HOLIDAY SNAPS - Coming Down

The end of anything, contains an element of coming down from a relaxed enjoyable state of being away. Engaging with somewhere that is new, or at least not the colours and aromas of your usual surroundings. Early in the morning before dawn has even begun waking up the sky, this is all still only a theoretical proposition. This leaving point has not yet arrived, and you are lying in bed imagining reaching that point, and its a slightly daunting prospect. 

And the journey home? Well, that is being slowly factored in as this unpleasant necessity. The pulling yourself away from a place and situation you have grown emotional ties with, a fondness occasionally bordering on an unrequited love for. All of this adds to the longing for the future direction of life to be of a different cast, to what you are going back to. Making the coming down not always an enjoyable process, more a tearing yourself away from this fresh romanticised obsession. 

In our case, we are literally coming down the country, in the general direction of Norfolk. The route we sketched out very roughly last night. A leisurely and well paced speed of travel. Breaking up the five hours of car travel into three to four bite sized chunks. With regular stop overs to stretch legs and rejuvenate the tired forever travelling mindset. Oh, and also, to eat! 

Our first planned stop was Beverley. a town I've not been back to since my teenage years. And it turns out to be far far better than my memory of it. We had breakfast in Carluccio's for goodness sake!. I had what was the finest Eggs Florentine of the entire holiday. Wandering around the town, its very well served. We even found our first half decent yarn shop. Yorkshire having turned itself into a bit of a yarn desert. Beverley, like many places has become Doggy obsessed. With not one but two Dog themed businesses, each one a great play on words, one called Oh My Dog, the other Everything But The Dog.  

And so it was soon onwards to our next stop over in Sleaford. For years of travelling north we have passed the sign for The National Centre for Arts & Crafts and said we should take a look. This time, we took a look. The building is a huge four story building, of which they only use two floors, and only one as a full exhibition space. Whoever is the Artistic Director is not doing a good job. Only one exhibition room of rugs, vaguely connected to Winifred Nicholson, which was OK ish. 

Two smaller exhibitions, one stuffed in a corner of the Shop, another spread down the window sills of a stairwell. The Stairwell exhibition of three dimensional design work was actually quite good, but easily overlooked. Imagine these as maquettes for really huge room filling constructions. The centre appears to be focused primarily on increasing local engagement with lots of making and dance workshops for kids and adults. Rather than National, it all had a bit of a provincial art centre vibe, and lacked large craft statement ambition. Underwhelmed I was. A big big disappointment, with one truly horrendous car park!

Our final stop was in the Hardwick Retail Park in Kings Lynn. Not for any other reason than we both needed to get out of the car. Hubby had been driving by then for four hours, with another hour ahead. So we idly wandered into The Range, which had already gone full on floors and floors of Christmas. We ended up buying this years Christmas Crackers. Whatever colour theme we decide on for our Christmas is invariably set by the crackers. So this year its Burgundy & Emerald flocking with gold foil. The flocking was a bit of a surprise, but we are prepared to go with tacky vulgarity. Oh, the Holiday is now well and truly over.

 

HOLIDAY SNAPS - Winding Up A Holiday

Today was our last full day in North Yorkshire. After yesterday's mega wander around York, we planned to stay more local. So what to do with our day? Turns out, its to buy or eat food and return to places we've been too previously - to partake again in the already familiar. Starting off in Malton for breakfast at The Pantry. Then take another look around, a final bit of shopping. A couple of places haven't been open when we've visited earlier in the week. And guess what? They weren't there today either. So, after a re-visit to Roost to purchase more of their deeply lucious locally roasted coffee, we moved onwards to Helmsley, for the third and final time, just a tiny bit sooner than we'd expected. 

Coffee and cake in Mannion & Co. Cheese and olives from Hunter's of Helmsley. Cheese Straws, Parkin, and a Yorkshire Curd Tart from Thomas The Bakers. Yeah, I know, its more food for our far from sated stomachs, apparently. Plus, another visit to Saltbox Gallery, for a final recky to see what delightfully thing might pique our interest and beautifully augment our small, but choice, ceramic art object collection. We bought two small vases, by a potter Danielle Pilling, based in County Durham. They look like they'll 'form a conversation' as they say in arty circles, so I hear.

We'd not been to Rievaulx Abbey this visit, so today we put that to rights, and finished with having a light lunch there. Over the years I've taken lots of photos at this atmospheric ruin. Today was a bright sunny day, so I tried to find closer architectural details to focus on, views through windows and contrasting levels in the ruins.

Then circling back to Old Malton Parish Church, which we've been frequently driving past, seemingly for years. We finally pulled in and went to see it up close. Post the Dissolution this was cobbled together into a Parish Church, out of the nave of a Gilbertine Monastery. Literally by slicing off the upper clerestory and the side aisles and blocking up the arches. And, similar to Binham Priory, you can tell as soon as you enter by the sort of architecture it contains, that this was never built to serve a local parish. It has an inappropriate level of immensity.  

The Gilbertines were the only entirely English monastic foundation, founded by St Gilbert of Sempringham in 1130. At their height there were around 26 priorys and abbeys in England. They were quite unusual, even in there day, in that they were quite often combined double foundations for both monks and nuns. Old Malton Parish church is a very lofty, oddly truncated sacred space, with a darkly sombre mood to it. If this were weather it would be called overcast. 

When I get back I'll write further about this in a Church Larking post. But first there comes tomorrow's return journey.

HOLIDAY SNAPS - Less Quality And Considerably More Crap

Just under half an hours journey by car from our holiday let, we spent almost the entire day in York. It is a likeable city, packed with historic buildings. Like Norwich it has medieval churches on almost every corner. These days often repurposed as cafes, galleries or antique emporiums. The last time we were here was just post Covid, and it had suffered a lot of retail losses. Many of the national chains had gone for good, or left the city centre for out of town shopping at the outer ring of Park and Ride sites. 

Medieval cities, and York is a classic example, are a warren of tightly packed streets. Its shopping area is vast and complex. Its not particularly zoned either, so you have to do a lot of wandering about to really get a flavour for what is here. This is exhausting. We appear to come to York in late September, and there is always a Food Festival on. Lots of street vendors and artizan makers under canvas. We thought this year it was considerably less artizan and generally poorer quality makers, veering more towards the novelty and junk food end than previously. And this turned out to be our more general impression for how York was fairing. Less quality and considerably more crap touristy orientated. I guess that's where the bucks are.

Hubby had heard about a shop in York called This Shop Is So Gay, so we sought it out. It gave off a slightly alternative hippy vibe externally. The stock was mainly novelty gay themed stuff - badges, necklaces, bags and posters, lots of the same imagery spread out over tables across quite a large interior. This shop, either needs to move to a smaller shop, or buy a more diverse range of stock, or it will be dead within a very short time. 

Whilst buying a gorgeous rye bread in the alternative vibe of The Bluebird Bakery, I noticed a poster on its walls advertising an event - Frieda Nipples Presents ...... Baps and Buns. Oh, that reminds me, something I forgot to mention - Yorkshire is full of shops with names that are puns - the best in Whitby was a takeaway called Bits n Pizzas.  There's a shoe shop called Brogues Gallery in Pickering

Eating wise we had a lovely vegan breakfast at Bills. Followed by a coffee and cake in an independent cafe called The Arras. I had a rather quality Cinnamon Bun, whilst I watched Hubby eat an absolutely enormous Cruffin, that looked as though it had been baked in a flower pot. Lunch was in the really rather Fab - Ippuku Tea House, serving quietly authentic Japanese homestyle cuisine. I highly recommend if you are ever in York.  

The York Art Gallery is always worth a revisit, if only for its extremely good contemporary ceramics collection. It also has excellent feature exhibitions. Two new ones for the autumn/winter season had opened this week, which are really worth seeing. One has entrants for The Aesthetica Art Prize 2025, featuring a wide ranging mix of styles and media work from contemporary artists. Alongside it an exhibition called Future Tense featured previous winners of the Art Prize. The best piece was Submergence an interactive sensory light piece by an art collective called Squidsoup. We both of us spent ages here, it was quite meditative and therapeutic. Lots of shivers of in the moment bliss.

We got home pretty whacked and more than a bit frazzled around the edges. The intensely hectic, sensory stimulating and closely packed peopled character of it. I guess we are just not used to this these days. 

HOLIDAY SNAPS - Fully Slaked On History & Cake

After yesterdays 90 mile circular drive across and back from the coast via the moors, we stayed relatively local. Breakfast in Malton at The Pantry - Eggs Florentine for me, Veggie Breakie for Hubs -seeing as you asked. Then a wander around town, enviously taking in a few interiors shops, and purchasing locally roasted coffee beans from Roost. Moving on to Helmsley for a rather lovely coffee with biscotti and yummy patisserie outside of Mannion & Co, to prepare and fortify us for the further demanding exertion of gently ambing around a castle ruin.

My first recollection of visiting Helmsley was a Primary School field trip, when I was around eight or nine. So sixty years ago. Somewhere in my physical photo archive, I have some rather indistinct snaps of Helmsley Castle and of me stood in front of the Helmsley YHA, taken on a Box Brownie type camera I had. Already a history enthusiast, I absolutely loved the Castle and the later visit to Rievaulx Abbey. 

Would it now live up to my recollection of it?  Yes, of course it did. Helmsley Castle is one of those places that easily fires up one's imagination, whatever your age. The English Heritage audio guides are rather excellent. Though you do have to decide at some point quite how much depth of information you require, and what amount of thespian over acting you can tolerate. Plus, realising at six eight, that you can liberate yourself from anal tyranny, by not following the audio guide in number sequence. That was a revelation!

There is a La Trattoria in Helmsley, so we had to have their Arancini's in Napoli again, plus Penne Arrabiata for me, and Aubergine Parmigiana for Hubby. Happily stuffed, we cruised Hunters of Helmsley, the local Deli, desperate to buy more food provisions for later. Buying a pot Jam, a jar Sun Blushed Tomatoes in Balsamic and a bit of a Brie. And then, with out purchasing power now fully slaked for the day, we returned home to base camp.

HOLIDAY SNAPS - Curating Your Holiday

Today, being our thirteenth Wedding Anniversary, we took ourselves off 'n' over the bleak moors to Whitby for the day. A place we know well and love. So a visit is often about touching base with a few favourite haunts, and seeing what is gone and what new arrivals it has. 

As is our habit, much of the day was spent stopping off to drink and eat. Breakfast at Sanders Yard, Coffee & Cornish Pudding at The Cornish Bakery, and a fine lunch at a new eatery the Pescado Lounge. It was a clear blue sky, gloriously sunny day, and Whitby was looking at its best. It is, like everywhere, showing signs of its high street deteriorating, as well as some interesting larger developments which seem generally to be catering for the slightly more well off visitor. 

Having an Instagram moment

The day we were there, a group of Japanese tourists were enthusiastically wandering around Whitby. One woman in a fuschia overcoat having herself filmed on her phone by a friend, walking down the middle of the road pretending to look either side of her at the architecture of retail decay. That she almost brought the traffic to a screeching halt seemed not to bother her in the least. She needed to curate her foreign holiday with an Instagram/TickTok moment. We caught her doing the same thing with equal enthusiasm all over Whitby, it was utterly barmy and quite eccentrically charming simultaneously.  

We had time left in the afternoon to zip up to Saltburn on Sea, to check out how that was fairing. The original indulgence of a late Victorian entrepreneur who'd prospered locally from the Industrial Revolution.  Saltburn should by rights not still be surviving, with its archetypal pier and funicular railway, the parades of shops with their wrought iron canopies and balconies. Today, it is an uneasy mixture of kiss me quick seaside, with surf shops and high end restaurants, interiors and giftwares. And each time we visit, can see its retail fortunes are wildly fluctuating. This time it seemed on a downward curve, veering away from high end and had developed some very ugly gaps in its teeth. But Saltburn itself, the sea and the pier are doing just fine.

HOLIDAY SNAPS - A Surprisingly Close Experience Of Sunshine

A furious storm blew over night and was all but out of puff by morning. The first glimmers of a sun rise and the dawn of a blustery cool, but essentially bright day. Sunday in the centre of Malton there was a public running competition circling around the outskirts of the town for six miles in total. The serious minded competitive runners went first, the food themed fun runners an hour or so later, dressed as everything from pineapples, Prosecco bottles, to a MacDonald's hamburger. There was a small food market accompanying this, which gave you a tiny flavour for what the monthly, more full on food market, may be like. One day we will be here when that is on. Very little else was open in town. But we had a top quality lunch in La Trattoria, both of us having arancini in a rich tomato sauce for starters, followed by a risotto. Mine a goats cheese and pesto, Hubby's mushroom with truffle oil, these truly were FAB.

Moving on to Pickering, a market town we've never visited before. Though it was Sunday, most of its shops were open. We were unexpectedly impressed by how quaint and interesting the town market place is. I did a bit of 'church larking' in the Parish Church which is rightly known for its late medieval wall paintings in its nave. To have such complete examples left is pretty much miraculous. Whitewashed over during the time of the Reformation, enabled them to survive pretty much unharmed until the Victorians restored them. 

After yesterday's deluge, the air smelt fresher, the sky and landscape all looked sharper edged. Producing a surprising close experience of sunshine, that was all very welcome. 

HOLIDAY SNAPS - It Rained & Rained & Rained

The rain was forecast to fall continuously all day, which it proceeded to do with a vengence. So we thought, keep ourselves relatively local, within easy access of shops and cafes, should we need to seek immediate shelter. So we went for breakfast in Helmsley, to The Feather Trail Cafe, which we'd discovered three years ago on our last visit. Their Veggie Breakfast was still as good as we remembered it. We wandered around dodging the occasional heavy shower, looking for and then finding a cafetiere in a charity shop. A cake to take home for afternoon tea etc. We will undoubtedly return, we always do.

North Yorkshire has very few National Trust properties, its mostly English Heritage. But we spotted Nunnington Hall on the drive to Helmsley. So on the way back we stopped off for a drink and a cake.The house itself is a smallish country manor house, it is quite a ramshackle affair and has an air of run down neglect. This house could never be referred to as grand or swish. Whether this is the Trust's deliberate decision, to leave it exactly as it was when they took it over, or that Nunnington comes very low down on the list for money being put into it, this I could not say.

But it was one place to shelter from the increasingly heavy downpours. Once we actually found where the Cafe was located, which due to poor signage, was indeed a task in itself. It was heaving, as Hubby pointed out, with all the white haired middle class retired couples currently on holiday having the exactly same idea. We ordered our drinks, and that ever so English notion of having a Scone of the Month - Bramley Apple Crumble Scone. Ensconced on a plate with two dinky glass pots, one containing apple sauce, the other custard. The scone had chunks of apple within it, and once all its accessories were slathered upon it, this was a taste sensation.  This proved to be the culinary highlight of our very wet first day. Excellent.

We returned to base, bought a Chinese takeaway from Pickering, watched the ever delightful Grand Budapest Hotel, and then to bed 

HOLIDAY SNAPS - The Driving, The Arriving & The Exhaustion

The three hundred mile car journey to our holiday accommodation between Malton and Pickering, took us from an 8am start til 3pm when we finally arrived at Robin Cottage, Low Bellafax Grange. Stopping over first for a breakfast at The Chestnut Tearooms at Gedney. Our longest stopover in Lincoln took in our regular visit to The Fabric Quarter in Bailgate, one of our favourite fabric shops. Reaching Malton, and an excellent pizza at Salt, plus a quick shop in Morrisons.

In Lincoln Castle

Robin Cottage looks like a recent barn conversion into four modern apartments. With the emphasis on Modern. Ours is extremely spacious and minimalist, and it has a fabulous view out over the nearby fields, where sheep safely graze. It has a very calming and restful vibe, because its not over cluttered with unnecessary furniture. 

And yet, as far as minimalism goes, it doesn't quite cover all the basic practical requirements one might expect it too. The apartment has a few significant gaps. Insufficient storage for clothes. No microwave. No Cafetiere. The bathroom has not enough shelf space to place your toiletries on. No hooks to hang even a bathrobe on. No where, in fact, to hang your outdoor coats on, nor put your muddy boots or shoes on. As our first arrival day drew to its close, this clocking up of these minor faults started to irritate. This was beginning to feel like this was minimalist style over substance. But that aside, we are enjoying our stay here so far. We're both of us pooped, and couldn't wait to go to bed.