued on to see the iconic view of the Railroad trestle over the river Nidd at the Knaresborough Castle grounds. It took us a while to find a good parking spot near the castle grounds.
Like in most towns in England there is a lot of history to explore but we were at a place in our travels that we just took in the views. You could spend days in each of the towns we chose to visit and take it all in.
The Kanesborough War memorial is set up on the Castle, overlooking the River Nidd. 156 names from the First World War and 55 names from the Second World War are commemorated on this memorial. One soldier who served with the Yorkshire Regiment is commemorated on this memorial.
After taking in these beautiful views we continued to some of the market streets.
This is the ‘oldest chemist shoppe in England’ or so they say. It was right to get a photo of our resident chemist in front of this establishment. It is now Lavender Tea Rooms & Coffee.
This Blue Memorial Plague stood out to me as we walked a few of the streets in Knaresborough.
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker.
Persecution of the Jews continues to this day. It is evil and should not be tolerated.
We finished up in town and drove back to our Inn to check in and get freshened up for dinner at the Inn.
I took the photos in the collage above in the morning without the crowds that we experienced at the dinner hour. Things were really hopping in this newly refurbished Inn. Tables were at a minimum and we finally found one for the four of us. We had to find a waitstaff person to give our order for food and then we had to go to the bar to put our drinks orders in, too. The staff, many of who were young and new were responsible for making drinks with the help of cheat sheets. We had some fun interactions with James, our server, who we watched running about for all the ingredients for the drinks we chose.
The food was good.
It was nice to finish up our day with a good meal and just steps away from our room for the night.
Again we had the most amiable weather and were thankful for another good day to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
Friday September 22nd was the eighth day of our travels in the UK. Originally we were going to be driving straight to York from Grassington to return our car and take a train to Liverpool. The reason we were traveling to Liverpool was to attend the Liverpool v. West Ham futbol/soccer match which was scheduled for Saturday the 23rd. After we had made reservations for a hotel and flights back to Dublin based on that date the game was switched to Sunday the 24th. We scrambled to make different plans than we had prior to the game change. Instead of spending an extra night in Liverpool we decided to spend Friday night in Knaresborough. On the way to Knaresborough we stopped in Skipton to see the castle.
Before we packed up and checked out of the Devonshire in Grassington we enjoyed breakfast.
Breakfast was very good each of our mornings here.
On the road to Skipton Laura managed to get snaps of all these great road signs. We don’t see Hedgehog area signs on any roads we travel in the USA.
We had reservations for the castle and the castle car park.
Over 900 years old, Skipton Castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England. If you are interested in the history of this castle follow this link.
The ancient Yew tree in Conduit Court.
Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676)
Born at Skipton Castle, 30th January, 1590, the daughter of George Clifford, she was the last Clifford to own Skipton Castle. She fought equally tenaciously for her rights and for the King’s cause in the Civil War, when Skipton Castle withstood a three years siege.
Lady Anne was also remarkable for the extensive post Civil War restoration work on her Castles. In 1659 she planted the yew tree in the central courtyard to mark the Castle’s repair from its Civil War damage.
The beautiful Conduit Court where a 350-year old Yew tree planted by Lady Anne Clifford still survives today
We enjoyed our time here especially since we were early enough to enjoy the castle mostly on our own.
This door called out to me at Holy Trinity Church in Skipton. Before we left Skipton we popped into the church.
The window of the Ministry and Ascension of Jesus. Centre-Ascension to his Father in Heaven, whilst his disciples watch from the ground as they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Left panel: Jesus the Good Shepherd. Right Panel; Jesus walking on water.
Window by; J.B. Cappronnier of Brussels, 1899.
Love the rest of our journey to Knaresborough. That will be another post.
Back to the Present: Greg is working hard to finish up the redo of our Master Bedroom Shower stall. He is almost there. He needed a break from all the hard work so we did a little drive on Friday to some craft fairs. We had breakfast in Chewelah and then took some roads less traveled to see the beautiful larches in our area. Before we left home I put a roast in the slow cooker so dinner would be taken care of while we were out and about.
Saturday was back to work for Greg and he finished the grouting while I did some shopping. We enjoyed leftovers on this day.
We had a wonderful Sunday at church including our annual business meeting. After church we stopped for Mexican food in town. We were happy to see my cousin and her husband at the restaurant and had a good catch up with them. Hope you all had a good weekend.
This continues the post of our walk over hill and dale from Grassington to Hebden and back to Grassington along the River Wharfe. The whole walk was closer to 6 miles than 4 miles but the steps that Laura’s device clocked were 20,077! This was on Thursday September 21, 2023.
We left our cozy Pub and headed through the village towards the River Wharfe.
The Old School Tea Room, Hebden. Family run, traditional but quirky tea room. Gifts, crafts and cards also available. School dates back to 1874 and the old bell still chimes every hour! (Laura, we missed going in here)
Hebden suspension bridge: The bridge, next to stepping stones, was built in 1884 to connect Hebden with Thorpe after a man drowned trying to cross the Wharfe. Nearby Burnsall Bridge, also on the river, had been swept away in a storm the previous year. The new bridge was built by the Hebden blacksmith using 262 yards of redundant steel rope from the old lead mines. It was restored in 2014/15.
If my hips were any bigger I wouldn’t have been able to squeeze through here! 🙂
The water at Linton Falls was in full force due to the storms the day before.
It was tempting to go down this lane and investigate Linton Church and village but our feet said no.
Back in town we treated ourselves to some famous Love brownies and got a recommendation for dinner and made reservations. As if we didn’t have enough steps in already to strolled in town and did some last minute shopping before we got ready for dinner.
Our dinner this evening at the Grassington House would be in honor of Greg’s 70th birthday, a treat from Josh and Laura.
Cheers to Pops on 70 years!
It was a lovely dinner and an American couple from Utah stopped by the table for conversation since they noticed we were from the States, too.
After dinner we took some evening shots for our memories.
We were thankful for being able to walk in sunshine with glorious blue skies and fluffy clouds and to see the wonderful landscape of a portion of the Dales. Capping the evening off with a delicious meal was a nice treat.
Although there was talk of taking part in Quiz Night at The Devonshire we all opted to tuck in and rest our feet and legs and get ready for Day 8 of our trip.
On Thursday September 21st, day seven of our travels, the fire alarms went off in the Inn while we were getting ready for breakfast. Yikes. I was happy to be dressed when one of the owners knocked on our door to check our smoke alarm. After a full check of all the rooms in the Inn it was determined that there was a faulty wire somewhere that set off the alarm. The noise stopped and we finished getting ready for our breakfast.
I ordered the American Pancakes on this morning and they were excellent. The coffee was decent, too. After breakfast we headed out from town for a 4 mile walk or so we thought.
We learned that the day before our glorious sunshine filled walk there was lots of rain and flooding. Again we were so thankful for Providence in our timing. So thankful for blue skies, fluffy clouds and nice temperatures for walking.
Once we were off the paved road we begin to see what the storm left behind. At this point we could call our walk. Around the puddles and through the Dales.
We spotted some grouse ahead…
After seeing them we felt like we were going off track so we headed back.
We were confused on which way to go to get to Hebden. We saw another walker and she pointed out the way or the direction we needed to go and we bumbled our way through someone’s field and finally made it to this sign.
Over the Stile we went and continued on.
We were happy to see our first destination in sight.
I wanted to call this walk, ‘Sheep Shite and Mud Puddles’, because we had to really work at dodging all three.
We were thrilled when we made it out of the fields.
A few more mud puddles to navigate.
We made it to this Pub just before it opened for the day.
We enjoyed our time here very much. It was nice to sit a spell and enjoy some good food. Josh had the Pheasant Burger and got a chance to compliment the chef on the goodness of it.
From here we would make our way to the Dale Way trail along the River Wharf to get back to Grassington. That will be another post.
From Ripon on Wednesday the 20th of September we continued on our journey to our final destination for the next couple of nights, Grassington. This part of our journey was a short 22 miles on B6265.
Grassington is the home of the fictional market town of Darrowby in All Creatures Great and Small, the 2020 television series set in 1937. Based upon the classic James Herriot books written by Alf Wight which follow the adventures of a young country vet in Yorkshire. Click here for more information on this charming town.
We would be staying at the Devonshire for Wednesday and Thursday nights. We were very happy to find a parking spot in this very popular market square. If we hadn’t we would have had to park at the Grassington National Park Visitor Center. We checked into our rooms in time to freshen up and have a walk about the town before our dinner reservations.
We had the Darrowby Suite and our kids had the Tristan Farnon room.
It was nice to be in a small quiet village with everything we needed at our doorstep.
We were glad we had made reservations for dinner because things filled up fast and the seats were full.
After dinner we regrouped in the bar area to play Phase 10. All the seats in the Inn were full with people and many with their 4 legged friends. Some were well behaved and others…not so much.
We shared another Sticky Toffee Pudding in the bar while playing our game.
We tucked into bed after a nice full day.
Day Seven took us into the ‘Dales’ for a nice long walk.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 