Gates ~ Hereford Cathedral

For Good Fences which also includes Gates here are some beauties from the inside and outside of Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England. In the next few posts I’ll show more architectural wonder from this amazing structure.

Dear and I visited the town of Hereford on a Sunday in July and we really enjoyed our visit to the Cathedral.

These gates were the entrance to the beautiful cloisters courtyard.

We made the mistake of visiting this cathedral on Sunday instead of a weekday or Saturday when the Chained Library is open and the Mappa Mundi exhibition is open for viewing. Arrgh! I was very disappointed. The other thing that we missed was a good meal at the Cathedral Cloister Cafe. We did enjoy the amazing history and architecture and beauty throughout the cathedral!

Thank you to TexWisGirl from Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting this weekly meme.

It’s All About Books…

You know you are in Wales when you start seeing signs in English and Welsh and of course the Welsh is listed first. We traveled from Ross-on-Wye to Hay-on Wye which is situated in the southern part of Wales.

Hay-on-Wye is the town of books. We have always enjoyed spending time in used book stores so visiting this town was a no-brainer.

Murder and Mayhem was the only bookstore that we bought a book in. We found a paperback by Dorothy Sayers who is a famous British author and a friend of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.

The town was easy to see in a day and we enjoyed our time there but it’s not one of the towns we’d want to take the time to re-visit.

We enjoyed a wonderful cup of coffee and a scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam at Oscar’s. Delicious!

The day we visited Hay we ended up enjoying a local flea market and also visiting thrift stores, besides enjoying the used book stores.

The drive to and from Hay-on-Wye was filled with lovely views. We stopped at a grocery store on the way home to buy some take-away complete meals to warm up at Eastview.

Next up on our time in this part of England would be a trip to Hereford to see the Cathedral.

How was your last weekend of Summer? We were busy at this old house. Dear is almost done with the “fixes” in our bathroom and soon I’ll be sharing the finished project with you and thankfully no Murder or Mayhem was involved except reading a fine murder mystery to escape it all.

Ross on Wye ~

Our second self-catering experience in England was in Ross-on-Wye. It was so different from our first cottage experience. The amenities were more modern overall and the location was on a “B” road so there was traffic and easier access to other major roads. The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the UK, stretching some 130 miles from source to sea. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales. Ross-on-Wye was in England and from this location we would travel to Hay-on-Wye in Wales and to Hereford.

That spiral staircase took us up to the bedroom. We were happy to have a night light to help us find the bathroom which was on the main floor.

The views from the back of our little 2 story apartment were delightful.

I still have several posts from our time in England…can you believe it?

Things keep moving ahead here at this old house with bathroom renovations. We have one more piece of baseboard to be delivered by the renovation company and we will never have to see them again. A job promised to be done in two weeks has taken nine weeks to complete. Yes…we are fed up with them. But soon with Dear’s expertise and fixes the bathroom will be ready to show to you all. Dear is also progressing with the siding. I’m happy to be home this weekend, the last weekend of summer!

What are you doing this last weekend of Summer!?

Hot Town…

…summer in the city…walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.”

I’m in Southern California for their most recent heat wave with red alerts and warnings being issued left and right. Temperatures over 100 degrees are about 25 degrees above my comfort zone! When I get home on Tuesday to the cooler Northwest I’ll fill you in on all the hot doings down here.

Hope your days are moving along nicely.

The Tailor of Gloucester

I started my Beatrix Potter Figurine collection on my first trip to England in 1973. I also bought a complete set of the books that Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated. We knew about this shop in Gloucester and were determined to visit it while we were in Gloucester 41 years after I started my collection.

There are lots of shops relating to Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit in England.

This shop had a lot of fun displays filled with memorabilia.

Here is my “Tailor” and the books I purchased in 1973. Some of them are a little worn. I have 27 figurines. I’m just going to share a couple more for this post.

Here is Pigling Bland. The book to the right of Pigling Bland is Little Pig Robinson and when Josh was a little guy he figured out that this book was one of the longest in the series so he’d ask to have that one as his bedtime story knowing sleep would be delayed just a tad longer.

Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is one of my favorites.

Of course Peter Rabbit is the most recognized of Beatrix Potter’s beloved characters.

Have you read Beatrix Potter’s books? Who is your favorite character?

The Chapel of St. Andrew ~ Gloucester Cathedral

Gloucester Cathedral is so full of amazing things to see. This first photo is a small view of the Nave of the cathedral. The other photos will be of The Chapel of St. Andrew.

“The frescoes and the decorations in this chapel of Saint Andrew were a labour of love on the part of Thomas Gambier Parry of Highnam Court and were erected by him to the Glory of God”

I will give thee a Crown of Life

Behold the Lamb of God ~ Master Where Dwelleth Thou

The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light which shineth more and more unto the Perfect Day.

You really need some time to take in the beauty and history of a cathedral like Gloucester. You start getting redundant with your adjectives when you walk through all the grandeur.

Back here in the state of Washington we are working hard at keeping our days straight because of the Monday holiday. We hope that Thursday is the last day that the bathroom renovators will be in our bathroom. Time will tell.

The Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral

We were so happy to be able to go inside Gloucester Cathedral this visit. We visited in 2004 with our daughter Katie for her “graduation gift trip” but we arrived to Gloucester when it was closed. This will also serve as my ABC Wednesday Post for the letter H since these beautiful halls were filmed as part of Hogwarts School. If you haven’t read or watched the Harry Potter books or movies you won’t know what I’m talking about but you can still enjoy these beautiful Cloisters and for ABC Wednesday you can call them hallways!

The cloisters were used in filming a couple of the Harry Potter films. You can read about it here. I know some of my friends have avoided reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. My family has enjoyed J.K. Rowling’s writing and the battle between good and evil.

We were amazed with this part of the cathedral and there was still so much more to see.

Thank you to the ABC Team and to Denise Nesbitt for ABC Wednesday!

Have a good first week of September!

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Roslyn, Washington

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Roslyn, Washington.

Roslyn is that city made famous for the T.V. series called Northern Exposure. We enjoyed a little road trip there. It’s just off of I-90 going over the Cascade Mountain range in Washington State. Since I referenced Northern Exposure here’s a photo from Roslyn that you will recognize.

Thank you to Beth and Sally for hosting InSPIREd Sunday. Click on over to see some pretty church spires from around the world.

Wow! We’ve had five Sundays in August this year. It’s labor day weekend so of course we are laboring. How about you?

Bourton on the Water

I must keep moving along with my England travels before Fall is upon us!

Day 8 of our English holiday was a travel day with stops in Bourton on the Water and Gloucester. I ran ahead showing the outside of Gloucester Cathedral before showing you our first stop which was “Venice of the Cotswolds”.

It was a charming little village to stroll through. We did indulge in a treat from “Bakery on the Water”. So many wonderful baked goods to choose from. On our way back to the car park we strolled by Birdland and I saw a bird I had never seen before in person.

A Stork!

Here we are at the start of Labor Day Weekend. Dear will be home earlier than usual today to beat the traffic. Our plans as usual are to labor on this weekend. It’s so American don’t you think? Dear has started a siding project. The weather does not sound like it wants to cooperate with this outdoor project. I’m throwing a hunk of meat in the oven for sandwiches to last us for the weekend projects. For those of you that kind of keep up with the goings on at this old house I wanted to let you know that the bathroom is not completed yet. It’s usable but needs the last cosmetic touches and boo boos fixed. I really do hope that I have a completed bathroom to show by the end of next week!

Have a wonderful long weekend! Are you laboring, too, or are you taking it easy?

Good Fences ~ Oysterville

My fences this week are from a trip Dear and I took a couple years ago to Long Beach, Washington. These fences are in Oysterville, Washington.

The texture that the moss or lichen added to this fence was very interesting but the damage to the wood is probably significant, too.

This is the oldest house in Oysterville. We enjoyed walking through this little town and also reading up on the history.

You can click over to TexWisGirl at Run*A*Round Ranch to see other fences from around the world.

Can you believe we are coming up on Labor Day Weekend here in the States? Got any plans?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel