Yesterday my daughter and I, with the two youngest grandchildren, went to York to visit Granddaughter Number Two, who is coming to the end of her studies at the university there. We spent rather a long time in the York Museum Gardens, first of all eating ice cream at what Granddaughter Number Two assured us is the best icecream seller in the city, and then looking at ruins of the Abbey of St Mary.
Originally founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf, it was “refounded” in 1088 by King William II and rededicated to the Virgin Mary. There followed some problems with fires and some rebuilding, it became the largest and richest Benedictine establishment in the north of England and one of the largest landholders in Yorkshire, was worth over £2,000 a year, (equivalent to £1,700,000 in 2023). No wonder it fell victim to Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries. On 26 November 1539 the Abbey surrendered £2,085 and 50 monks to the crown.
We went on to wander round the city centre and eventually to eat pizza at Pizza Express, which has become a kind of tradition when we go to visit Granddaughter Number Two. And we walked back along the old walls, rather quickly towards the end of our walk as we realised our carparking ticket was about to run out and we might need to pay more!
The sun shone on us all day. granddaughter Number Two, naturally very pale, wore a sundress and neglected/forgot to put on sunblock and ended up with rather pink shoulders and back. She doesn’t expect in to turn to a beautiful bronzed effect. Rather, it will perhaps peel but certainly fade back to white. Her mother slathered her with aftersun cream before we set off back for home.
Now, I’ve never been a fan of barbecues. Maybe it’s because I don’t really appreciate red meat. Yes, I know you can barbecue chicken but somehow I’ve always found other ways, preferable to me, of cooking chicken. My particular complaint is against disposable barbecues. They are one of the causes of wildfires around here with our peat-based moorlands. It seems that the people who appreciate disposable barbecues don’t understand that the idea is that you take it home to dispose of it safely. And apparently sandy beaches are no better than peat moorlands when it comes to abandoning these infernal devices. Here’s a link to an article about children who have been seriously burnt by treading on sand which covers buried disposable barbecues. Horrific stuff! They should be banned!
We’ve been deleting stuff from the material we have recorded from TV over the years, stuff that we’ve watched over and over again. We wanted there to be space to record a marathon set of programmes BBC2 is broadcasting this evening, all centred upon Bruce Springsteen. Maybe they want to preempt the Springsteen biopic due to be released later this year. And this morning I read that The Boss’s criticism of Trump during his recent Manchester concerts has caused a schism in his fans in the USA. Republicans are not happy with him! Oh dear! Here is a link to an article about it.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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