Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #7 :: Christmas at Castle Howard

Hi there everyone 😀

After our morning exploring Byland Abbey and a quick pit stop in Helmsley it was time for the main event. 

We were due at Castle Howard late afternoon for their annual Christmas event. This year’s theme was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and we were all very excited. 

Before heading for the castle we braved the throng for a wander round the gift shop in the courtyard, but it was very very busy so we wandered down to the marquee at the side of the castle to see what they had in there. 

This was full of Wizard of Oz stuff and every kind of green Christmas decoration that you could imagine …

It wasn’t long before it was time to make our way to the main entrance where we received the warmest of welcomes. 

We made our way up the grand staircase …

… to find Dorothy’s house, blown in by a whirling tornado, unceremoniously landed on top of the Wicked Witch of the East. 

In Lady Georgiana’s bedroom we met the Good Witch of the North …

… who suggested the best way for us to find our way home was to follow the yellow brick road … which exactly what we did. 

We met some friends along the way … the Scarecrow …

… the Tin Man …

… and the Lion …

They all joined us along our journey through Munchkin Land …

… and a meadow of powerful poppies that were aiming to send us all off to sleep …

In The Great Hall we could see the glistening towers of the Emerald City in the distance …

… and the most dazzling and grand Christmas tree of all …

In the library we could sense that we were very nearly at our destination as the room was flicking between a bright white …

… to the most emerald of greens …

In the Garden Hall we finally got to meet The Great Oz …

After meeting Oz it was into the Tapestry Drawing Room, where we were confronted by the evil eye of the Wicked Witch of the West … who was hell bent on getting revenge for her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East, who we’d last seen with her legs poking out from under Dorothy’s house …

We met her, and her flying monkeys … for real … in the music room …

In Winkie’s Workshop we saw our friends, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, undergoing repairs following their run in with the witch …

… and then we got chance to wander the streets of streets of the Emerald City …

Finally … we got to meet Glinda, the Good Witch of the South …

… who helped us find our way back to Kansas … where home awaited …

It wasn’t quite time for home for us though. We were heading to the Plum and Partridge in Husthwaite for a nice meal … where things were looking very festive …

… and the food was just fabulous …

… as was the wallpaper …

We’d had the most fabulous and festive day and it was definitely time to head back to Anthology Cottage for the rest of the evening. 

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A Festive Break near York #3 :: Byland Abbey & Getting Cosy

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst we crammed absolutely loads of lovely things in whilst we were staying in Yorkshire back in November … one of the main reasons for choosing that location was because we wanted to visit the Castle Howard Christmas Event, the theme for this year being The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

We’d booked a late afternoon slot so we would be visiting just as it was starting to get dark so had plenty of time for a bit of mooching about first.

Earlier in our stay we’d driven past Byland Abbey and, as we were heading in that direction again, it just seemed perfect for a bit of a stop and a wander …

It’s not on the same scale as Fountains but there was still plenty to see …

It’s in a truly lovely quiet spot in the valley with fabulous views all around …

The weather was perfect, though cold, and I think we really got to see it at its very best …

After a good half an hour just wandering around the site we headed back into Helmsley, where Jackie and Phil were going to revisit a few shops and Martin and I headed into the warm …

… where we whiled away a very pleasant and cosy hour whilst waiting for Jackie & Phil …

It was then time to make our way to Castle Howard for the main event of the day 💚

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2026 :: A Slow Start

Hi there everyone 😀

Whilst I do still have a couple of posts to share with you from our trip to York, as well as a Lodge Life post, I just fancied a bit of a change from a tourist information post today.

I think it’s fair to say that the first two or three weeks of the new year found us just drifting about aimlessly really … with no real plans or goals for the year ahead.

Now this doesn’t bother Martin at all … he is all for embracing the slowness. I’m a bit different … I start to get a bit antsy. I like to know what we’re doing, where we’re going and … most of all… how we are going to get there.

It would be very easy in retirement for us to just spend too much time sitting around in our dressing gowns, mindlessly scrolling and not doing very much at all and, don’t get me wrong … every now and then this is exactly what I need … but I always get to a point when I need to have a bit of focus.

It normally happens when the house is starting to feel in need of a deep clean, maintenance jobs are piling up and the garden is looking far from its best.

This year last week was the point where action needed to be taken. At this point there seemed to be one thing that was taking all of our focus … food … meal planning, shopping, meal preparation and batching and eating …

It was time for the annual ‘conversation’. The notebook and the coloured pens were out and it was time for a serious brain dump …

Between us we came with a very hefty list of things that either needed doing or we would like to do … ranging from fixing a frustrating chimney leak to finding a supplement to help with brittle fingernails.

We are always a bit ‘loose’ with timescales for things we want to do and, for me, I’m happy as long as I feel we are making some progress and moving in the right direction.

To plan everything in over the full year always feels a bit overwhelming so last year we started just giving ourselves a few things that we’d like to achieve on a month by month basis. This worked really well last year so it seemed to make sense to follow the same approach this year.

As soon as we’d done our brain dump I felt a lot better and a lot more motivated to get on and get things done and I’m delighted to say that we have ticked something off of our January list every day since we did it …

It’s always small steps at this time of year but so far we’ve bought a dehumidifier, had the roofers out to look at the chimney, spring cleaned and decluttered the bathroom, found a cheaper home insurance deal, done a few small garden jobs, signed up for 12 weeks of Slimming World, made some medical appointments and had a day out …

I’m calling that a good start … but don’t want to overdue it so I might just have a bit of a read before we start prepping for tea 😜

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