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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Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #6 :: Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal Water Gardens

Hi there everyone 😀

After our very busy day out visiting the city of York it was time for a bit of a foray out into the countryside and Fountains Abbey and the neighbouring Studley Water Gardens was on the cards.

The weather forecast had been a bit dodgy so far and we weren’t sure whether we would be able to visit … as none of us fancied it in the pouring rain … but we got so lucky with plenty of blue skies and sunshine.

We parked up at the West Gate car park with plans for us all to explore the abbey area and then for Martin and I to return to the car and drive to the Water Gardens car park, whilst Jackie and Phil made their way on foot.

We started our visit at Fountains Hall …

… where we managed to get a small fix of Christmas decorations …

… before continuing along the driveway towards the Abbey …

We decided to make our next stop the old watermill … which gave us great views back across to the Hall …

… and back across to the Abbey …

There was certainly plenty to see at the mill …

… and Martin and I couldn’t resist a bit of bell ringing practice …

We made our way down to the Abbey …

It’s in an absolutely beautiful spot and, once you get up close and personal, there was so much to see. It’s a huge site and, at its heyday was pretty much a totally self contained community, with all the accompanying buildings and accommodation that this would have entailed.

We spent a good while exploring and just trying to imagine how everything fit together back in the day … I took soooooo many photographs but have picked some of my favourites to share with you …

Once we’d seen all we could of the Abbey Jackie and Phil headed off for the Water Gardens and Martin and I headed back to the car … calling in at a small visitor centre on the way.

We had missed this on the way in but it really did make sense of all we’d seen with a potted history of the Abbey through the years and a really good scale model of the site as it would have been …

Finally we were ready to make our way to the Water Gardens car park, where we were greeted by this handsome chap …

By now there was some serious cloud building up …

… but the rain held off and there was still sunshine to be had …

We headed behind the cafe and across the small wooden footbridge … and alongside one of the huge pools …

… where we met back up with Jackie and Phil in a spot by the temple …

We made the most of the sunshine and warmed up with flasks of hot soup …

… before it was time to head back …

There was just time for a quick cuppa in the cafe before heading back to the car and Anthology Cottage.

Another lovely day out courtesy of the National Trust on the most glorious of Autumn days 😀

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Christmas Charm & Historic Halls #5 :: Treasurer’s House

Hi there everyone 😀

It’s back to York for today’s post … where our first stop of the day was the Treasurer’s House. It’s a lovely National Trust property, right in the heart of the city centre, in the shadow of the Minster …

Martin and I have visited once before … also at Christmas time, but it was a first time visit for Jackie & Phil. 

Once inside the volunteers made us all feel very welcome and told us a bit about this year’s Inspired Christmas displays.

This year the inspiration for the decorations in each room had been drawn from those who had owned and lived in the house across the years and, as well as being beautiful, it was really interesting to find out more about the history and the people and families that had lived here over the years.

It really had been decorated beautifully and felt very homely and Christmassy ... 

After a good wander around we found ourselves a cosy spot in the tea room for refreshments before heading back out into the rain to continue exploring the city.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄